Muhamed Jafer Palot

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...

Reptiles of India Checklist

The commensal rats and shrew are the only known non-domestic terrestrial mammals of this islands. The mammal diversity of Lakshadweep consists of 25 species belonging to 21 genera, 8 families and 4 orders; of which 20 species are marine mammals. An updated list of mammals of Lakshadweep along with their conservation status as per the IUCN Red List...

We describe a new species of Agasthyagama from Idukki district, Kerala, India. The new species is distinguished from its sister species Agasthyagama beddomii by a combination of scale characters and are also genetically different from each other with 11% uncorrected pairwise difference in ND2 gene and 3% in 16S gene. The two species are also geogra...

Blue tailed bee-eater (Merops philippinus) is a colony breeding, summer migrant species that excavates nest burrows and forages mainly on airborne insects. We assessed breeding and foraging ecology of blue tailed bee-eater colonies by analysing food remains from pellets and through direct observation. The blue tailed bee-eaters established their br...

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...

Genus Garreta Janssens, 1940 is an Afrotropical and of Oriental origin, consisting of 25 species and two subspecies from the world, eight species from India and two species from Maharashtra. Out of eight Indian species two are endemic to India. The present report is the first report of feeding of Garreta smaragdifer (Walker, 1858) on the faecal mat...

The taxonomy and distribution of dragonflies of the genus Heliogomphus from the Western Ghats of southern India are discussed. A morphological study of fresh male specimens from the field, as well as holotypes and lectotypes from repositories was under-taken. Contradicting statements in scientific literature, we found that the markings on the occip...

A new species of Protosticta Selys, 1885 is described from Brahmagiri hills of Coorg landscape of the Western Ghats in Peninsular India. The new species Protosticta francyi sp. nov., is a congener of P. antelopoides Fraser, 1931 and P. ponmudiensis Kiran, Kalesh & Kunte, 2015, occupying a similar microhabitat, but distributed north of the major bio...

Butterflies of Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala, India

An updated checklist of odonates of Kerala with their common English and Malayalam names are provided. A total of 181 species of odonates with 68 Western Ghats endemics are confirmed in the state.

A total of 122 species of 73 genera belonging to 08 families and 17 subfamilies in 26 tribes of butterfly have been enumerated in the present study for the first time from Navegaon National Park.

Citizen-science driven exercises (e.g., bird surveys) and online platforms (e.g., eBird) provide voluminous data on bird occurrence but the data quality is often compromised. Bird atlases are based on standardized surveys and describe the distribution of bird species over a predefined region and have less biases, and thus are better suited for use...

A new large (94-107mm SVL) species of gecko of the genus Hemidactylus is described from the drier parts of the Western Ghats of India. The new species is closely related to H. graniticolus, from which it can be distinguished based on dorsal pholidosis at mid-body, the structure of tubercles on the dorsum, dorsal pholidosis on the tail. The new spec...

A total of 91 species of butterflies belonging to 58 genera under 18 subfamilies and 6 families were recorded from the Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary. The family Nymphalidae dominated with 42 species followed by Pieridae (20), Papilionidae (11), Hesperiidae (10), Lycaenidae (7) and a single species from the family Riodinidae. Of the 91 species, 3 species...

The article discusses the Kerala Bird Atlas (KBA), Asia's largest bird atlas, which systematically surveyed bird species distribution across the state of Kerala, India. The KBA dataset provides valuable information on bird occurrence, species richness, and conservation priorities, making it a valuable resource for ecological research and science-ba...

The odonate fauna of Kerala, their status and distribution are reviewed. Based on personal records from field work since 2010 and published literature, all the recent additions and range extensions to the region are critically analyzed and a revised checklist of odonates of Western Ghats and Kerala is provided. The current checklist of odonates of...

Mass mortality of Giant Water Bug, Lethocerus indicus (Lepeletiler & Serville, 1825) was reported for the first time from India from Thiruvananthpuram district, Kerala. As many as 700 specimens were found dead around the locality. The high intensity of floodlight, the less availability of the water in the vicinity and the lunar phase are the possib...

We examined the holotype of Euprepes innotatus Blanford, 1870 which was presented to the Natural History Museum, London (NHMUK) by Blanford himself, and is redescribed herein. Based on the morphological similarity, we placed Eutropis innotata within the E. carinata group (contra Blanford, 1870), as it is closely allied to E. dissimilis and E. carin...

We review the historical and current distribution for Cantor's giant softshell turtle (Pelochelys cantorii) in India. We report 13 new records from Kerala State. Based on our intensive survey in Kasaragod District, we report a potential breeding population from this region.

