Aravind N A

Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment | ATREE · Biodiversity and Conservation

We describe a new species of rupicolous Cnemaspis from the Male Mahadeshwara Wildlife Sanctuary in the Eastern Ghats. The current description is based on a type series of eight specimens that bear a unique combination of morphological and colour pattern characteristics that do not occur in other closely related species. Maximum likelihood and Bayes...

The Indian subcontinent is extremely diverse in terms of its flora and fauna. However, only a handful of studies have aimed to understand the diversity of freshwater invertebrates using multiple lines of evidence in recent times. Here we aimed to estimate the cryptic diversity of two widespread freshwater snail species within the genus Pila (Röding...

The frog genus Microhyla Tschudi (1838) (family Microhylidae) is restricted to South and Southeast (SE) Asia and comprises 50 described species 1. A significant proportion of the Microhyla diversity occurs in SE Asia 1 , followed by South Asia. India has 13 valid species among which six are endemic and the rest are distributed in South and SE Asia....

This paper provides new records and redescribes two carnivorous micro snail species, viz., Sinoennea austeni (Peile, 1929) and Sinoennea vara (Benson, 1859), belonging to the family Diapheridae. Redescriptions are based on shell morphology and include ecological notes and new localities including the first record of S. austeni in 92 years. While Si...

We describe a new species of small-sized (SVL 24.6–28.8 mm) rupicolous Cnemaspis from the Biligirirangan Hills (BR Hills), Karnataka based on morphology and molecular (mitochondrial 16S and ND2) data. The new species is nested within the monticola , mysoriensis and gracilis clades, where it is basal to monticola and gracilis clades in the Maximum L...

Duttaphrynus hololius is an uncommon species of toad presumably endemic to peninsular India. Since the original description, no records originated from the type locality “Malabar” or the Western Ghats. At the same time, several authors reported it from the other parts of peninsular India and the Eastern Ghats. This led to confusion and made previou...

In recent years, there has been a rather acrimonious debate on matters concerning the biology of invasive species, some as fundamental as the definition and what constitutes an invasive species. However, an abiding commonality of all invasive species is the fact that they have all moved away from their native ranges to newer and often non-native ra...

The history of a lineage is intertwined with the history of the landscape it inhabits. Here we showcase how the geo-tectonic and climatic evolution of South Asia and surrounding landmasses have shaped the biogeographical history of Indoplanorbis exustus, a tropical Asian, freshwater snail. We amplified partial COI gene fragments from all over India...

Snails of the genus Cremnoconchus-the only freshwater members of the gastropod family Littorinidae-are endemic to the spray zones of numerous waterfalls in the Western Ghats of India. Cremnoconchus consists of nine described and possibly numerous undescribed species as many of these appear to be restricted to specific waterfalls. This is the first...

The rapid spread of alien invasive plant species has emerged as one of the serious issues for forest composition, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. The most probable distribution range of Hyptis suaveolens was modeled for Jharkhand using MaxEnt for the years 2020 and 2050 under different Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) i.e. 2.6, 4....

This study investigates the natural diet and breeding behaviour of Indrella (Ariophantidae), a monotypic snail genus endemic to the Western Ghats in India. Our observations show that the only Indrella species, I. ampulla, is a generalist in its dietary preference. Its diet consists predominantly of a variety of plants and plant materials, occasiona...

Myristica swamps are tree-covered wetlands within the evergreen forests of the Western Ghats, India. Even with their little-known biota, the swamps are virtually a live museum that is of great interest to biologists. The swamps harbour several rare-relic floristic and faunal taxa, comprising many endemic and threatened species. Most of the plant sp...

Due to unsustainable harvesting and land use changes, two medicinally valuable, endangered liana species Coscinium fenestratum and Embelia ribes face severe threat in the wild. Climate change could also have profound impact on the distribution of these species which could result in contraction and/or expansion in geographical range of these species...

Freshwater ecosystems have been most severely impacted in the Anthropocene with 27% of its species threatened with extinction. Fishing Cat is a globally threatened South and South-east Asian wetland felid that is also a highly rated Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species, i.e., it is a global priority for conservation and re...

The type species of the assimineid genus Acmella W.T. Blanford, 1869 is Cyclostoma tersum Benson, 1853, originally described from ‘Musmai’ [Mawsmai], Meghalaya, Northeast India. No specimens from Benson’s type series can be traced, and contemporary shells collected from the type locality in museum collections are extremely worn. It has therefore be...

A new species of Diplommatina Benson, 1849 from Sikkim, Northeast India is described based on shell morphology. This new species is found to be distinct in its externally visible large parietal tooth, and in the absence of a columellar tooth on the shell aperture. A detailed comparison with the closest congeners of the new species is provided. Dipl...

With the biodiversity crisis continuing unchecked, we need to establish levels and drivers of extinction risk, and reassessments over time, to effectively allocate conservation resources and track progress towards global conservation targets. Given that threat appears particularly high in freshwaters, we assessed the extinction risk of 1428 randoml...

