Science has received many new species in 2024

Among the many biodiversity-rich regions in India, northeast India and the Western Ghats stand out as the most biodiverse regions. It is not surprising then that many new types of scientific discoveries have recently appeared in these areas. Mongabay India keeps our readers updated with these interesting discoveries.

In 2024 again, many species were newly described, mostly reptiles, amphibians or insects. Here are some of the brands that made us want to know and redefine the way of science.

Not one, but four

It has long been believed that the King cobra is a single species – Ophiophagus Anna. The world’s longest venomous snake is not considered to be of high conservation value and is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of threatened taxa. That is about to change as a global study led by Western Ghats scientist P. Gowri Shankar has questioned the belief with the new discovery that the King Cobra is not one species, but four separate species. they are places. Of the four, two species are critically endangered, including the Western Ghats species, now called Ophiophagus kaalinga.

This study is important for many reasons: it finally puts to rest more than a century of confusion surrounding the taxonomy of the king cobra. This may also stimulate further antivenin research.

Commenting on the findings, renowned wildlife biologist Romulus Whitaker told Mongabay India, “I always suspected they were more than one species because they look and behave so differently and another”. Gowri Shankar points out that although the study was able to clearly identify four types, there may be many more that are yet to be defined. “There are five or six types of king cobra. More research is needed,” he says.

A new scientific frontier

It is easy to confuse one species for another, especially when the species in question is as common as a lizard. Amphibian researcher Sandeep Das almost missed identifying the new species because it closely resembled a well-known one. Agasthyagama bedomiior the northern kangaroo lizard. However, after consulting with other experts, he realized that the place he saw – the hilly district of Idukki, Kerala – was far from the usual place. A. bedomii. Further research has confirmed this discovery, leading to the discovery of a previously unknown species.

Named Agasthyagama is fiercethe authors describe this species as “extremely similar to Agasthyagama beddomii in general shape, size and color but can be distinguished by the combination of letters.” Distinctive characters of the forager include the number of branches in the throat area found to be small inside A. anger compared to A. beddomii. The color of the scales in the throat area of ​​the breeding males was also found to be different. Both species were genetically different as well. A. anger now you are together A. beddomii like another type of kangaroo lizard in India.

Species from the northeast

The north-eastern parts of India, which are as diverse in fauna and flora as the Western Ghats, are less studied, mainly because of the hostile environments and political upheavals that the region has seen in history. Despite these problems, many researchers have been able to conduct intensive studies of animal species in this region. For Mongabay India, the year 2024 started with news of three new frog species – Gracixalus patkaiensis, Alcalus fontinalis, and Get into the water – discovered in the biodiversity hotspot of Kamlang-Namdapha region in Arunachal Pradesh.

Located between Myanmar and India, Namdapha is considered the northernmost limit of tropical rainforest in the world. The Namdapha region, on the border, is facing many anthropogenic pressures that are causing conservation problems. Another reason why these discoveries are unique is because they are not just three new species but three new species – a taxonomic group of species with similar characteristics – that have been reported in India. Lead researcher Abhijit Das of the Wildlife Institute of India described the new frogs as unusual in appearance and unique calls.

Call the country

In another interesting discovery, field entomologist Vivek Sarkar and his assistant Tushar Sangma identified a new species of cicada during an acoustic survey in Balpakram National Park, in South Garo Hills, Meghalaya in 2017. Sarkar was looking at the cicada with binoculars and a laser rangefinder, the insect fell to the ground when the bat tried to catch it. Sarkar quickly took a photo of the cicada, leading to the discrimination of Becquartina bicolorbicolour cicada butterfly.

Unaware of this discovery, in 2020, Rodeson Thangkhiew – then a PhD scholar and now an assistant professor of zoology at the Meghalaya University of Science and Technology – was attracted by a phone call. a unique cicada from a tree near a small stream. Thangkhiew was looking for wild edible plants in the community forest in Ri Bhoi district, about 150 km from South Garo Hills. His later observations would match Sarkar’s findings.

The two groups published their research in March 2024 at Zootaxa. Sarkar emphasized that the residents of South Garo Hills and Ri Bhoi were already familiar with the bicolour butterfly cicada, emphasizing the importance of integrating traditional ecological knowledge from local communities to carry out scientific research.

Recently, while reporting on the importance of beetles in maintaining the health of the environment, we also informed readers about the discovery of new species of dung beetles, two of which are from the north- eastern India. One of the important lessons from these new discoveries is how much biodiversity the country has. These new findings have major implications for conservation science: each new discovery is a step closer to our understanding of biodiversity and its conservation and management.

Banner image: A Gracixalus patkaiensis the one with eggs listens to the calling ministers. Photo by Abhijit Das.