21-Nov-2019: New parasitic wasp species named ‘Idris elba’

British actor Idris Elba has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards and five Primetime Emmy Awards in addition to being named one of the “Sexiest Men Alive.” Now he’s been awarded an accolade that even he probably never dared aspire to: a parasitic wasp has been named in his honor.

The wasp was recently discovered in Guanajuato, Mexico and described to science in a paper published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research this week by a team of researchers with Mexico’s Colegio de Postgraduados, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and the Florida State Collection of Arthropods in the US.

The genus Idris was first described in 1856 and today includes more than 300 species of wasp, all of which have only been known to parasitize spider eggs. Idris elba, on the other hand, was discovered in Mexico parasitizing the eggs of an invasive stink bug known as the bagrada bug (Bagrada hilaris), an invasive species native to Africa that is a major pest in India, southern Europe, southern Asia, and the Middle East. Bagrada bugs made their Western Hemisphere debut in 2008 when they were first sighted in Los Angeles, California, and have since become an important pest of cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, and turnips in North and South America, having been spotted in Chile in 2016.

This is the first association of an Idris species with a non-spider host, and the association is confirmed with molecular diagnostic tools that enable identification of parasitoid and host from the remains of parasitized eggs.

It is uncommon for a native parasitoid species, like Idris elba, to attack a foreign organism introduced to its habitat, which makes it all the more remarkable that an Idris wasp has adapted to parasitize the eggs of bagrada bugs. Bagrada bugs, unlike other stink bugs, lay their eggs in the soil instead of on plants, and the wasps may have somehow mistaken them for spider eggs, their typical host. This may be a case of accidental parasitism by I. elba, based on chance encounters with B. hilaris eggs in the same habitat as its typical spider host.

They also theorize that Idris wasps could have a broader host range than scientists knew, one that includes both spiders and insects. More research is needed to answer this question, especially since Idris elba could potentially be a valuable part of natural solutions to controlling the B. hilaris population, as opposed to the insecticides currently in use, and reining in the destruction the stink bugs do to crops.

29-May-2019: New species of wasp identified in Goa

A new species of wasp from the genus Kudakrumia has been recently identified by scientists in Goa. The wasp, Kudakrumia rangnekari, was named after Goa-based researcher Parag Rangnekar.

The new species was collected in the forests of Western Ghats.

Parag Rangnekar's quest to document the butterflies of this unique region resulted in a record of 220 species, of which 13 species had not been described before. He is the author of a book “Butterflies of Goa”, which is perhaps a first field guide with photographs of the species found in this region.

Mr. Rangnekar, who is the founder-president of the Goa Bird Conservation Network, has now taken up the documentation of the dragonflies in the State.

The holotype is from Kotigao Wildlife Sanctuary of Goa of northern Western Ghats and the paratype is from Ranipuram hill of Kerala of southern Western Ghats.

4-Nov-2019: Researchers discover new frog species in West Bengal

A new frog species has been found in a residential area of West Bengal. The frog was found in two places in the neighbouring state of West Bengal — Badu, North 24 Parganas District and Khordanahala, South 24 Parganas District. The location has inspired the name of the discovery — Polypedates bengalensis, or the Brown Blotched Bengal Tree Frog belonging to the genus Polypedates — and has now been recognised by Zootaxa.

Frogs of the genus Polypedates — a genus of tree frog found throughout South and Southeast Asia — usually have stripes but not blotches like this one had. They are usually yellow, but this one was yellow and brown.

While we depend a lot on molecular studies now, in the past, the call was the most important criteria to differentiate between closely related species. This one had a distinct ‘tok tok’ sound”. This species also had “a continuous series of 6–9 dark brown blotches extend laterally from behind the eye to vent.

There are 25 other Polypedates species (Polypedates bengalensis is the 26th) around the world. There are more than 410 frog species in India.

23-Sep-2019: New species of frog discovered in Arunachal

A team of scientists from the University of Delhi and Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) discovered a new species of frog in Arunachal Pradesh and named it Microhyla eos.

Microhyla are a group of narrow-mouthed frogs (subfamily Microhylinae) that is primarily and widely distributed in Asia. Commonly known as 'Rice Frogs' or 'Chorus Frogs', the genus currently comprises of 49 recognised species.

The new frog was discovered from riparian habitats in a primary evergreen forest in the Namdapha Tiger Reserve of the state, which is also the eastern-most protected area in the country.

The frog was confirmed to represent a distinct new species after detailed comparison of both, DNA and morphology, with all previously known members of the group found across South, Southeast, and East Asia.

Since Arunachal Pradesh is popularly known as ‘the land of rising sun’ or ‘the land of dawn-lit mountains’, the new species has been named as eos, after the mythological Greek goddess of dawn.

