Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Patterns of species discovery in the Western Ghats, a megadiversity hot spot in India

  • Published:
Journal of Biosciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Even since Linnaeus, naturalists and taxonomists have been systematically describing species new to science. Besides indicating gaps in taxonomic effort, understanding the temporal patterns of species discovery could help in identifying drivers that determine discovery. In this study we report the patterns of discovery of eight taxa — birds, butterflies, frogs, tiger beetles, grasses, asters, ferns and orchids — in the Western Ghats, a megadiversity centre in India. Our results indicate that the discovery curves for birds and butterflies have been saturated while those for frogs and grasses continue to increase. Within each taxon, the major drivers of discovery were commonness of the species and their size. The average years taken for discovery across taxa were directly related to the per cent endemicity and species richness of the taxa. We discuss the trajectories of discovery with respect to rarity or endemicity of the species and life history features, and the implications these might have for strategizing the discovery process in India.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Acciavatti R E and Pearson D L 1989 The tiger beetle genus Cicindela (Coleoptera, Insecta) from Indian subcontinent; Annals of Carnegie Museum 58 77–353

    Google Scholar 

  • Ali S and Ripley S D 1983 Handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan (compact edition). (Bombay: Oxford University Press and BNHS)

    Google Scholar 

  • Allsopp P G 1997 Probability of describing an Australian scarab beetle: influence of body size and distribution; J. Biogeogr. 24 717–724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aravind N A 2005 Ecology of land snails of Western Ghats, Ph.D dissertation, Mangalore University, Mangalore, India

    Google Scholar 

  • Aravind N A, Ganeshaiah K N and Uma Shaanker R 2004 Croak, croak, croak: are there more frogs to be discovered in Western Ghats? Curr. Sci. 86 1471–1472

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhatta G K and Prashanth P 2004 Gegeneophis nadkarnii — a caecilian (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) from Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary, Western Ghats. Curr. Sci. 87 388–392

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhatta G K and Srinivasa R 2004 A new species of Gegeneophis Peters (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) from the surroundings of Mookambika Wildlife Sanctuary, Karnataka, India; Zootaxa 644 1–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Biju S D 2001 A synopsis of frog fauna of Western Ghats of India (Tiruvananthapuram: ISCB, TBGRI, Occasional publication 201)

  • Biju S D and Bossuyt F 2003 New frog family from India reveals an ancient biogeographical link with the Seychelles; Nature 425 711–714

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bingham C T 1905 The fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma — Butterflies Vol. I (London: Taylor and Francis)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bingham C T 1907 The fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma — Butterflies Vol. II (London: Taylor and Francis)

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackburn T M and Gaston K J 1995 What determines the probability of discovering a species? A study of South American oscine passerine birds; J. Biogeogr. 22 7–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blackburn T M, Brown V K, Doube B M, Greenwood J J D, Lawton J H and Stork N K 1993 The relationship between body size and abundance in natural animal assemblages; J. Anim. Ecol. 62 519–528

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bor N L 1960 The grasses of Burma, Ceylon, India and Pakistan (London: Pergamon Press)

    Google Scholar 

  • Chanda S K 2002 Handbook of amphibians of India (Calcutta: Zoological Survey of India)

    Google Scholar 

  • Dasappa and Swaminath M H 1999 A new species of Semecarpus (Anacardiaceae) from the Myristica swamps of the Western Ghats of North Kanara, Karnataka, India; Indian Forester 126 78–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond J M 1985 How many species are yet to be discovered?; Nature 315 538–539

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drury W H 1974 Rare species; Biol. Conserv. 6 162–169

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drury W H 1980 Rare species of plants; Rhodora 82 3–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Dubois A, Ohler A and Biju S D 2001 A new genus and species of Ranidae (Amphibia, Anura) from south-western India; Alytes 19 53–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Dutta S K, Vasudevan K, Chaitra M S, Shanker K and Aggarwal R K 2004 Jurassic frogs and the evolution of amphibian endemism in the Western Ghats; Curr. Sci. 86 211–216

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Finney D J 1964 Probit analysis: statistical treatment of the sigmoid response curve (London: Cambridge University Press)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaston K J 1991a Body size and probability of description: the beetle fauna of Britain; Ecol. Entomol. 16 505–508

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaston K J 1991b How large is a species geographic range? Oikos 61 434–438

