Basudev Tripathy

Zoological Survey of India | ZSI · Western Regional Centre

The epibionts associated with breeding Olive ridley sea turtle Lepidochelys olivacea (Eschscholtz, 1829) was studied during the offshore monitoring at Rushikulya rookery in Odisha during the breeding season 2021. Epibionts attached to different body parts of the turtles were sampled and identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. Altogether,...

To understand the distribution pattern, we sampled the malacofauna of the Gundichaghagi waterfall in Keonjhar district of Odisha in India. A total of 223 live and dead specimen shells were collected, belonging to 20 species (11 species of aquatic and nine species of land snails) comprising 17 genera and 10 families. The land snails Cryptozona semir...

Due to their large size and obligate nature, Cymothoid isopods inflict a high degree of tissue damage to fish. Still, they are understudied at an ecosystem level despite their global presence and ecological role. In this work, we collected fish host‐isopod parasite data, along with their life history and ecological traits, from the northern part of...

Preliminary Checklist of Mollusks of India

The first step towards becoming a naturalist especially for bird and butterfly lovers is to catch hold of a good Field Guide. A Field Guide is a collection of images and descriptive text that helps a naturalist identify the animals in the field itself easily. Butterflies and Moths have field marks (physical traits such as markings, shape, color) th...

Patterns in parasite diversity are shaped by their environmental and ecological settings, and to better understand their interactions with hosts and the corresponding biology, it is crucial to understand these context-dependent patterns. To achieve this, we use cymothoid isopods, an important group of fish parasites, to test a long-standing hypothe...

Currently, sea turtle habitats are being altered by climate change and human activities, with habitat loss posing an urgent threat to Indian sea turtles. Thus, the objective of this study is to analyze the dynamic shoreline alterations and their impacts on Olive Ridley Sea Turtle (ORT) nesting sites in Gahirmatha Marine Wildlife Sanctuary from 1990...

Based on the materials deposited in the National Zoological Collection of the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, the present paper is diagnosed and reports first occurrences of the cordiform bivalves Cardilia martini Deshayes, 1844 belonging to the family Cardiliidae from Andaman Islands of India. The cordiform shell with sculpture smooth anterio...

Under the cat family of mammals, Fishing Cat Prionailurus viverrinus (Bennett, 1833) is a small carnivore under the Vulnerable category of IUCN, a globally declining species distributed in different wetland ecosystems across the east coast of India and its distribution pattern is extremely localized and patchy throughout the range. We report the pr...

This paper investigates the bird species assemblages in and around Thane creek, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Despite Thane creek being a popular spot for urban birdwatchers, limited knowledge exists about this creek beyond bird species richness and particularly the charismatic flamingoes. The entire creek was divided into four localities based on th...

The new combination Pseudonapaeus purii (Ray, 1951) (= Ena purii Ray, 1951) is proposed, based on a morphological re-examination of the type specimen of a land snail housed in the National Zoological Collections of the Zoological Survey of India, and re-discovered after a gap of 67 years from the proximity of the type locality.

The planorbid freshwater snail Gyraulus saltensis was originally described from “Katas Nallah, Salt Range” by the French malacologist Louis Germain of the Muséum National d’histoire Naturelle, Paris (MNHN). The description was based on the collections made by Dr Sunder Lal Hora from hillsides at Katas, Salt Range, and the specimens housed in the Zo...

The new combination Pseudonapaeus purii (Ray, 1951) (= Ena purii Ray, 1951) is proposed, based on a morphological re-examination of the type specimen of a land snail housed in the National Zoological Collections of the Zoological Survey of India, and re-discovered after a gap of 67 years from the proximity of the type locality. The occurrence of su...

The sagitta otolith is well-decorated with various species-specific peculiarities, used to support the relatedness in taxonomy and other aspects among fishes. Present study deals with the morphostructural variations of the sagitta in the Anabas testudineus and Trichogaster fasciata by light and scanning electron microscopy. As these two fishes ar...

