New Species of Plants and Animals Discovered
A rare band-tail scorpionfish was recently found in the Gulf of Mannar.
Band-tail scorpionfish
- The band-tail scorpionfish (Scorpaenospsis neglecta) camouflages within the seagrass meadows.
- It is well-known for its stinging venomous spines and ability to change colour.
- The fish has the ability to change colour and blend with its surrounding environment to escape from predators and while preying.
- The fish is called ‘scorpionfish’ because its spines contain neurotoxic venom.
Species in news: Amaltas or Indian LaburnumPrelims Only
The Amaltas or Indian laburnum has begun blooming this summer.
Amaltas Tree
- The Amaltas (Cassia fistula linn), native to South-East Asia is one of the most widespread trees in India and South-East Asia, with their presence both in cities as well as in moist and dry forests.
- It has drooping clusters of bright fragrant yellow flowers with five petals and characteristic cylindrical fruits.
- The Amaltas is known by so many names — Indian Laburnum, Golden Shower, Purging Fistula, Pudding-pipe tree, Girmala, Rajbrikh, Alash, Kiar, Kirwara, Ali — showing us how common and loved it is.
- It is both the national tree and the national flower of Thailand and is also the state flower of Kerala.
Features of Amaltas
- This middle-sized deciduous tree is leafless only for a brief time, between March and May.
- The new leaves are glossy, a trait that they lose on maturing, and are mostly bright green, though sometimes a rich copper too.
- It flowers from April to June, partly alongside the emergence of new leaves, but it’s not uncommon to find the Amaltas in flower as late as September.
- The bark is yellowish at first, slowly coarsens with age and turning dark grey.
Significance
- The tree is mostly known to be ornamental and few know of its benefits as a medicinal plant, and one that’s loved by some mammals, bees, and butterflies.
- The bark is used to make dye and the pulp in the fruit pod also serves as a strong purgative agent, which also helps animals that feed on it.
- A medicinal preparation with the roots of the tree is used to cure leprosy and skin diseases and the leaves are used to get rid ulcers, in traditional medicine.
Species in news: Asian KoelPrelims Only
Asian Koel, the state bird of Puducherry, is now breeding across Delhi-NCR.
Asian Koel
IUCN status: Least Concerned
- The Asian Koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus) is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes.
- It is found in the Indian Subcontinent, China, and Southeast Asia.
- It forms a superspecies with the closely related black-billed koels, Indian cuckoos, and Pacific koels which are sometimes treated as subspecies.
- The Asian Koel like many of its related cuckoo kin is a brood parasite that lays its eggs in the nests of crows and other hosts, who raise its young.
Key Features
- Sexual dimorphism is evident, where males are a glossy black with a greenish sheen to their bodies and females are brown with white dots on their wings and heavy streaking on their head and throat.
- Both sexes have strong long greenish bills and captivating ruby-red eyes.
- In the bird world, the males are generally more pleasant looking than the females, considering they woo females.
Specie in news: Charru mussel (Mytella strigata)Species in News
An invasive mussel native to the South and Central American coasts is spreading quickly in the backwaters of Kerala.
Charru mussel
- The rapid spread of the Charru mussel (Mytella strigata) may have been triggered by Cyclone Ockhi which struck the region in 2017.
- With a population as high as 11,384 per sq metre here, it has replaced the Asian green mussel (Perna Viridis) and the edible oyster Magallana bilineata (known locally as muringa).
- Externally, the Charru mussel resembles the green and brown mussels (kallummekka in Malayalam) but is much smaller in size. Its colour varies from black to brown, purple or dark green.
- Surveys show the presence of the Charru mussel in the Kadinamkulam, Paravur, Edava-Nadayara, Ashtamudi, Kayamkulam, Vembanad, Chettuva and Ponnani estuaries/backwaters.
- Ashtamudi Lake, a Ramsar site in Kollam district, remains the worst-hit.
Threats posed
- Though this smaller mussel is edible, the overall economic loss and impact on biodiversity are much bigger, it is pointed out.
- It is throwing out other mussel and clam species and threatening the livelihoods of fishermen engaged in shrimp fisheries.
Species in news: CicadasPrelims Only
A brood of periodical cicadas, noisy insects that breed underground for as long as 13-17 years are expected to emerge into some states of the US this year.
