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The mountainous Western Ghats are part of a biodiversity hotspot and extend for about 1600 km, lying close and subparallel to the west coast of peninsular India. The region is a centre of diversity for amphibians, and recent preliminary work on some components of both caecilian (Gymnophiona) and frog (Anura) fauna is indicative of a high degree of local endemism. We investigated diversity in mitochondrial rRNA 12S and 16S sequences for long-tailed, unstriped Ichthyophis (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Ichthyophiidae) that potentially represent four taxonomically confused and poorly known endemic caecilian species. Data were analysed for18 individuals from along c.

A new species of Indian caecilian, Gegeneophis madhavai (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) is described from two specimens collected from the Western Ghats of southern Karnataka. This species is distinguished from all other species of the genus in having visible eyes, fewer than 100 primary annuli and more than 25 secondary annuli confined to the posterior of the body.

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A new species of Indian nyctibatrachid frog, Nyctibatrachus dattatreyaensis sp. nov. (Amphibia: Anura), is described from the montane Shola forests of Dattatreya Peeta, Bhadra Wildlife sanctuary, Karnataka, southwestern India, on the basis of unique combination of characters: head wider than long; skin on the dorsum highly wrinkled with transverse corrugated folds; three discontinuous longitudinal folds, one dorsolaterally and two laterally; webbing on toes medium (3/ 4 th ); two yellowish bands on the dorsolateral area, prominent from sub-adult to adult stage; femoral glands present. The largest specimen in the type series has a snout-vent length of 41.0 mm. A revised key to the species of Nyctibatrachus is provided.