The wasps of the families Scoliidae, Vespidae, Ampulicidae and Sphecidae of Madayipara, a midland laterite hillock of Kannur district of Kerala have been studied. Altogether 34 species under 26 genera in 4 families were recorded of which 6 species under 4 genera in Scoliidae, 22 species under 17 genera in Vespidae, 1 species under 1 genus in Ampuli...

The genus Protosticta (Odonata, Zygoptera, Platystictidae) is represented by nine species in the Western Ghats of peninsular India, of which seven are reported for the state of Kerala. Our recent records of Protosticta rufostigma Kimmins, 1958 from the Western Ghats of Kerala State is discussed, and despite a thorough literature search no collectio...

This is the first complete documentation of the early stages of Acytolepis lilacea lilacea, the subspecies from southern India, with the first record of the larval host plant Cycas circinalis, and a comparison with the early stages of Acytolepis puspa felderi Toxopeus, 1927, a sympatric and similar species, highlighting the notable differences. The...

The genus Platylestes Selys, 1862 is known from India, by only one species, P. platystylus from eastern India, West Bengal, and recently from Kerala. Here, we describe a new species Platylestes kirani from the coastal tracts of the northern part of Kerala, southern India. The new species differs from all other known species of the genus by its uniq...

Two new species of geckos of the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 are described from the Western Ghats of Kerala using an integrated taxonomic approach employing phylogenetic and multivariate morphometric methods. We provide a preliminary 16S rRNA tree of the Indian Cnemaspis and ascertain the phylogenetic placement of the two new species within the w...

A total of 7966 nests of 11 species were recorded from Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad and Thrissur districts of North Kerala during 2018 heronry survey. Highest number of sites was recorded in Kozhikode (30), while highest number of Heronry Survey in Kerala, 2018 nests was recorded in Thrissur district (4793) and highest species count (8 spe...

Cnemaspis nilagirica was described by Manamendra-Arachchi, Batuwita and Pethiyagoda in 2007 based on a single female specimen that was a syntype of Gonatodes kandianus var. tropidogaster described by Boulenger in 1885. However, a living population of this species has not been reported since its original description by Boulenger. Based on fresh mate...

In the present chapter, a total of 244 species of birds belonging to 136 genera under 18 orders and 53 families have been reported as significant component of the fauna of the agroecosystem of India. The agriculture avifauna is mostly comprised of passerine birds (123 species), compared to non-passerine species (121 species). The most dominant fami...

A total of 7022 nests of 12 species were recorded from Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad and Thrissur districts of Kerala during 2017 heronry survey. Highest number of heronry sites was recorded in Kozhikode (33), while the highest number of nests was recorded in Thrissur district (2815 nests) and the highest number of breeding species (9) from...

Two new species of geckos of the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 are described from the southern Western Ghats of Ker-ala. Both species are medium to large sized Cnemaspis and can be differentiated from all other Indian congeners by a suite of distinct morphological characters. Both species are found in the high elevation forests of the two major mas...

A revised and updated list of reptiles of India

We here describe Sitana attenboroughii sp. nov., a new species of fan-throated lizard of the genus Sitana Cuvier, 1829 from coastal Kerala in southern India. The new species morphologically is closer to Sitana visiri Deepak, 2016 (in Deepak et al. 2016a), however, differs in having higher numbers of ventral scales and a comparatively short but rich...

Madayipara is a Laterite plateau located in the midlands of Kannur district in the Peninsular Indian state of Kerala, which forms a unique habitat with many narrow endemic flowering plants. The present article is an updated checklist of the angiosperms, with 670 species, indicating its high plant diversity.

The Black Microhylid Frog Melanobatrachus indicus is a rare and endangered species known only from very few specimens from the southernmost part of the Western Ghats. A good population of these species was reported for the first time from the highland montane shola forests Marayoor, Idukki district, Kerala. The present report forms the highest alti...

Heronry survey was conducted in 10 districts of Kerala during which a total of 11,550 nests belonging to 16 species of waterbirds from 194 heronry sites were counted. Little Cormorant (3396 nests) and Indian Pond-Heron (3277 nests) were the two most widespread and abundant species. This heronry census recorded the nesting of Woolly-necked Stork and...

