WE READ WITH INTEREST THE REPORT “LOCAL endemism within the Western Ghats–Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot” by F. Bossuyt et al. (15 Oct. 2004, p. 479), which documents patterns of diversification in selected vertebrate and invertebrate lineages from Sri Lanka and the Western Ghats region of western India. Although these two areas have long been united as a single biogeographic unit (1), and more...

Tropical evergreen forests of Indian subcontinent, especially of the Western Ghats, are known hot spots of amphibian diversity, where many new anuran species await to be identified. Here we describe from the Sharavathi River basin of central Western Ghats a new shrub-frog taxon related to the anuran family Rhacophoridae. The new frog possesses the characteristic features of rhacophorids (dilate...

Species co-occurrence in ecological communities is thought to be influenced by multiple ecological and evolutionary processes, especially colonization and competition. However, effects of other interspecific interactions and evolutionary relationships are less explored. We examined evolutionary histories of community members and roles of mutualistic and parasitic interactions (Müllerian and Bat...

background: a study on the migration characteristics of 238u, 210po, 232th and 40k within the soil to the wild plants in the western ghats were carried out. materials and methods: concentrations of these radionuclides were measured in different depths of soil and from different species by employing gamma ray spectrometer and alpha counter. results: the activity concentration of these radionucli...

background: a field study on the transfer of primordial radionuclides 238u, 232th, 40k and fallout radionuclides 210po in different plant species in tropical forest of western ghats environment is presented. material and methods: the top storey, second storey, shrubs and epiphytic plant species were chosen and concentration of these radionuclides in plant and soil were measured by employing gam...

Genetic diversity of an endemic medicinal orchid, Coelogyne nervosa A. Rich. was investigated by using SDS-PAGE, RAPD markers and morphological characters. C. nervosa is growing as epiphyte as well as lithophytes in Eastern and Western Ghats of India. It is an important medicinal orchid showing antioxidant and anticancer properties. Leaf samples collected from these two reference sites were tak...

Kyasanur Forest disease (KFD), a tick-borne viral hemorrhagic fever, is endemic in five districts of Karnataka state, India. Recent reports of the spread of disease to neighboring districts of the Western Ghats, namely Chamarajanagar district in Karnataka, Nilgiri district in Tamil Nadu, Wayanad and Malappuram districts in Kerala, and Pali village in Goa are a cause for concern. Besides vaccina...

The status and distribution of Idionyx Hagen, 1867 (Odonata: Corduliidae), of the Western Ghats, India, is updated and a new species Idionyx gomantakensis is described and illustrated based on male and female specimens from Kulem (= Collem), Goa, India. This new species can be differentiated from other species of Idionyx by long and slender cerci and epiproct, absence of teeth in the basal half...

This article analyzes landscape pattern in the Western Ghats mountain ranges in southwestern India at two scales, comparing small-scale, detailed studies of landscape pattern, with broader, regional-scale assessments of the Western Ghats. Due in large part to their inaccessibility, relatively little is known about the landscapes of this biodiverse region, which also supports some of the highest...

In situ propagation of Elaeocarpus venustus Bedd. a threatened endemic tree of Agasthiamalai Biosphere Reserve, Western Ghats, India has been done.