The "Mr. and Mrs. Ghat crab", Ghatiana dvirupa sp. nov. (Decapoda: Brachyura: Gecarcinucidae) from the Central Western Ghats of India.

A new species of gecarcinucid freshwater crab, Ghatiana dvirupa sp. nov., is described herein from the Kali Tiger Reserve of the Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka state, India.

New records of the primarily Sri Lankan Pseudophilautus regius (Manamendra-Arachchi & Pethiyagoda, 2005) (Amphibia; Rhacophoridae) from the Eastern Ghats of India, crossing the Palk Strait saltwater barrier in the Indian Ocean.

Pseudophilautus regius is a bush frog originally described from the dry zones of Sri Lanka. In the present study, P. regius is being reported from the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh, India as a new record for the country.

Niche partitioning and host specialisation in fish-parasitising isopods: Trait-dependent patterns from three ecosystems on the east coast of India.

Due to their large size and obligate nature, Cymothoid isopods inflict a high degree of tissue damage to fish. Still, they are understudied at an ecosystem level despite their global presence and ecological role. In this work, we collected fish host-isopod parasite data, along with their life history and ecological traits, from the northern part of the east coast of India and investigated patterns in host specialisation and preference of isopod parasites using a trait-based network perspective.

Stacked hybridization to enhance the performance of artificial neural networks (ANN) for prediction of water quality index in the Bagh river basin, India.

Water quality assessment is paramount for environmental monitoring and resource management, particularly in regions experiencing rapid urbanization and industrialization. This study introduces Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and its hybrid machine learning models, namely ANN-RF (Random Forest), ANN-SVM (Support Vector Machine), ANN-RSS (Random Subspace), ANN-M5P (M5 Pruned), and ANN-AR (Additive Regression) for water quality assessment in the rapidly urbanizing and industrializing Bagh River Basin, India. The Relief algorithm was employed to select the most influential water quality input parameters, including Nitrate (NO), Magnesium (Mg), Sulphate (SO), Calcium (Ca), and Potassium (K).

Low diversity, high dominance, and high host prevalence of parasitic isopods of the family Cymothoidae in Chilika lagoon, India: a comparative study between a semi-enclosed ecosystem and its adjoining open region.

Patterns in parasite diversity are shaped by their environmental and ecological settings, and to better understand their interactions with hosts and the corresponding biology, it is crucial to understand these context-dependent patterns. To achieve this, we use cymothoid isopods, an important group of fish parasites, to test a long-standing hypothesis about parasite diversity and prevalence pattern: whether semi-enclosed water bodies allow low diversity and high prevalence of parasitic isopods. Specifically, we compare these patterns between Chilika lagoon (Odisha, India), a semi-enclosed water body, and the adjoining Odisha coast (India).

Dynamic shoreline alterations and their impacts on Olive Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) nesting sites in Gahirmatha Marine Wildlife Sanctuary, Odisha (India).

Currently, sea turtle habitats are being altered by climate change and human activities, with habitat loss posing an urgent threat to Indian sea turtles. Thus, the objective of this study is to analyze the dynamic shoreline alterations and their impacts on Olive Ridley Sea Turtle (ORT) nesting sites in Gahirmatha Marine Wildlife Sanctuary from 1990 to 2022. Landsat satellite images served as input datasets to assess dynamic shoreline changes.

Discovery and description of a new species of burrowing frog Sphaerotheca Gnther, 1859 (Anura: Dicroglossidae) from the suburban landscapes of Bengaluru, India.

Recent resolution of prevailing taxonomic ambiguities in the genus Sphaerotheca and new species discoveries from urban/suburban landscapes highlight the need for attention to non-forested habitats for amphibian conservation. In this paper, we review the status of the members of the genus Sphaerotheca and justify the synonymy of Sphaerotheca magadha as a junior synonym of Sphaerotheca swani. The prospects of resurrection of Sphaerotheca swani (herein preliminarily referred to as Sphaerotheca cf.

Diversifying in the mountains: spatiotemporal diversification of frogs in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot.

Mountain ranges are hotspots of biodiversity. However, the mechanisms that generate biodiversity patterns in different mountainous regions and taxa are not apparent. The Western Ghats (WG) escarpment in India is a globally recognized biodiversity hotspot with high species richness and endemism.

Ghatiana sanguinolenta, a new species of freshwater crab (Brachyura: Gecarcinucidae) from the Central Western Ghats of India.

Ghatiana sanguinolenta sp. nov. is recognized herein as the twelfth species of the gecarcinucid genus Ghatiana Pati & Sharma, 2014, and the fifth species of the genus from the Karnataka state.

A new genus and new species of freshwater crab (Decapoda: Brachyura:Gecarcinucidae) from the Central Western Ghats of India.

A new genus and new species of gecarcinucid freshwater crab, Aradhya placida gen. et sp. nov.

Coexisting good neighbours: acoustic and calling microhabitat niche partitioning in two elusive syntopic species of balloon frogs, Uperodon systoma and U. globulosus (Anura: Microhylidae) and potential of individual vocal signatures.

Background: Most amphibians use a repertoire of acoustic signals to propagate signals in social contexts. The description of these repertoires provides a key towards the understanding of the behaviour of individuals and the evolutionary functions of calls. Here, we assessed the variations in advertisement calls within and between two fossorial sympatric species, Uperodon systoma and Uperodon globulosus, that share their breeding season and breeding sites.

Omorgus (Omorgus) khandesh (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea: Trogidae), a new species from India, along with an annotated catalogue of the Oriental and Palearctic species of the subgenus Omorgus Erichson, 1847.