The sagitta otolith is well-decorated with various species-specific peculiarities, used to support the relatedness in taxonomy and other aspects among fishes. Present study deals with the morphostructural variations of the sagitta in the Anabas testudineus and Trichogaster fasciata by light and scanning electron microscopy. As these two fishes are...

DNA barcoding tool can be relied upon for quick species identification, only if there is a pre-existing authenticate comprehensive DNA sequences library in the public databases like GenBank, which unfortunately is not the scenario for majority of the Indian diversity documented specifically for the invertebrates and entomology groups. Hence, it is...

The Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the Sustainable Development Goals 14 and 15 of UNCBD have given emphasis on documentation and understating the different components of the diverse ecosystem for sustainable utilization of bioresources. The fish parasitic isopods of the family Cymothoidae are responsible for the retardment of growth, gill inflammat...

54 metabolite of the constituent Alkaloid Arecoline (ARE) in areca nut, generates oral cancer by disturbing the junctional barrier between cells and the possible mechanism behind it. Mice were divided into 4 groups (n=10/group). Group 1 was the control group (CON), Group 2 and Group 3 was treated with ANO (8.77mM) and ARE (8.77mM) respectively, and...

A predatory sea snail Sulcerato recondita (Melvill & Standen, 1903) previously reported from South Africa and Gulf of Oman, is reported for the first time from Gulf of Kachchhin India. The detailed description along with an illustration, and information on distribution of the species is provided herein. The nearest distribution record for S. recond...

The present paper deals with the first report of the parasitic isopod Cymothoa frontalis Milne Edwards, 1840 found attached to host fish Strongylura strongylura (van Hasselt, 1823) collected from Chandanipal fish landing Centre, Dhamara, and Nerocila exocoeti Pillai, 1954 found attached to host fish, Exocoetus volitans Linnaeus, 1758 collected from...

A new species of head-shield sea slug, Melanochlamys bengalensis, is described from the northern part of the eastern coast of India using both external and internal morphological characters. Its novel status is supported by a molecular analysis. The maximum likelihood (ML) genetic tree (COI gene sequence) indicates that the new species represents a...

This chapter deals the current status and updated checklist of non-marine molluscs (Gastropoda and Bivalvia) of Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India based on the survey conducted as part of the Nicobar Expedition by ZSI and published information from the Great Nicobar. A total of 90 species have been recorded...

This paper reports Nerocila kisra Bowman and Tareen, 1983, for the first time from the coastal waters of India. It was collected from bycatch trash of Kumbhabhishekam fishing harbour, Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh). It is the first record of this species from this area beyond its type locality Persian Gulf. This species is characterised by the presence...

The state Himachal Pradesh in Western Himalaya was explored to know the community structure of earthworms in agroecosystems along the elevation gradient ranges from 300 to 2500 m above sea level. The study aimed to determine the influence of climate, soil variables and the cropping pattern on species diversity and abundance. Therefore, a total of s...

Studies on deepwater molluscs are few and far between. Seven species under the genus Propeamussium have been previously recorded from India. The present paper reports new distribution of Propeamussium sibogai (Dautzenberg and Bavay, 1904) from the Indian coastal waters.

Ex situ conservation and preservation of biological diversity (especially endangered species) is always a challenge for conservationists and policymakers regarding development of proper management strategies (Lane, 1996; Soberón et al., 2000). Most of the ex situ efforts, such as in vitro tissue culture, museum collections, captive breeding, aquari...

The River Ganga is among the most holy and largest rivers in India, flowing from Goumukh glacier in Uttarakhand to the Bay of Bengal at Ganga Sagar in West Bengal, covering 2,500 km and draining ~26% of the landmass of the country. The Ganga was also considered among the most polluted rivers of India, largely because of uninterrupted discharge of u...

The current chapter attempted in preparing an updated checklist of the molluscs (non-marine) of the Gangetic plains biogeographic zone including Upper (7A) and Lower Gangetic plains (7B). A total of 143 species of the non-marine molluscs (71 species of terrestrial molluscs and 72 species of freshwater molluscs) belonging to 37 families and 76 gener...

The present report provides the first material evidence of Nerocila orbignyi (Guérin-Méneville, 1832) collected from two different landing centres of the Chilika lagoon, thus claiming the first report of this parasite from India. One of the specimens was recorded from the host fish species Plotosus canius Hamilton 1822, constituting the first host...

There has been, and to some extent remains, confusion over the valid genus name for a group of slugs in the family Veronicellidae, either Vaginulus Férussac, 1822 or Vaginula auctt., often cited as of Berthold, 1827 or sometimes as of Blainville, 1828. We show that Vaginula was first made available as an emendation of Vaginulus Férussac by Hoffman...

Studies considering local knowledge of Indian xiphosurans—Tachypleus gigas and Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda—are rare. Further, data concerning the West Bengal coast is even more limited. We therefore conducted interviews among the West Bengal coastal community to identify possible threats to horseshoe crabs, while also expanding knowledge regarding...

Within the scope of our long-term biodiversity assessment for the Indian Himalayan region, shells of Carychium indicum were collected in the Great Himalayan National Park in Kullu District (Shakti Village) of Himachal Pradesh (31°47'04.2"N, 77°26'31.308"E). These finds constitute a new record for this species in the relative region of Benson’s type...

Bryozoans are common commensal on hard surfaces and cover slow-moving animals like molluscans, sea turtles, brachyuran crabs, and horseshoe crabs. A total of six species of bryozoans belonging to four genus under three families of order Cheilostomaida were recorded encrusing on the carapaces of horseshoe crabs collected from Indian Sundarbans along...

Bryozoans are common commensal on hard surfaces and cover slow-moving animals like molluscans, sea turtles, brachyuran crabs, and horseshoe crabs. A total of six species of bryozoans belonging to four genus under three families of order Cheilostomatida were recorded encrusting on the carapaces of horseshoe crabs collected from Indian Sundarbans alo...

Spiraculum beddomei Blanford, 1866, a rare operculate land snail, was described in 1866 from Kimety (=Kimery) Hills, near Waltair (Vizagapatam), Madras Presidency in India has been reported nearly after 150 years from the adjoin Eastern Ghats landscape of Mahendragiri Hills in Gajapati district of Odisha in India. Here, we present new locality and...

A rare species of bivalve clam Mactra aequisulcata G. B. Sowerby III (1894) reported for the first time from the Vengurla beach along the Sindhudurg coast of Maharashtra and nearby coastal stretches from the west coast of India. After comparing with the type illustration and malacological collections present in the National Zoological Collections o...

The validity of Laevicaulis as the objective senior synonym of Eleutherocaulis , both published simultaneously in a complex and confusing work as genus-group names for veronicellid slugs, is confirmed. The type species, in both cases by subsequent designation, is Vaginulus comorensis , a junior synonym of Vaginulus alte , now Laevicaulis alte, a wi...

The knowledge on the non-marine malacofaunal diversity of the Indian Desert Biogeographic Zone is restricted due to the extreme climatic conditions and scope for limited exploration of the area. Although, the hostile environment of the desert does not seems to offer an ideal ambience for snails to survive; however, there are resilient species of un...

This chapter provides an overview of the land and freshwater molluscs hitherto collected and recorded from the Semi-arid biogeographic zone of India, including Punjab plains (4a) and Gujarat Rajputanas (4b) biogeographic provinces. The current chapter renders 93 species, of which 35 freshwater (excluding a subspecies and “variety”) and 58 species o...

Xiphosurida are iconic group of marine chelicerates that have been subject to more than 200 years of neonatological and palaeontological scrutiny. However, recent studies have identified that there is very little data concerning abnormal specimens, and even less data on wild populations. The present study aims to rectify this dearth of information...