What are Cicadas?
- Cicadas are insects that spend most of their lives underground and emerge from the soil mainly to mate.
- Once out of the ground, their life span is fairly short, somewhere between two-four weeks.
- At present, there are about 15 active broods of these cicadas as some have gone extinct.
- The insects are found in America’s as well as New Zealand and Australia.
- The name 13 and 17 year refers to the number of years that cicada nymphs take to reach adulthood.
- It is not clear why their development period is so long, researchers suspect that it may be linked to avoiding predators above the soil.
How are the fed?
- During this time underground the nymphs feed on sap from plant roots.
- After this developmental period, the cicada nymphs construct a “cicada hut” and burrow their way out from the soil and climb onto any nearby tree or vegetation.
Species in news: Puntius Sanctus fishStates in News
Velankanni in Tamil Nadu has thrown up a new species of small freshwater fish.
Puntius Sanctus
- The silver-hued fish has been named Puntius Sanctus — ‘Sanctus’ is Latin for holy — after the popular pilgrim town.
- Encountered in a small waterbody in Venlankanni, Puntius Sanctus is small, it grows to a length of 7 cm.
- It found to use both as food and as an aquarium draw.
- “The Puntius species are known locally as ‘Paral’ in Kerala and ‘Kende’ in Tamil Nadu.
Western Ghats yield 3 new plant speciesSpecies in News
A team of scientists of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) have reported the discovery of three new plant species from the evergreen forest patches of the southern end of the Western Ghats in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Which are the new species?
The three new species found are:
1) Eugenia sphaerocarpa of the Myrtaceae or Rose apple family
- A good population of Eugenia sphaerocarpa is growing in the Kakkayam area of the Malabar wildlife sanctuary in Kerala above 800 m.
- The specific epithet ‘sphaerocarpa’ denotes to the large, showy lemon-yellow spherical fruit.
- The fruits of Eugenia species are known for their palatability and many of them are harvested from the wild with some under cultivation.
2) Goniothalamus sericeus of the Annonaceae family of custard apple
- A small number of Goniothalamus sericeus plants has been found in the Kanyakumari wildlife sanctuary in Tamil Nadu.
- Mature flowers with characteristic greenish-yellow to beige petals are fragrant while the fruits are very showy and an attractive golden yellow in colour.
- The specific epithet ‘sericeus’ refers to the presence of dense silky hair on the petals.
3) Memecylon nervosum of the Melastomataceae (Kayamboo or Kaasavu in local parlance) family
- A small population of Memecylon nervosum was also found at the same sanctuary at an altitude between 700-900 m with more that than 10 sub-populations located along the banks of a perennial rivulet.
- The species have showy purplish-blue flowers and mauve to purplish-red fruits.
- The specific epithet ‘nervosum’ alludes to the presence of prominently raised lateral and intramarginal veins on the lower surface of the lamina.
Species in news: Pinanga AndamanensisSpecies in News
A rare palm endemic to the South Andaman Island is finding a second home at Thiruvananthapuram-based Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI).
Pinanga Andamanensis
- Pinanga andamanensis is an IUCN critically endangered species and one of the least known among the endemic palms of the Andaman Islands.
- The name is derived from ‘Penang’, the modern-day Malaysian state.
- Its entire population of some 600 specimens naturally occurs only in a tiny, evergreen forest pocket in South Andaman’s Mount Harriet National Park.
- It was originally described by the Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari in 1934.
- His description was based on an old herbarium specimen collected by E.H. Man, a late-19th century assistant superintendent in the Andaman administration.
- After that first identification, it was thought to be extinct till 1992.
Species in news: Troglomyces twitteriPrelims Only
A new species has just been identified on an old image on Twitter. It is named as Troglomyces twitteri.
Troglomyces twitteri
- Troglomyces twitteri is a type of parasitic fungus.
- It belongs to an order called Laboulbeniales — tiny fungal parasites that attack insects and millipedes.
- These fungi live on the outside of host organisms; in this case, on the reproductive organs of millipedes.
- Laboulbeniales were first discovered in the middle of the 19th century.
Oculudentavis khaungraaePrelims OnlyPriority 1
Scientists have found the skull of a 99-million-year-old flying dinosaur that is tinier than the tiniest bird known to humans.
