Tetrastemma freyae [Image credits: Mohandhas S Vignesh]

In a recent study, researchers from Agharkar Research Institute, India, Harbin Normal University, China and the University of Colorado, USA, have described a new genus of diatoms called Kulikovskiyia. Diatoms belonging to this genus are currently found only in the Western Ghats of India and Hainan Province of China. The study, funded by the Science and Engineering Research Board, was published in the journal Phycological Research.

Researchers from the Zoological Survey of India describe a new species of bee Melitta indica from Uttarakhand, India

Researchers from the Natural History Museum, London, have uncovered the evolutionary links between the different species of centipedes dating back to Gondwana. 

Researchers from Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, Savitribai Phule Pune University, MES College of Arts, Commerce and Science, Bengaluru and the Centre for medicinal Plants Research, Kerala have described a new species of pipewort from the Western Ghats. They have named the new species Eriocaulon karaavalense, after the Kannada work karaavali (ಕರಾವಳಿ), which translates to ‘the coast’.

Researchers from NCBS, NHM, WII, Mizoram University, Pachunga University College, and IISc have documented a new genus and species of Natricine snake from Northeast India. 

Researchers from the Natural History Museum, London, Wayanad Wild, the Wildlife Institute of India, Nature, Environment and Wildlife Society, and the Zoological Survey of India discover a new species of vine snake Ahaetulla laudankia in Odisha, India.

The forests of the Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot of India, have been revealing several new species of amphibians and reptiles in the recent years. This time, however, amphibian researchers from the University of Delhi have discovered a new frog species which was hiding in plain sight in a roadside puddle in Southern India.

An international collaboration of researchers, including two from IISc Bengaluru, have described a new starry frog Astrobatrachus kurichiyana from the Western Ghats.

Over 8.7 million species are known to be found on Earth today, and many scientists believe that we have only scratched the surface.