A new species of Protosticta Selys, 1885 from Kerala part of Western Ghats is described and illustrated. The holotype male and paratype female is distinguished from other Protosticta species based on its complete black dorsal surface of abdomen, 7th and 8th abdominal segment without yellow or blue color dorsally and its distinct anal appendages. Th...

p>Here we report the range extension of Lestes nodalis Selys , a northeastern and eastern Indian species to Kerala, southern India for the first time. Additional taxonomic and natural history notes are also given for the species. </div

This is a sight record of Slender Coral Snake from Northern rim of Palghat Gap. The Slender Coral Snake, Calliophis melanurus is the smallest and widely distributed coral snake known from India and it is so far known from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal. We found the snake near to...

p>Following the first publication on vertebrates of India (Blanford 1888–1890), a huge wealth of information has been compiled on the vertebrate fauna of various biogeographic zones of the country, especially the Western Ghats. The state of Kerala comprising of a land area of 38,863km², 590km coastline, an intricate system of backwaters...

p>A checklist of reptiles of Kerala State is presented, along with their Scientific, English and Malayalam names, endemic status, conservation status in the latest IUCN Red List category, different Schedules of Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act and the Appendices of CITES. A total of 173 species under 24 families belonging to three orders are record...

Worldwide many species of odonates are known to use phytotelmata as a breeding habitat. Hitherto, no species are known to breed in phytotelmata in India. However, field studies conducted in the southern Western Ghats revealed that Lyriothemis tricolor Ris, 1919 (Libellulidae) uses tree holes as a larval habitat. Here we report the range extension o...

Cory's Shearwater Calonectris borealis is a large seabird that breeds on islands and cliffs in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as in the Atlantic Ocean in the Canary Islands (Spain), and Berlengas Islands and the Azores (Portugal). After breeding, birds from the Atlantic colonies predominantly winter off the coast of South America and southern Afric...

The exclusively old world genus Lyriothemis Brauer, 1868 (Anisoptera: Libellulidae), with 15 species, is widespread across Asian countries occurring in Bangladesh, Tibet, North East India, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal, Laos, Vietnam, Hong Kong, etc. Of these, L. acigastra (Selys, 1878), L. bivittata (Rambur, 1842), L. cleis (Brauer, 1868) and L. tricol...

The identification of Catharacta skuas in the northern hemisphere has always been a hot topic (Devillers 1977) and our observations reported below from the Arabian Sea off the south-west coast of India are in this category. During a pelagic birdwatching trip off the coast of Kerala on 1 October 2012, two large skuas were observed about 20 km west o...

The migratory movements of butterflies are poorly documented in Kerala. It’s for the first time the migratory behaviour of the Dark Cerulean Jamides bochus (Stoll) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) was documented from the Kerala part of Western Ghats. The migratory movement was from high ranges of Eravikulam National Park, Idukki district, Kerala at an ele...

New distribution record of Odonata species from Kerala is reported. The genus Microgomphus and species souteri is recorded for the first time from Kerala. Previously the species is recorded only from Coorg and South Kanara, Karnataka. Diagnostic characters and photographs are also given for easy identification of this rare and endemic dragonfly spe...

Studies on marine birds of India are scarce and available information is based mainly on wind-blown bird data and a few isolated off-shore trips. An attempt was made in recent years to address this lacuna by conducting off-shore trips from the coasts of Karnataka and Kerala to monitor marine birds. We report the significant results from these studi...

A new species of the genus Polypedates under the family Rhacophoridae is described from Western Ghats, India. The new species is compared with Polypedates maculatus, P. pseudocruciger and P. occidentalis, congers in Western Ghats.

The present communication deals with the first record of Yellow-bellied Sea Snake Pelamis platurus (Linnaeus) from the inland riverine tracts of Kerala.

A new species of the oriental shrub frog genus Philautus is described from Kakkayam Reserve Forest of Calicut district, Kerala state, in the southern Western Ghats. This species is distinguished from congeners by the combination of characters such as body small, elongate, squat and flat; head arched, wider than long; snout short rounded, equal or s...

A new species of the oriental shrub frog genus Philautus is described from Kakkayam Reserve Forest of Calicut district, Kerala state, in the southern Western Ghats. This species is distinguished from congeners by the combination of charac-ters such as body small, elongate, squat and flat; head arched, wider than long; snout short rounded, equal or...

Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis Biju & Bossuyt is observed to occur in the forested habitats of the Nilgiri ranges north of Palakkad Gap, indicating its extension of range of distribution from the hitherto known limit south of the Palakkad Gap between 8 and 11° N lat, i.e. Anamalai and Cardamom Hills in the Western Ghats. The adult individual of N. sa...

A new species of the oriental shrub frog genus Philautus is described from Kakkayam Reserve Forest of Calicut district, Kerala state, in the southern Western Ghats. This species is distinguished from congeners by the combination of characters such as body small, elongate, squat and flat; head arched, wider than long; snout short rounded, equal or s...