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaston K J and Blackburn T M 1994 Are newly described bird species small bodied? Biodiv. Lett. 2 16–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaston K J and May R M 1992 The taxonomy of taxonomists; Nature 356 281–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaston K J, Blackburn T M and Loder N 1995a Which species are described first? The case of North American butterflies; Biodiv. Conserv. 4 119–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaston K J, Scoble M J and Crook A 1995b Patterns in species description: a case study using Geometridae (Lepidoptera); Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 55 225–237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giri V, Wilkinson M and Gower D J 2003 A new species of Gegeneophis (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) from southern Maharashtra, India, with a key to the species of the genus; Zootaxa 351 1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Giri V, Wilkinson M and Gower D J 2004 A new species of Indotyphlus (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) from the Western Ghats, India; Zootaxa 739 1–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Gower D J, Bhatta G, Giri V, Oommen O V, Ravichandran M S and Wilkinson M 2004 Biodiversity in the Western Ghats: the discovery of new species of caecilian amphibians; Curr. Sci. 87 739–740

    Google Scholar 

  • Grimmett R, Inskipp C and Inskipp T 1999 Birds of Indian subcontinent (London: Oxford University Press)

    Google Scholar 

  • Keshava Murthy K R and Yoganarasimhan S N 1990 Flora of Coorg (Kodagu) Karnataka, India: with data on medicinal plants and chemical constituents (Bangalore: VIMSAT Publishers).

    Google Scholar 

  • Krishnamurthy S V, Manjunatha Reddy A H and Gururaja K V 2001 New species of genus Nyctibatrachus (Boulenger) from Kudremukh National Park; Curr. Sci. 80 887–891

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr E 1963 Animal species and evolution, (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press)

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore F 1893–1896 Lepidoptera Indica Vol. 1–10 (London: Francis Taylor).

    Google Scholar 

  • Nayar B K and Geevarghese 1989 Fern flora of Malabar (New Delhi: Indus Publishing Co).

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson B D 1994 Accumulating knowledge on the dimensions of biodiversity: systematic perspectives on neotropical mammals; Biodiv. Lett. 2 79–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rajagopal P K and Bhat K G 1998 Pteridophytic flora of Karnataka State, India; Indian Fern J. 15 1–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramachandran V S and Nair V J 1988 Flora of Cannanore (Calcutta: Botanical Survey of India) pp 238–259

    Google Scholar 

  • Rao A T 1998 Conservation of wild orchids of Kodagu in the Western Ghats (Bangalore: Karnataka association for advancement of science)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ravichandran M S, Gower D J and Wilkinson M 2003 A new species of Gegeneophis peters (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) from Maharashtra, India; Zootaxa 350 1–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed R N and Boback S M 2002 Does body size predict dates of species description among North American and Australian reptiles and amphibians? Global Ecol. Biogeogr. 11 41–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Talbot G 1939 The fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma — Butterflies, Vol. I (London: Taylor and Francis)

    Google Scholar 

  • Talbot G 1947 The fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma — Butterflies, Vol. II (London: Taylor and Francis)

    Google Scholar 

  • Tangley L 1984 Protecting the “insignificant”; BioScience 34 406–409

    Google Scholar 

  • Vajravelu E 1990 Flora of Palghat District, including Silent Valley national park, Kerala (Calcutta: Botanical Survey of India) pp 245–260

    Google Scholar 

  • Vuilleumier F, LeCroy M and Mayr E 1992 New species of birds described from 1981 to 1990; Bull. Brit. Orn. Club Centenary Supplement 122A 267–309

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams P H 1998 An annotated checklist of bumble bees with an analysis of patterns of description (Hymenoptera: Apidae, Bombini); Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus.(Entomology) 67 79–152

    Google Scholar 

  • Wynter-Blyth M A 1957 Butterflies of the Indian Region (Bombay: Bombay Natural History Society)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zacharias M and Priyadarsanan D R 2004a Discothyrea sringerensis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) a new ant species from India; Zootaxa 484 1–4

    Google Scholar 

  • Zacharias M and Priyadarsanan D R 2004b Vombisidris humboldticola (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) a new arboreal ant species from an Indian ant plant; Curr. Sci. 87 1337–1338

    Google Scholar 

  • Zar J H 1999 Biostatistical analysis, 4th ed. (New Jersey: Prentice Hall)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), # 659 5th A Main, Hebbal, Bangalore, 560 024, India

    N. A. Aravind, G. Ravikanth, K. N. Ganeshaiah & R. Uma Shaanker

  2. Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore, 560 065, India

    B. Tambat & R. Uma Shaanker

  3. Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore, 560 065, India

    K. N. Ganeshaiah

  4. Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur, Bangalore, 560 064, India

    K. N. Ganeshaiah & R. Uma Shaanker

Authors
  1. N. A. Aravind
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. B. Tambat
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. G. Ravikanth
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. K. N. Ganeshaiah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. R. Uma Shaanker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. Uma Shaanker.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Aravind, N.A., Tambat, B., Ravikanth, G. et al. Patterns of species discovery in the Western Ghats, a megadiversity hot spot in India. J Biosci 32, 781–790 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-007-0079-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-007-0079-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation