- Science welcomed many new species this year, most of them amphibians, reptiles and insects.
- The Western Ghats and Northeast India continue to shine as biodiversity hotspots in India with multiple discoveries of species from these regions.
- Every new discovery is significant as it takes us a step closer to the understanding of biodiversity and its conservation and management.
Among the many biodiversity rich regions in India, the northeast India and the Western Ghats stand out as hotspots with many endemic species. It is no surprise then that many species that are new to science discovered recently occur in these regions. Mongabay India has consistently informed our readers about these fascinating discoveries.
In 2024 too, multiple species were newly described, most of them reptiles, amphibians or insects. Here are some of the species that got us curious and potentially redefined the course of science too.
Not one, but four
King cobra was long believed to be a single species — Ophiophagus hannah. The longest venomous snake in the world is not considered to have much conservation significance and is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of threatened taxa. That is about to change as a global study led by the Western Ghats-based scientist P. Gowri Shankar has questioned the belief through a new discovery that King Cobra is not one species, but four distinct species separated by geographies. Among the four, two species are severely threatened, including the Western Ghats species, now named Ophiophagus kaalinga.
This study is significant for many reasons: there is finally closure to over a century-old confusion around the taxonomy of the king cobra. This could also propel the antivenom research further.
Talking about the findings, renowned wildlife biologist Romulus Whitaker told Mongabay India, “I always suspected it was more than one species because they look and behave very differently from each other”. Gowri Shankar points out that while the study was able to clearly distinguish the four species, there may be more species yet to be described. “King cobras could potentially be five or six species. More research is needed,” he says.
A new edge to science
It’s easy to confuse one species for another, especially when the species in question is as common as a lizard. Amphibian researcher Sandeep Das nearly missed identifying a new species because it closely resembled the widely known Agasthyagama bedomii, or northern kangaroo lizard. However, after consulting with other experts, he realised that the location of the sighting — a hilly district in Idukki, Kerala — was too far from the typical range of A. bedomii. Further studies confirmed this finding, leading to the discovery of a previously unrecognised species.
Named Agasthyagama edge, the authors describe the species as “superficially similar to Agasthyagama beddomii in overall shape, size and colour but can be distinguished by combination of characters.” The distinct morphological characters include the number of scales in the throat region which was found to be lesser in A. edge in comparison to A. beddomii. The colour of the scales in the throat region of the breeding males were also found to be different. Both species differed genetically as well. A. edge now joins A. beddomii as another kangaroo lizard species in India.
Species from the Northeast
The northeastern parts of India, as diverse in animal and plant species as the Western Ghats, are relatively less studied, primarily due to the mostly hostile terrain and political turbulence the region has witnessed historically. Despite these challenges, many researchers have managed to do some intense species studies in the region. For Mongabay India, the year 2024 began with the news of three new frog species — Gracixalus patkaiensis, Alcalus fontinalis, and Nidirana noadihing — discovered from the biodiversity hotspot of Kamlang-Namdapha landscape in Arunachal Pradesh.
Tucked between Myanmar and India, Namdapha is considered the northernmost limit of the tropical rainforest in the world. Namdapha region, located on the border, faces many anthropogenic pressures that pose conservation challenges. Another reason why these discoveries are special is because those are not just three new species but three new genera — a taxonomic category comprising species exhibiting similar characteristics — recorded from India. The lead researcher Abhijit Das of the Wildlife Institute of India described the new frogs as rare with distinct appearances and calls.
Call from the wild
In another fascinating discovery, field entomologist Vivek Sarkar and his assistant Tushar Sangma identified a new cicada species during an acoustic survey in Balpakram National Park, located in South Garo Hills, Meghalaya in 2017. While Sarkar was observing the cicada with binoculars and a laser rangefinder, the insect fell to the ground when a bat attempted to capture it. Sarkar quickly photographed the cicada, leading to the identification of Becquartina bicolor, the bicolour butterfly cicada.
Unaware of this discovery, in 2020, Rodeson Thangkhiew — then a PhD scholar and now an assistant professor of zoology at the University of Science and Technology in Meghalaya — was drawn to a unique cicada call coming from a tree next to a small stream. Thangkhiew was foraging for wild edible plants in a community forest in Ri Bhoi district, approximately 150 kilometres away from South Garo Hills. His observations would later align with Sarkar’s findings.
The two teams published their research in March 2024 in Zootaxa. Sarkar emphasised that the locals in South Garo Hills and Ri Bhoi were already familiar with the bicolour butterfly cicada, underscoring the importance of integrating traditional ecological knowledge from local communities into scientific research.
Quite recently, while reporting on the importance of dung beetles in maintaining environmental health, we also informed the readers about the discovery of new dung beetle species, two of which are from northeast India. One of the important lessons from these new discoveries is the extent of biodiversity the country holds. These new findings have far-reaching impacts on conservation science: every new discovery is a step closer to our understanding of biodiversity and its conservation and management.
Banner image: A Gracixalus patkaiensis with eggs listens to the calling males. Image by Abhijit Das.
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