- The bird-like dinosaur was found stuck in a gob of tree resin that eventually hardened into amber, preserving it for millions of years to come.
- The fossil was dug up in 2016 from a mine in Myanmar. It was so slight; it likely weighed just 2 grams.
- The dinosaur skull holds around 100 sharp teeth, which hints at its ferocious nature despite its small size.
- It even had teeth in the back of its jaw, under its eye.
Specie in news: ‘World’s largest’ subterranean fishPrelims Only
Systematic exploration of the Meghalayan caves has been underway for almost 30 years and hundreds of kilometres of cave passages have been explored and mapped. In a cave in a remote forested area of Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills a research expedition found large specie of a subterranean fish (occurring under the earth’s surface).
About the fish
- The blind fish was over 40 cm. It has not been named so far.
- It is nearly five times the mean length (85mm/8.5 cm) for all known subterranean fish to date.
- The only other species exceeding 300mm (30 cm) in length are eel-like Synbranchidae with nothing like the bulk of the new fish.
- The 250-known subterranean (occurring under the earth’s surface) fish species around the world measure only around 8.5 cm on average.
- The specialists say that possibly one (or more) populations of these fish became isolated deeper in the caves and over generations became adapted to the dark, losing their eyes in the process.
Closest resemblance
- The experts feel that the fish species is very similar to the Golden Mahseer or the Tor Putitora, one of the most famous game fish of the Himalayan rivers.
- Unique characters that distinguishes it from the Golden Mahseer is the lack of pigmentation, a lack of eyes and of course, its subterranean habitat – being locked in caves.
- There are ‘normal’ Golden Mahseer in the area too but there is not much surface water (at least in the dry winter months) so fish end up in the cave pools and underground rivers.
Features of Subterranean ecosystems
- Subterranean ecosystems are considered extreme, high-stress environments characterised by darkness, truncated food webs and food scarcity.
- Despite this, they harbour exceptional vertebrate and invertebrate taxa (21,000+ species), many of which are evolutionarily unique, and relics of ancient fauna given their long-term isolation.
- Many cave fish show different adaptations – some don’t have eyes, some have reduced eyes, some don’t have fins, some have weird body shapes.
In news: YaravirusPrelims Only
In a lake in Brazil, researchers have discovered a virus that they find unusual and intriguing.
Yaravirus
- The Yaravirus infects amoeba and has genes that have not been described before, something that could challenge how DNA viruses are classified.
- It has a puzzling origin and phylogeny (evolutionary relationship).
- Because of the Yaravirus’s small size, it was unlike other viruses that infect amoeba and they named it as a tribute to Yara, the “mother of waters” in the mythological stories of the Tupi-Guarani indigenous tribes.
- The virus does not infect human cells, according to the researchers.
Indian bull frog: the Andamans’ new colonisersPrelims Only
Note4students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Indian bullfrog (Hoplobatrachus tigerinus), Indian Wildlife Act 1972, Convention on Biological Diversity, IUCN
Mains level: Invasive species and threat posed by them on native species and biodiversity
New frog species
- A recent migrant to the Andaman island is the Indian bullfrog (Hoplobatrachus tigerinus)
- The bullfrog is found widely in mainland India and protected under Schedule IV of the Indian Wildlife Act 1972
- It is steadily occupying the islands’ ecosystem and threatening the local economy
Man-Frog conflict
- The voracious animal gulps down anything that would fit in its jaws: centipedes, leeches, native frogs, lizards, small snakes, and even chicks and ducklings, which are an important source of food for the islanders
- An unusual man-frog conflict is brewing due to this
Why are bullfrogs a threat on islands?