Our discovery shows that the actual number of frog species in northeast India, even in the relatively common and well-studied groups, is higher than current estimates. More extensive studies are required to scientifically identify and describe the northeastern frogs, which are already facing extinction threats from various human activities.

The eastern Himalayas are an important part of the Himalaya Biodiversity Hotspot, one of the 36 globally recognised regions known for high species diversity and endemism, as well as a high number of globally threatened species. However, compared to the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in peninsular India, the eastern Himalayas remain relatively overlooked and unexplored.

The past decade has witnessed an exponential increase in the number of new amphibian species described from India, particularly the Western Ghats region that has currently over 250 known species. However, the rate of discovery and description of novelties from northeast India has been relatively slower compared to the Western Ghats.

It is high time that we carry out dedicated amphibian surveys in many poorly or yet unexplored regions of North East India, along with comprehensive integrative taxonomic studies, similar to the Western Ghats where the number of known amphibian species has nearly doubled in the last 10 years, making it one of the leading biodiversity hotspots in the world with an unprecedented rate of new frog discoveries.

Based on DNA analyses, the new study found the closest relatives of Microhyla eos to be in Southeast Asia, rather than India. The Northeastern region of India is often considered as a transition zone of faunal elements between the Indian subcontinent and the rest of Asia.

However, the fact that this regions has its own micro-endemic faunal elements, is often overlooked. Microhyla eos is currently known from a single locality, Rani Jheel in Namdapha Tiger Reserve. Further studies will be necessary to ascertain the exact geographical range and conservation requirements of this species.

11-Aug-2019: Magadha Burrowing Frog

A new species of burrowing frog has been confirmed in Jharkhand’s Chhota Nagpur Plateau. The frog was first discovered in 2015. Its existence was verified and confirmed recently and published in the journal Records of the Zoological Survey of India.

The frog is endemic to agricultural areas in Nawadih and Joungi village of Jharkhand’s Koderma district.

The frog is the newest species of the genus Spahaerotheca, of which, 10 other species are found in South Asia. It has been named as Spahaerotheca Magadha and will be known by the common name of ‘Magadha Burrowing Frog’.

The scientists who discovered it said that the discovery points to the fact that new species of frogs can still be found even in the ‘Central Indian Landscape’ other than the Western Ghats and the Northeast, where most discoveries are currently taking place.

12-Jun-2019: A new paddy frog species discovered in Assam

A team of scientists from Delhi University and the Wildlife Institute of India, in collaboration with researchers from Indonesia and the US, have discovered a new species of ‘paddy frog’ from Northeast India, primarily Assam.

The frog belongs to the microhylid genus Micryletta, a “group of narrow-mouthed frogs that is primarily and widely distributed in Southeast Asia, more commonly known as paddy frogs”.

The new species has been named ‘aishani’, derived from the Sanskrit word ‘aishani’ or aisani meaning Northeast.

The new species “strikingly differs from other narrow-mouthed paddy frogs by characteristics such as reddish-brown colouration on back, prominent dark streaks and ash-grey mottling on the lateral sides, shape of the snout, and absence of web on its feet”.

DNA analyses suggested that other “undescribed species in this genus” could be in existence in regions such as Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The first known species of this genus was originally described from Sumatra in Indonesia. As of now, there are only four recognised species in this group, and Micryletta aishani becomes the fifth.

They discovered and described the species based on specimens collected from a “degraded forest area in Cachar district of Assam”. However, the study says it is also present in Tripura and Manipur. The new species is likely to be more widely distributed in Northeast India, particularly the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot region that lies south of River Brahmaputra. Micryletta aishani is currently endemic to Northeast India but it could very well be present in neighbouring regions of Bangladesh and Myanmar.

It was surprising that the new species is not found far from human habitations. Even fairly common frogs usually found closer to human habitations are still not documented properly.

12-Mar-2019: Orange-bellied 'starry dwarf frog' discovered in Indian mountains

An orange-bellied frog with a brown back, covered in tiny spots that resemble a starry sky, has been discovered in a mountain range in India, surprising researchers who said its ancestors branched off on the evolutionary tree from other members of the same frog family tens of millions of years ago.

The frog, which is about 2cm to 3cm long, has been named Astrobatrachus kurichiyana, although some might prefer its more rock-star sobriquet: “starry dwarf frog.”

Astrobatrachus is from the Greek for star frog, and so named it after the spots that sort of look like stars, and kurichiyana is the name of the local peoples in this area where it was found.

The team of researchers from the US and India said they first came across the creatures in 2010 while exploring a hill range called Kurichiyarmala in India’s Western Ghats mountain range.

The researchers explained they were working at night to survey amphibians and reptiles when they spotted the frogs on the forest floor and in adjacent grassland, adding that they were generally found lurking beneath leaf litter. Because individuals were secretive and difficult to spot, sampling involved an intensive search of the forest floor. Individuals were found to be shy of torchlight and, upon disturbance, made quick hopping movements to hide.