Amphibians show a high amount of species richness and endemism. Such diversity can be attributed to their microenvironment as amphibians display fine‐scale heterogeneity depending on the microhabitats they inhabit. Tadpoles are considered as good indicators for understanding microhabitat–species association as they reflect the breeding sites and si...

Family Ampullariidae consists of 11 genera of freshwater snails distributed pan-tropically in the Old and the New World. One of the ampullarid genera, Pila, is distributed in Africa and Asia and consists of 28 species. Here we describe the sixth member of the genus Pila from India. Pila mizoramensis n. sp. was collected from the Northeast Indian st...

Invasive alien species are considered one of the great- est threats to biodiversity, ecosystem services, economy and human health. Global climate change will only exacerbate the impact of several invasive species in the introduced range. Hence the control and manage- ment of invasive species is crucial. Spatial tools such as GIS/RS and ecological n...

The history of a lineage is intertwined with the history of the landscape it resides in. Here we showcase how the geo-tectonic and climatic evolution in South Asia and surrounding landmasses have shaped the biogeographic history of Indoplanorbis exustus, a tropical Asian, freshwater, pulmonated snail. We amplified partial COI gene fragment from all...

The Indian subcontinent is extremely diverse in terms of its flora and fauna. However, there is a severe underestimation of the biotic diversity in invertebrate groups as well as a lack of understanding of the processes generating diversity in these groups. Here we aimed to jointly estimate the cryptic diversity of two freshwater snail species comp...

Invasive species pose as one of the greatest threats to indigenous flora and fauna all over the world, severely affecting native ecological processes and subsequently leading to the extinction of native species. In the advent of the global rise in temperature due to climate change, invasive species have been predicted to be more successful than the...

Thermal tolerance in invasive molluscs

Occurrence of land snail, Macrochlamys indica Godwin-Austen, 1883 (Gastropoda: Ariophantidae) in citrus (Kinnow mandarin and its rootstock Jatti khatti) and guava nursery of Punjab, India during 2018 and 2019 is reported. Also known as garden snail or common brown snail, this species has been observed as an important mollusc pest of citrus and guav...

The Kottigehar dancing frog, Micrixaluskottigeharensis (Rao, 1937) is an evolutionarily distinctand Critically Endangered frog (Biju et al., 2004; Gumbset al., 2018) endemic to the central Western Ghats ofIndia. Its common name derives from characteristicfoot-flagging behaviour used in mating and territorialdisplays (Fig. 1). The primary habitat of...

Lateritic plateaus of India are geographically and ecologically complex plateaus that support endemic flora and fauna. However, despite their uniqueness they are termed as “wastelands”. The plateaus’ overall treeless structure makes them susceptible to developmental activities like infrastructure growth, waste dumping, and urbanization. This paper...

The biota of the Indian subcontinent was assembled through multiple associations with various landmasses during a period spanning the Late Cretaceous to the present. It consists of Gondwanan elements that subsequently dispersed 'out-of-India' and biota that dispersed 'into-India' after the subcontinent collided with Asia. However, the relative cont...

Isolation of high molecular weight DNA from gastropod molluscs and its subsequent PCR amplification is considered difficult due to excessive mucopolysaccharides secretion which co-precipitate with DNA and obstruct successful amplification. In an attempt to address this issue, we describe a modified CTAB DNA extraction method that proved to work sig...

Isolation of high molecular weight DNA from gastropod molluscs and its subsequent PCR amplification is considered difficult due to excessive mucopolysaccharides secretion which co-precipitate with DNA and obstruct successful amplification. In an attempt to address this issue, we describe a modified CTAB DNA extraction method that proved to work sig...

Isolation of high molecular weight DNA from gastropod molluscs and its subsequent PCR amplification is considered difficult due to excessive mucopolysaccharides secretion which co-precipitate with DNA and obstruct successful amplification. In an attempt to address this issue, we describe a modified CTAB DNA extraction method that proved to work sig...

Amphibians show a very high level of diversity and endemism and are facing global declines from the past few decades. Studies have shown that the molecular tools can be helpful in their conservation efforts. In India, more than 80% of amphibians are endemic and most show a narrow range of distribution. Most of the Indian amphibians lack information...

In an era of climate change, biological invasions by alien species represent one of the main anthropogenic drivers of global environmental change. The present study, using an ensemble modelling approach, has mapped current and future global distribution of the invasive Leucanthemum vulgare (Ox-eye Daisy) and predicted the invasion hotspots under cl...

Globally, treeline in mountain landscapes is reported to be sensitive to projected warming by climate change. Betula utilis (Himalayan birch), a principal tree species defining the natural treeline in Himalayas, is a potential indicator species to track the signal of climate change. The present study models the ensemble distribution of B. utilis us...

The biota of the Indian subcontinent has assembled during various points of the history of its continental drift: some when it was still a part of Gondwanaland and subsequently dispersed out-of-India and some dispersed into-India after it collided with Asia. However, the relative contribution of these connection to the current biotic assembly of th...

The indian subcontinent has experienced numerous paleogeological and paleoclimatic events during the Cenozoic which shaped the biotic assembly over time in the subcontinent. The role of these events in governing the biotic exchange between Southeast Asia and Indian subregion is underexplored. We aimed to uncover the effects the collision of the Ind...

Supplementary files

The present paper describes a new Dicharax (?) species, which is the third known member of the family Alycaeidae in southern India. Dicharax (?) bawai n. sp., which was found in the Malai Mahadeshwara Hills, Karnataka State, is smaller than Dicharax (?) footei, and with a more elevated spire and protoconch, less expanded outer peristome, longer R2...

A new species of microhylid frog Microhyla kodial sp. nov. from the west coast of India is described in this paper. It is distinct from all described species of Microhyla occurring in South and Southeast Asia as revealed by a combination of morphological, molecular and acoustic characters. The new species is characterized by absence of lateral body...

A new species of microhylid frog Microhyla kodial sp. nov. from the west coast of India is described in this paper. It is distinct from all described species of Microhyla occurring in South and Southeast Asia as revealed by a combination of morphological, molecular and acoustic characters. The new species is characterized by absence of lateral body...

There has been a growing concern about the increasing number of species that are globally threatened. Developmental projects, and increased dependence on forests both for sustenance and livelihood have rendered many species threatened. In the Indian context, more than 150 species are critically endangered and require immediate intervention to susta...

Rattans, or canes, are one of the most important non-timber forest products supporting the livelihood of many forest-dwelling communities in South and North-eastern India. Due to increased demand for rattan products, rattans have been extracted indiscriminately from the Western Ghats, a 1600-km mountain chain running parallel to the west coast of I...

We present an annotated list of amphibians for the state of Sikkim, India. Data were obtained through literature reviews, fieldwork and review of museum collections. Forty-four species of amphibians belonging to 20 genera in eight families and three orders have been reported in Sikkim from 1864 to 2015. During our fieldwork, we recorded 23 species,...

Microhyla sholigari is an endangered frog described in the year 2000. The original description was based on non-adult types and lacked information on several morphological characters, call structure, genetic material and photographs of the animal in life. The absence of such information posed challenges in field identification of this species. Sinc...

Microhyla sholigari is an endangered frog described in the year 2000. The original description was based on non-adult types and lacked information on several morphological characters, call structure, genetic material and photographs of the animal in life. The absence of such information posed challenges in field identification of this species. Sinc...

Freshwater ecosystems in the Western Ghats are fragile and highly susceptible to environmental disturbances. The freshwater biota is particularly vulnerable because even the slightest change in habitat can lead to extinction. Freshwater gastropods are an important and diverse group in the freshwater ecosystem, accounting for about 20% of all metazo...

The center of diversity of Piper nigrum L. (Black Pepper), one of the highly valued spice crops is reported to be from India. Black pepper is naturally distributed in India in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot and is the only known existing source of its wild germplasm in the world. We used ecological niche models to predict the potential dist...

Conservation managers and policy makers are often confronted with a challenging dilemma of devising suitable strategies to maintain agricultural productivity while conserving endemic species that at the early stages of becoming pests of agricultural crops. Identification of environmental factors conducive to species range expansion for forecasting...

A new cryptic species of bush frog Raorchestes honnametti sp. nov. is described from the south-eastern part of the Western Ghats, India. This newly described species belongs to the Charius clade and is morphologically similar to other clade members—R. charius and R. griet. Therefore, an integrative taxonomic approach based on molecular and bioacous...

GenBank accession numbers for ND1 gene of 49 species of Raorchestes and Rhacophorus malabaricus compared in the study. (XLSX)

Morphological comparison of R. honnametti with R. thodai and with non-Western Ghats species of Raorchestes. (DOCX)

Linear Discriminant Analysis factor loadings for Axis 1 and Axis 2. (XLSX)

GenBank accession numbers for 16S rRNA gene of 49 species of Raorchestes and Rhacophorus malabaricus compared in the study. (XLSX)

Details of type materials and voucher specimens examined. (XLSX)

Genetic divergence (in percentage) matrix of 50 species of Raorchestes and an outgroup Rhacophorus malabaricus. (XLSX)

The Giant African Snail (Achatina fulica) is considered to be one the world's 100 worst invasive alien species. The snail has an impact on native biodiversity, and on agricultural and horticultural crops. In India, it is known to feed on more than fifty species of native plants and agricultural crops and also outcompetes the native snails. It was i...

Jackknife test of variable importance for A.fulica under present scenario. (PDF)

Jackknife test of variable importance for A.fulica under RCP 4.5 scenario. (PDF)

Jackknife test of variable importance for A.fulica under RCP 8.5 scenario. (PDF)

Jackknife test of variable importance for A.fulica under RCP 6.0 scenario. (PDF)

List of all Indian States with > 0.5 probability of invasion risk under different climate change scenarios. The values are in percentage (PDF)