- Bullfrogs are found all over mainland India, but it is in the unique ecosystem of the islands that it becomes a major threat
- Unlike the mainland, resources on the islands are scarce for big animals, while natural calamities are more frequent
- The wildlife here has evolved in a miniature setting: there are no large herbivores (the largest is the Andaman wild pig) or large carnivores
Focus on invasive species
- Globally, invasive species, particularly in islands, are becoming the focus of numerous organisations
- The Convention on Biological Diversity has said that invasives have contributed to 40% of all animal extinctions since the 17th century
- The IUCN has formulated guidelines for managing invasives specifically in islands, largely involving data collection, community engagement, policy measures and management plans
Indian plant seed could bring clean water to millionsPriority 1
Note4students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Moringa oleifera plant, F-sand
Mains level: Innovative methods to deal with water pollution
Plant to purify water
- Proteins from the Moringa oleifera plant can help effectively purify water in developing nations at a low cost
- The plant – commonly known as the drumstick tree – is cultivated for food and natural oils, and the seeds are already used for a type of rudimentary water purification
- The Moringa oleifera plant tree is native to India and grows well in tropical and subtropical climates
F-sand
- Sand and plant materials have been to create a cheap and effective water filtration medium, termed “f-sand”
- F-sand was created by extracting the seed proteins from the Moringa oleifera plant, and adhering them to the surface of silica particles, the principal component of sand
- It kills microorganisms and reduces turbidity, adhering to particulate and organic matter
New frog species takes historical name of Goa
Image source
Note4students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Fejervarya goemchi
Mains level: Biodiversity of India and ways to conserve it
Attaching Goa’s name to wildlife
- In the highland plateaus of the Western Ghats parts of Goa, scientists have identified a new species of frog called Fejervarya goemchi
- The new species is named after the historical name of the state of Goa where the species is discovered
Unique features
- In monsoons, many of these large-sized terrestrial frogs sit next to water bodies making calls to attract females for mating and breeding
- Most of these frogs are terrestrial but they need water bodies to continue for survival
- The new species is found in the high elevation areas of laterite plateaus, temporary water bodies and paddy fields of Goa
Western Ghats reveal world’s smallest land fern
Image source
Note4students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Adder’s-tongue ferns, Ophioglossum malviae
Mains level: Biodiversity of western ghats and measures needed to conserve it
News
Smallest fern discovered
- Indian researchers have discovered the world’s smallest land fern hiding in the Ahwa forests of the Western Ghats in Gujarat’s Dang district
- The fingernail-sized fern belongs to a group known as the adder’s-tongue ferns, named after their resemblance to a snake’s tongue
Features of the plant
- The size of the new Malvi’s adder’s-tongue fern Ophioglossum malviae is just one centimeter
- A look at the plant’s minuscule seeds (called spores) under a powerful electron microscope revealed it had a unique thick outer layer which similar species lacked
- Initial observations suggest that the ferns are seasonal and grow with the first monsoon rains
New species of large gecko discovered
Note4students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Name of the new species
Mains level: The article shows an example of Biodiversity in India.
News
New Lizard in Eastern Ghats
- A team of scientists’ has found Geckos(a new species) from the Eastern Ghats
- The Kanger valley rock gecko Hemidactylus kangerensis is the newest addition to India’s lizard species
- According to a paper published in the taxonomic journal Comptes Rendus Biologies, researchers of the National Centre for Biological Sciences has discovered the gecko from Chhattisgarh’s Kanger Ghati National Park
- According to the researchers, the discovery highlights the need for dedicated surveys across the Eastern Ghats, where biodiversity has not been quantified too well
New snake species discovered in Gujarat
- News: Discovered a new snake genus and species in Gujarat
- Context: Snake genus has been named Wallaceophis in honour of the legendary 19th century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, considered the father of biogeography
- Relevance: Snake species has been named Gujaratenisis to commemorate the western Indian state where it was discovered
- Where? Wallaceophis Gujaratenisis is presently found in just seven localities of Gujarat and virtually nothing is known about its biology
- The find is one of the rarest of moments in the recent reptile history of India
Four extinct plant species rediscovered
- News: 4 species of Impatiens (Kasi Thumba) plants believed to have gone extinct were rediscovered from Western Ghats
- Where? Rediscovery made during explorations at Dhoni Hills of Palakkad and Nelliampathy, Kerala
- Rediscovered plants: Impatiens concinna, Impatiens sasidharanii, Impatiens neo-modesta , and Impatiens sasidharanii var hirsuta ,
- Significance: great medicinal values
- Found in: tropical Asian and African regions
- According to the researchers: Plants usually found 2,000 ft above sea level, are short-lived and will be seen only one quarter of a year
- Climate Change effect: It is possible that any slight change in weather could sound the death knell for these plants. They are so sensitive to climate
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