Through a genetic analysis, it was found that the starry dwarf frog was not only a new species, but the sole member of a whole new subfamily of frogs within the Nyctibatrachidae family. It may have had other relatives in the past that have since died out, but this is the sole living representative. It was an example of an “ancient lineage”, with the last common ancestor of the starry dwarf frog and its closest living species thought to have lived somewhere in the region of 57m–76m years ago.

It fills in a gap in our knowledge of what the ancient history of frogs in India looked like. It increased the period of time for which ancestors of the Nyctibatrachidae frog family have been in the area.

The team said other frogs in the area also have an ancient lineage, and the biodiversity in the Western Ghats is down to a combination of factors, including the broad diversity of species present when India broke away from other parts of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, as well as the wide range of habitats provided by mountain ranges.

Having an ancient tropical mountain range like the Western Ghats is relatively rare, there are only a few places like that, so they tend to harbour very ancient, very diverse and very rich assemblages of plants and animals.

20-Nov-2018: Four new horned frogs discovered by Delhi University team

A team of biologists from Delhi University, University College Dublin (Ireland) and the National Museum (UK) have discovered four new species of horned frogs from the Himalayan regions of Northeast India. The team also comprised S D Biju from DU’s Department of Environmental Studies, known as the ‘Frogman of India’.

Horned frogs get their name from the “fleshy horn-like projection on the upper eyelids of some species”, and were discovered in the forests of Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.

The scientists named the four new Indian species as Himalayan horned frog (Megophrys himalayana); the Garo white-lipped horned frog (Megophrys oreocrypta); the Yellow spotted white-lipped horned frog (Megophrys flavipunctata); and the Giant Himalayan horned frog (Megophrys periosa). The study was published as a monograph in the scientific journal Zootaxa.

The frogs vary in size — yellow spotted white-lipped horned frog measures about 5.7-7.5 cm and is the smallest, while the Giant Himalayan horned frog measures about 7.1 to 11.2 cm, making it the “largest of the 15 horned frog species now known to occur in Northeast India”.

Northeast India is “rich in amphibian diversity, but despite being part of two globally recognised biodiversity hotspots (Himalayas and Indo-Burma), this region is neglected as compared to the Western Ghats hotspot in southern India”.

22-May-2018: Another new narrow-mouthed frog species discovered in Coastal Karnataka

The coastal city of Mangaluru in Karnataka now has a new feather in its cap with the discovery of a new species of narrow-mouthed frog. Named after Mangaluru, called Kodial in the Konkani language, Microhyla kodial was first spotted in Mangaluru. The newly discovered species is the 10th species of Microhyla from India.

The newly described frog is characterized by the absence of a lateral body stripe, tuberculated dorsal skin surface, absence of webbing between fingers and dorsal marginal groove on finger and toe disc, and the presence of basal webbing between toes. According to the researchers, the new species discovered is also distinct in its shorter breeding season, limited to the rainy season (June to September) and the females lay up to 300 eggs per clutch.

The researchers encountered this new species while carrying out field surveys in the coastal region of western India as part of a more extensive study on community ecology of anurans (frogs and toads) in the urban landscape. The new species (unlike other described members of Microhyla), has been exclusively recorded from an urban industrial area that is surrounded by seaport, petrochemical, chemical and refinery industries. Given that this species occurs in high density, the researchers infer that it is tolerant and adapted to such disturbances. Since the industrial patch, where Microhyla kodial was spotted, used to be a depot for timber imported from Southeast Asia, the researchers suggest that the frog could have been accidentally introduced with timber that came from Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar.

This discovery highlights the possibility of missing taxa suggesting that perhaps there are more species to be discovered from India and the Western Ghats in particular. And when such species are included in the molecular analysis, they might tell a different story of biogeographical relationships.

26-Apr-2018: Fejervarya goemchi

In the highland plateaus of the Western Ghats parts of Goa, scientists have identified a new species of frog called Fejervarya goemchi, named after the historical name of the state of Goa where the species is discovered.

During monsoons, many of these large-sized terrestrial frogs sit next to water bodies making calls to attract females for mating and breeding. Although most of these frogs are terrestrial, they need water bodies to continue for survival.

Most Fejervarya species in South and South-East Asia are difficult to identify on the basis of morphology alone. The authors have used a combination of morphology, geographic distribution range and molecular methods to describe the new species.

The scientists provide an overview of the group and recommend additional sampling across the Asian continent in a Zoological Survey of India report. The new species is found in the high elevation areas of laterite plateaus, temporary water bodies and paddy fields of Goa. Detailed studies of this species are necessary to map its distribution range.

Read more ...