Mapping Invasive Alien Plants Through Citizen Science: Shortlisting Species of Concern for the Nilgiris
Shiny Mariam Rehel, R.S. Reshnu Raj, Samuel Thomas, Milind Bunyan, Anita Varghese & Ankila J. Hiremath Journal of Threatened Taxa | November 26, 2023 Species introduced from elsewhere are known as alien species. They may be introduced as crop plants or ornamental plants, or for timber. A small proportion of introduced species can become invasive thereby spreading […]
Tillage agriculture and afforestation threaten tropical savanna plant communities across a broad rainfall gradient in India
Ashish N. Nerlekar, Avishkar Munje, Pranav Mhaisalkar, Ankila J. Hiremath, Joseph W. Veldman Journal of Ecology | November 23, 2023 Across various land-use types—old-growth savannas, tree plantations, tillage agriculture, and agricultural fallows—consistent declines in native species richness and cover were observed, with tillage agriculture showing the most significant changes. The new study by Ashish Nerlekar […]
Tillage agriculture and afforestation threaten tropical savanna plant communities across a broad rainfall gradient in India
Ashish N. Nerlekar, Avishkar Munje, Pranav Mhaisalkar, Ankila J. Hiremath, Joseph W. Veldman Journal of Ecology | November 23, 2023 The consequences of land-use change for savanna biodiversity remain undocumented in most regions of tropical Asia. One such region is western Maharashtra, India, where old-growth savannas occupy a broad rainfall gradient and are increasingly rare due to agricultural conversion […]
Phylogeographical patterns are governed by geography in endemic polymorphic snail Indrella ampulla
Sudeshna Chakraborthy, Maitreya Sil, Abhisikta Roy, H N Poorna Bhat, Anwesha Saha, Surya Narayanan, Aravind N.A. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society | November 21, 2023 Genetic diversity within a species can be shaped by abiotic factors, such as climate and geography. We aimed to ascertain the relative importance of these two abiotic factors to Indrella […]
Environmental impacts beyond land use and conservation risk hotspots: Coffee and tea
Kamaljit S. Bawa and Jianguo Liu PNAS- Ecology | November 20, 2023 New paper compares the production and consumption of coffee and tea, the most common beverages after water. Both coffee and tea are grown in humid tropical and subtropical regions on lands that once supported the most diverse natural ecosystems in the world. Expanding […]
A new genus and two new species of Braconinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from the Oriental region
Ranjith AP, Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan Zootaxa | November 18, 2023 A new genus of Braconinae, Pseudorhadinobracon Ranjith & van Achterberg, is described based on the species (P. luteus (Szépligeti) gen. et. comb. nov.) earlier classified under the genus Rhadinobracon Szépligeti. Additionally, the genus Rhadinobracon is newly reported from the Oriental region with the description of two new species from India, R. levigatus Ranjith and R. nitidus Ranjith. […]
Phylogeny of freshwater mollusc genus Brotia H. Adams, 1866 (Gastropoda: Pachychilidae) from north-east India
Anushree Jadav, Surya Narayanan, Chinta Sidharthan, Aravind N.A. Invertebrate Systematics | November 17, 2023 he pachychilid genus Brotia H. Adams, 1866, distributed across South and South-East Asia, comprises 46 currently accepted species. Although Brotia has recently been revised, the systematic treatment of the Indian species requires further scrutiny. This study aims to resolve the phylogenetic relationships between Brotia species from north-east […]
Predation on a House Gecko, Hemidactylus sp., by a Spotted Supple Skink, Riopa punctata (Linnaeus 1758)
Ryan Satish, Manoj Kumar, Jayshree Borgohain, Rohan Sharma, Naveen M Reptiles and Amphibians | November 16, 2023 Skinks are known to be opportunistic predators (e.g., Suranjan Karunarathna and Thasun Amarasinghe 2010; Manicom and Schwarzkopf 2010; Civantos et. al. 2013). However, relatively few reports document the diets of skinks, especially predation on other reptiles (Attum et […]
Rediscovery and systematics of Rhinophis fergusonianus Boulenger, 1896 (Serpentes: Uropeltidae) from India’s Western Ghats
David J. Gower, Surya Narayanan, V. Deepa, Muhammed Anvar Y and Sandeep Das Zootaxa | November 15, 2023 The shieldtail snake Rhinophis fergusonianus was previously known only from the holotype specimen collected approximately 130 years ago from an imprecise Indian locality (Cardamom Hills). New paper reports the rediscovery of this species from four localities, from […]
Chapter 14 – Promoting coexistence through improved understanding of human perceptions, attitudes, and behavior toward snow leopards
Kulbhushansingh Ramesh Suryawanshi, Shruti Suresh , Juliette Young , Saloni Bhatia , Charudutt Mishra Snow Leopards (Second Edition) | November 8, 2023 Research on perceptions, attitudes, and behavior toward snow leopards has primarily been triggered by the prevalence of the livestock predation behavior of snow leopards and retaliatory persecution by livestock herders. Several conservation interventions […]
