Gaurang Gowande

Abasaheb Garware College · Department of Biodiversity

The montane agamid lizard Japalura austeniana (Annandale, 1908), is rare and is distributed across parts of the eastern Himalayas of India and China. Support from molecular and morphological data provides evidence for the existence of a species complex in the populations referred to that binomen, and we here describe a morphologically cryptic allie...

A pentatomid bug Bathycoelia indica Dallas, 1851 is reported as a pest of pomegranate plantation in Maharashtra (India). Brief re-description of the species, including that of male and female genitalia, eggs, some nymphal stages and live adults, with many digital illustrations, is provided.

The Western and Eastern Ghats of the Peninsular India are known for their high biological diversity, which is shaped due to various geological barriers and environmental parameters. Scorpion diversity in Peninsular India remains poorly known thereby warranting a need to undertake rigorous arachnological surveys. In our continued effort to discover...

The pit viper snake genus Trimeresurus Lacépède, 1804 sensu lato, is a diverse group of nocturnal serpents comprising over 61 species. The genus is morphologically heterogeneous and has been divided into several subgenera. We present an updated phylogeny of Asian pitvipers and propose a revised classification. Additionally, we revise the taxonomy o...

We here describe a new species of Isometrus Ehrenberg, 1828 from the southeastern plains of Tamil Nadu, India, which is known only from its type locality, Chengalpattu. The new species was recovered as sister to Isometrus nakshatra based on a molecular phylogeny inferred from COI and 16S mitochondrial genes. Sequence divergence between the new spec...

The Western Ghats of India is considered one of the richest biodiversity hotspots in the world. Documenting scorpion diversity has always been of paramount importance due to their species richness, ecological role and endemism, which calls for conservation priority. Scorpion diversity of the Western Ghats is probably underestimated given the ancest...

A new species of bent-toed geckos of the genus Cyrtodactylus is described from western Arunachal Pradesh. The new species is a member of the Indo-Burma clade and is embedded within the "peguensis" group, a relationship deduced contingent on a partial fragment of mitochondrial NADH subunit 2 gene. Cyrtodactylus kamengensis sp. nov. is morphologicall...

The Himalayas represent a renowned biodiversity hotspot and an important biogeographic realm that has influenced origin and diversification of multiple taxa. A recent herpetological investigation of the eastern Himalayas of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh led to the discovery of a unique lineage of ablepharine skink, which is herein described...

Narayanan et al. (2021) make extremely grave allegations of ‘misrepresentation of data’ by Gowande et al. (2020). Narayanan et al. (2021) found serious flaws in the publication dealing with the description of Raorchestes kollimalai by Gowande, Ganesh & Mirza (2020). The authors state that Gowande et al. (2020) overlooked many errors, which conseque...

The genus Calotes Cuvier, 1817 (Agamidae: Draconinae) is highly diverse, with species occurring in South and Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Most species of the subfamily except C. versicolor have narrow geographic distributions. Calotes versicolor is distributed from western Iran in the west to south China and Indonesia in the east and has been intro...

In recent years, several studies have revealed significant unknown and cryptic diversity of agamids in peninsular India, particularly in the Western Ghats. Here, we examine the morphology, anatomy and genetics of the sole Indian representative of the otherwise Sri Lankan agamid genus Otocryptis from the Western Ghats. Our analyses reveal significan...

The montane agamid species Pseudocalotes austeniana has had a complicated taxonomic history, as the species was initially described as a member of the genus Salea Gray, 1845. Later, the species was placed in a monotypic genus Mictopholis Smith, 1935, which was erected only to include this species; however, the species was later on transferred to th...

We here describe a new species of bent-toed geckos from the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which is widespread across the Dafla and Mishmi hills, occurring at elevations ranging from 179 m to 1400 m. The new species is recovered as sister to the Cyrtodactylus khasiensis clade based on a molecular phylogeny inferred from mitochondri...

A new species of snail-eating snakes of the genus Pareas Wagler, 1830 is described from the eastern Himalayas. The species Pareas kaduri sp. nov. differs from all known species of the genus in bearing the following suite of characters: SVL 455-550 mm, TaL/TL 0.184-0.207, brown dorsum with black transverse bands throughout the body, 15 dorsal scale...

A new cryptic lineage of bush frogs of the genus Raorchestes from the understudied Eastern Ghats of India is described. Molecular phylogenetic reconstructions using mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene sequences suggest that the new species belongs to the Raorchestes charius clade, is sister to the allopatric R. charius of the Western Ghats and support the...

Euscorpius is the first research publication completely devoted to scorpions (Arachnida: Scorpiones). Euscorpius takes advantage of the rapidly evolving medium of quick online publication, at the same time maintaining high research standards for the burgeoning field of scorpion science (scorpiology). Euscorpius is an expedient and viable medium for...

A new species of green pit vipers of the genus Trimeresurus Lacépède, 1804 is described from the lowlands of western Arunachal Pradesh state of India. The new species, Trimeresurus salazar , is a member of the subgenus Trimeresurus, a relationship deduced contingent on two mitochondrial genes, 16S and ND4 , and recovered as sister to Trimeresurus s...

A new species of natricid snakes, Trachischium apteii sp. nov. is described from the northeastern Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh. The new species differs from its congeners in the following suite of characters: dorsal scales in 15:15:15 rows, SVL 293-299mm, higher ventral count 143-150, very faint dorsal longitudinal lines, absence of yellow pat...

The gekkonid lizard genus Hemidactylus Oken is the second most species-rich genus of geckos with greatest diversity in the tropical regions of the world. Some species of the genus are commensal and widespread; however, there are several endemic lineages with restricted distribution. India is home to at least 35 species, with 20 endemic species and...

Fig. S3. ML tree for selected Hemidactylus spp. based on fragment of cyt b gene. Sequence substitution model GTR+G.

Table S4. Morphological and meristic data for specimens of Hemidactylus sahgali sp. nov. ‘*’ indicates broken or regenerated tail.

Fig. S1. ML based result from bPTP. Numbers at nodes and tips signify support to species.

Table S5. Result of bPTP for ML support value for each species.

Table S8. Comparison of taxonomy of H. triedrus group since 2010.

Table S3. Morphological and meristic data for specimens of Hemidactylus triedrus. ‘*’ indicates broken or regenerated tail.

Table S6. Un-corrected p-distance for selected Hemidactylus spp. for the gene cyt b.

Table S7. Un-corrected p-distance for selected Hemidactylus spp. for the gene ND2.

Fig. S2. Nucleotide sequence alignment for the gene cyt b. Note the 9bp indel from 281bp to 280bp. Alligned with a reference sequence of Gekko gekko.

Table S1. Accession numbers for sequences used in the present study. Numbers in bold show sequences generated in the present work. Names within brackets refers to the old taxonomy.

Table S2. Best fit model for sequence evolution and partitioning scheme selected in PartitionFInder for assessing phylogenetic relationships using maximum likelihood in RAxML and Bayesian inference in MrBayes.

Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COI) sequences of roughly 509 bp length for various species of the Infraorder Pentatomomorpha were generated. K2P divergences within and between species and genera were calculated and compared using newly generated sequences and the ones available on online portals. Mean interspecific (within-genus) genetic dive...

One of the commonest aquatic snakes of India, the Checkered Keelback, Xenochrophis piscator, typically inhabits freshwater bodies and feeds on aquatic prey such as the fishes and frogs. Here, we report an unusual climbing behavior of the species from a semi-evergreen forest in the northern Western Ghats in India. An adult individual was observed cl...

This study attempts to document the past and present faunal diversity of Fergusson College campus in Pune from 2011 to 2014. Four vertebrate classes (Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves, Mammalia) and two invertebrate classes Arachnida: Araneae and Lepidoptera: Papilionoideae) were investigated. Our effort resulted in the documentation of 90 spider (28 famili...

Calotes versicolor Daudin, 1802 is one of the most widespread agamid lizard species which was described without a locality. The type specimen of the species has long been considered lost; however most workers considered Pondicherry as the type locality for the species. Studies by Zug et al. 2006 confirmed that C. versicolor is a complex of multiple...

The Spotted Owlet Athene brama is a common nocturnal raptor widely distributed in the Indian Subcontinent and neighbouring regions. Though subject to some studies, there is only fragmentary data available on its behaviour. Hence, we undertook a study in an urban habitat to construct a comprehensive behavioural ethogram of the species. A pair of Spo...

We aimed to study the food habits of the Spotted Owlet Athene brama by combining the pellet analysis as well as direct/visual observation methods. Both methods were used simultaneously for seven months. Direct observations were carried out by visually monitoring the owlets for 214 days, over 642 hrs. All events of feeding were recorded, and prey id...