Windbreaks often form networks of forest habitats that improve connectivity and thus conserve biodiversity, but little is known of such effects in the tropics. We determined bird species richness and community composition in windbreaks composed of remnant native vegetation amongst tea plantations (natural windbreaks), and compared it with the surrounding primary forests. Fifty-one, ten-minute point counts were conducted in each habitat type over three days. Despite the limited sampling period, our bird inventories in both natural windbreaks and primary forests were nearly complete, as indicated by bootstrap true richness estimator. Bird species richness and abundance between primary forests and windbreaks were similar, however a difference in bird community composition was observed. Abundances of important functional groups such as frugivores and insectivores did not vary between habitat types but nectarivores were more abundant in windbreaks, potentially as a result of the use of windbreaks as traveling routes, foraging and nesting sites. This preliminary study suggests that natural windbreaks may be important habitats for the persistence of bird species in a production landscape. However, a better understanding of the required physical and compositional characteristics for windbreaks to sustain bird communities is needed for effective conservation management.
Novel and significant data on the breeding biology and tadpole morphology of Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis expands ourunderstanding of this unusual frog and clarifies some data in other reports. Nonpigmented eggs are laid in arrays or clumpsin small shaded rocky pools in the bedrock of torrential streams, as they are charged by early monsoon rains. The suctorialtadpole adapted to rheophilic habitats, has a strongly depressed body, dorsal eyes, complete marginal papillae, a labialtooth row formula of 2/3 or 2/3(1), and a medial vent with unusual flaps subtending the vent and limb buds. Tadpoles meta-morphose in about 100 days. Additional site records and issues relating to the conservation of this frog and its habitat in the southern Western Ghats of India are discussed.
We reassessed the systematics of the Indian (semi)fossorial snake Xylophis perroteti (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) based on morphological and DNA sequence data for type, historical, and new specimens. A population from the Anamalai Hills is distinct from broadly topotypic X. perroteti from the Nilgiri Hills (from which they are separated geographically by the lowland Palghat Gap) on the basis of both external morphology and DNA sequence data. We describe the Anamalai form as a new species, Xylophis mosaicus sp. nov. The new species is more closely related to X. perroteti than to X. stenorhynchus and X. captaini. A new key to identify the species of Xylophis is presented.
1. Fresh waters and their resources continue to be one of the most imperilled ecosystems on Earth, yet very little emphasis has been placed on identifying and developing in situ conservation mechanisms, such as freshwater protected areas. In the southern region of the Western Ghats Hotspot, India, a globally important eco-region harbouring unique freshwater taxa, there has been very little effort to identify the role played by terrestrial protected areas in freshwater biodiversity conservation.2. Around 130 species of freshwater-dependent fauna belonging to five taxonomic groups (fish, amphibians, crabs, shrimps and odonates) are endemic to the region, of which 25% have a high risk of extinction. More than half of the 130 species are not represented in the current protected area (PA) network, and the distributions of 12 endemic and threatened species (10 fish, one amphibian and one shrimp), of which five are single-location species, also fall wholly outside the PA network.3. Although 44% (58 species) of endemic freshwater-dependent fauna of the region occur either wholly (25 species) or partly (33 species) inside terrestrial PAs, they are rarely subject to species-specific management or monitoring plans.4. To improve freshwater biodiversity conservation at the local level, and to achieve global conservation targets, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi targets (for example targets 11 and 12), the PA network of the region should be doubled. This may be achieved by expanding the area of existing PAs to incorporate priority sites for freshwater taxa, creating new PAs by specifically targeting areas that are of significance to freshwater biodiversity, and developing and implementing freshwater-specific management plans in existing PAs of the region.
Based on analyses of new DNA sequence data for two nuclear (rag1, cmos) and three mitochondrial (16s, cytb, nd4) genes, the Indian snake genus Rhabdops is a natricine. Variation in geography, DNA sequences, the number of ventral scales, pattern and colour for samples of Rhabdops from along the Western Ghats region of peninsular India is concordant, discontinuous and bimodal. We recognise populations from the northern Western Ghats as distinct specifically from the more southerly R. olivaceus and describe Rhabdops aquaticus sp. nov. based on a series of eight specimens from two localities in the Northern Western Ghats. Rhabdops aquaticus sp. nov. is associated particularly with upland laterite plateaus and their associated streams, a threatened habitat within its known distribution.
The genus Raorchestes is a large radiation of Old World tree frogs for which the Western Ghats in Peninsular India is the major center for origin and diversification. Extensive studies on this group during the past two decades have resolved long-standing taxonomic confusions and uncovered several new species, resulting in a four-fold increase in the number of known Raorchestes frogs from this region. Our ongoing research has revealed another five new species in the genus, formally described as Raorchestes drutaahu sp. nov., Raorchestes kakkayamensis sp. nov., Raorchestes keirasabinae sp. nov., Raorchestes sanjappai sp. nov., and Raorchestes vellikkannan sp. nov., all from the State of Kerala in southern Western Ghats. Based on new collections, we also provide insights on the taxonomic identity of three previously known taxa. Furthermore, since attempts for an up-to-date comprehensive study of this taxonomically challenging genus using multiple integrative taxonomic approaches have been lacking, here we review the systematic affinities of all known Raorchestes species and define 16 species groups based on evidence from multi-gene (2,327 bp) phylogenetic analyses, several morphological characters (including eye colouration and pattern), and acoustic parameters (temporal and spectral properties, as well as calling height). The results of our study present novel insights to facilitate a better working taxonomy for this rather speciose and morphologically conserved radiation of shrub frogs. This will further enable proper field identification, provide momentum for multi-disciplinary studies, as well as assist conservation of one of the most colourful and acoustically diverse frog groups of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot.
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