The knowledge on the floral and faunal composition of protected areas (PAs) is crucial for formulating suitable conservation plan. In this paper, inventory and species richness of non-marine molluscs of Chintamoni Kar Bird Sanctuary has been made and is for the first time from any PA of West Bengal. A total of 276 specimens belonging to 22 species...

Megalestes gyalsey Gyeltshen, Kalkman & Orr, 2017 is recorded for the first time from India, extending the known geographic range of the species. This report is based on the collection of 5 individuals (4 males, 1 female) from Jang waterfall, Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh and 2 males from Neora Valley National Park, Kalimpong district, West Bengal. The...

Hangul (Cervus hanglu hanglu), the only red deer subspecies surviving in the Indian subcontinent, is of top conservation priority with global importance. Unfortunately, it has lost much of its historical distribution range, and it is now confined to Dachigam landscape within the Kashmir valley of India. The Government of India initiated a recovery...

The current chapter deals with the updated list of the deep sea cephalopods of India. A total of 54 species belonging to 27 genera, 16 families and six orders of the class Cephalopoda have been documented by various research team from Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea and much of the collections are reported through deep sea faunal explor...

The complete mitogenome of Himalayan black bear ( Ursus thibetanus laniger ) from Indian Himalayan region was assembled following the modified approach of mitochondrial baiting and mapping using the next-generation sequencing reads. The complete mitogenome was of 16,556 bp long, consisted of 37 genes that contained 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs...

Abstract—The ultrastructural characteristics of the sagitta of the climbing perch, Anabas testudineus (Bloch, 1792) in different body size groups are described for the first time for the family Anabantidae using scanning electron microscopy. The sagitta is an ovate-shaped structure with a well-developed rostrum and anti-rostrum. The sulcus is S-sha...

Each year, the Zoological Survey of India conducts near about 100 field surveys as part of annual programme of research. However, due to COVID-19, we could conduct only 45 surveys. During this year in HQ office out of the 49 programmes 8 were completed and 30 are ongoing and two programmes were newly initiated. With regard to Regional Centres, out...

In North-Eastern states of India (NE India), there are almost 65% of mammal species of the country but baseline information on small mammals, particularly rodents, for the region is scanty. The present study recorded a total of 59 species of rodents from NE India out of 100 species reported from the Indian Subcontinent. The list contains all the va...

This paper reports first record of a marine bivalve Isognomon ephippium Linnaeus from the Chilika lagoon as well as mainland of India since this species is highly restricted to Andaman waters only. Actual cause of occurrence is still unknown however, it is believed that passive migration of larva / juvenile through high energetic cyclonic water cur...

The current chapter attempted in preparing an updated checklist of the gastropods (non-marine molluscan fauna) of the Western Ghats biogeographic zone including the Malabar Plains (5A) and Western Ghats (5B). In this current checklist, we documented 354 species of the non-marine gastropod molluscs (297 land forms and 57 freshwater form) from Wester...

Horseshoe crabs are currently threatened by escalating human stresses along the Indo-Pacific coastline. Conservation of their remaining populations, however, is hindered by limited baselines throughout their ranges. We performed a questionnaire survey of conservation experts from diverse geographic regions to identify baselines, prominent threats,...

A field survey was carried out in the Jojari River, a wastewater wetland in Jodhpur city of Rajasthan state for a period from December 2015 and February 2016 with the objective of documenting avifaunal diversity of the wastewater wetland. A total of 40 species of birds belonging to 11 orders under 17 families have been recorded. Most of the birds r...

412 species-group names (including 11 replacement names), and 14 genus-group names of the Alycaeidae have been introduced to date. Type materials of 85% (336) of the known species and subspecies were examined, a further 5% (19) of the taxa were studied using available non-type material, and for another 6% (22) the original descriptions were suffici...

Ratufa bicolor is a diurnal, arboreal, and herbivorous rodent occurs mainly in evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of north-eastern India and known to be one of the forest health indicator species. The present study was conducted to enumerate the climatic factors governing the distribution of R. bicolor in its habitat range in India and their clim...

Members of the family Truncatellidae Gray, 1840 are widely distributed globally, but their presence in India is unclear. So far, only one species Truncatella guerinii A. Villa & J. B. Villa, 1841 has been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but most malacologists were unsure of its occurrence due to the lack of appropriate descriptions a...

An updated checklist of 69 species from 26 genera and 4 subfamilies of Vespidae from Arunachal Pradesh is provided in this study. Four species, viz. Eumenes macrops de Saussure, Polistes (Polistella) adustus Bingham, Polistes (Polistella) rubellus Gusenleitner, and Vespula germanica (Fabricius), are documented for the first time from Arunachal Prad...

Inventory of molluscan fauna of East Kolkata Wetlands was done through field surveys and collections from different localities of the wetlands. A total of 24 species of freshwater Mollusca belonging to 22 species of gastropods and only 2 species of bivalves recorded during the surveys, out of the 2111 specimens examined. The gastropods are belongin...

High-spired South and Southeast Asian Streptaxoidea has been classified mostly in the Diapheridae, and partly in the Streptaxidae, and the systematic position of several of them has not been resolved yet. The examination of conchological characters and the analysis of the homologies of apertural barriers revealed that some new genera must be introd...

Through the present manuscript, we are reporting for the first time the presence of Cyclophorus pfeifferi Reeve, 1861 in India. Previously, this species of land snail was reported only from South-East Asian countries Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The specimens were collected during field sur- veys in Dampa Tiger Reserve in Mizoram state...

Present study describes the newly reported marine bivalve species Atrina serrata from the marine influenced region of Chilika lagoon. This is the first time ever to record an Atlantic bivalve species from the shallow coastal waters of Indian subcontinent. With the paucity of information, the study isn't reached to any conclusion regarding the possi...

The large forest dwelling libellulid dragonfly Camacinia harterti Karsch, 1890 is recorded from Arunachal Pradesh and India for the first time in 115 years. The present record is based on a single male specimen collected from Namdapha Tiger Reserve, Arunachal Pradesh, India. We provide detailed diagnostic characters in photographs and information o...

Present article reports first photographic evidence of Panthera tigris from Neora Valley National Park. Previous sightings have been occasionally reported from the National Park and its surroundings, whereas the present study is the first scientific study confirming the presence of this species through photographic evidence. Tiger was camera trappe...

The operculate land snail family, Alycaeidae is comprised of species often <10mm in diameter and most species are known to be narrow-range endemics. Most Indian alycaeid species are known to be distributed in the Eastern Himalaya and the Western Ghats, whereas only a single species, Dicharax strangulatus (L. Pfeiffer, 1846), is known to be distribu...

The present communication deals with 17 species of freshwater and land Mollusca from 16 genera, 11 families and 3 orders, recorded from the state of Haryana. Of these, 4 species from terrestrial and 13 species from freshwater habitats of which three are bivalves and 10 are gastropods. Idiopoma dissimilis (O.F. Müller, 1774), Physella acuta (Draparn...

The Bengal monitor lizard or Common Indian monitor lizard (Varanus bengalensis Daudin, 1802) is classified as Least Concern under the IUCN and listed under the Schedule-I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act 1972. Further, the trade of the species is prohibited as the species is listed in Appendix I of CITES. It is widely distributed over Western...

Indian land snails comprise about 1130 species that are distributed throughout the Indian landscape in diverse habitats. However, most of the Indian land snail species have only been recorded from their type locality, with a minimal description, and have not been reported thereafter. In this paper, the endemic pupinid land snail Rhaphaulus assamicu...

Here, we have reported a type Pupina peguensis Benson, 1860 lost long from a general lot of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and provided an accession number to the specimen as “holotype”. This pupinid snail was donated by the Asiatic Society of Bengal to the Indian Museum and thereafter, transferred to the ZSI. Unfortunately, the specimen was...