A new species of keratin beetle from Western India, Omorgus (Omorgus) khandesh Strümpher & Kalawate, new species, is described and illustrated. The new species is morphologically most similar to O. (O.

A new freshwater crab species of the genus Vela Bahir & Yeo, 2007 (Decapoda: Brachyura: Gecarcinucidae) from the Western Ghats of Karnataka, India.

Vela bandhavya sp. nov., a new species of gecarcinucid crab is described from the Central Western Ghats, Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka state, India.

First report of parasitic isopod (Cymothoidae) from India with its molecular characterization.

The present report provides the first material evidence of  (Guérin-Méneville, 1832) collected from two different landing centres of the Chilika lagoon, thus claiming the first report of this parasite from India. One of the specimens was recorded from the host fish species  Hamilton 1822, constituting the first host record for this isopod. A key for the identification of  among its congeners is also providedMolecular characterization of Cytochrome C Oxidase I (COI) gene of  was based on one specimen submitted for the first time to the NCBI database.

On the collection of marine crabs (Decapoda: Brachyura) in the Zoological Survey of India, Western Regional Centre, Pune, with a note on the taxonomy of Sphaerozius scaber (Fabricius, 1798) (Menippidae).

The Zoological Survey of India, Western Regional Centre, Pune (ZSI-WRC) contains 1887 specimens of mostly unstudied marine brachyuran crabs. The present systematic study on the marine crabs of ZSI-WRC reports 62 species in 44 genera, 18 families and nine superfamilies. Of these, four genera and 13 species are new distributional records within India.

Discovery of a new species of Euphlyctis (Anura: Dicroglossidae) from the western coastal plains of peninsular India.

The aquatic frog genus Euphlyctis is now considered under two separate genera- Euphlyctis Fitzinger and Phrynoderma Fitzinger, with four valid species in each genus, respectively. The current distribution range of the genus Phrynoderma is restricted to peninsular India and Bangladesh, with a probability of availability in Sri Lanka. The genus Euphlyctis has a wide range of distribution from the Arabian Peninsula and the South Asian countries, with a few historical descriptions treated as junior synonyms of the species Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis in India.

Morphological groupings within Euphlyctis (Anura: Dicroglossidae) and description of a new species from the surroundings of Thattekad Bird Sanctuary, Kerala, India.

The skittering frog genus Euphlyctis is known to have a distribution range from Arabian Peninsula to Bangladesh through India and Sri Lanka. Although species descriptions were initiated about two centuries ago in the genus with a small number of species described, taxonomic identities and genetic information for many species are still incomplete / inaccurate. Here, we report the systematic status of this group, discuss a series of taxonomic issues, and describe a new species.

Two new species of the genus Bolboceras/ Kirby, 1819 (Coleoptera: Bolboceratidae: Bolboceratinae) from India with an updated identification key of the Bolboceras nigricans/ Westwood, 1848 species group.

Bolboceras bopdevense Kalawate Hillert, new species and Bolboceras trimbakense Kalawate Hillert, new species, both classified in the Bolboceras nigricans Westwood, 1848 species group are described from India. Illustrations and comparison with known members of the B. nigricans species group are given.

A new species of Asphondylia (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) causing leaf galls on jujube, Ziziphus jujuba Mill. (Rhamnaceae) in India.

Jujube Ziziphus jujuba Mill. (Rhamnaceae), known as "Ber" in India, is an evergreen thorny shrub with reddish-brown fruits, chiefly found in Southeast Asia (Reza 2014). Up to now three species of gall midges have been associated with jujube: Phyllodiplosis jujubae Grover Bakshi, and Silvestrina jujubae Chandra in India and Dasineura jujubifolia Jiao Bu in China (Grover Bakhshi 1978; Chandra 1988; Jiao et al.

A deeply divergent lineage of Walkerana (Anura: Ranixalidae) from the Western Ghats of Peninsular India.

The frog family Ranixalidae is endemic to the Western Ghats of Peninsular India and contains two genera, Indirana and Walkerana. The three known species of Walkerana are restricted to different hill ranges south of the Palghat Gap, an ancient valley in the Western Ghats. In this study, we report the discovery of a deeply divergent lineage of Walkerana from the high elevations of the Elivalmalai hill range.

Description of a new species of freshwater crab of the genus rcithelphusa Pati amp; Sudha Devi, 2015 (Decapoda: Brachyura: Gecarcinucidae) from the Western Ghats, Kerala, India.

A new species of the hitherto monotypic gecarcinucid freshwater crab genus, Arcithelphusa Pati Sudha Devi, 2015, is described from the Western Ghats, in the Wayanad district of Kerala, India. Arcithelphusa tumpikkai sp. nov.

A new ancient lineage of frog (Anura: Nyctibatrachidae: Astrobatrachinae subfam. nov.) endemic to the Western Ghats of Peninsular India.

The Western Ghats (WG) is an escarpment on the west coast of Peninsular India, housing one of the richest assemblages of frogs in the world, with three endemic families. Here, we report the discovery of a new ancient lineage from a high-elevation massif in the Wayanad Plateau of the southern WG. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that the lineage belongs to Natatanura and clusters with Nyctibatrachidae, a family endemic to the WG/Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot.

A new species and new records of the genus Bolboceras Kirby, 1819 (Coleoptera: Geotrupidae: Bolboceratinae) from India.

The genus Bolboceras Kirby, 1819 (Coleoptera: Geotrupidae: Bolboceratinae: Bolboceratini) currently contains more than 20 species, which are distributed from Lebanon in the Palaearctic region and eastern Africa through Pakistan, India, and Myanmar in the Oriental Region (Král et al. 2006; Krikken 2011, 2013a, 2013b; Nikolajev et al. 2016; Gupta Chandra 2016a, 2016b).