Discovery of new species in India

 Context

• Recently, 499 new species have been discovered in India.
• Animal Discoveries 2016, New Species and Records, brought out by the Zoological Survey of India, and Plant Discoveries 2016, by the Botanical Survey of India revealed the fact.

Some Statistics on the New Species Discovered

• • 313 animal species and 186 plant species have been discovered.
  • India is one of the 17 mega-diversity countries and has nearly 6.42% of the global fauna.
  • Of the recently discovered animal species, 258 are invertebrates and 55 vertebrates.
  • Around 97 are insect species, 27 fish species, 12 species of amphibians, 10 species of Platyhelminthes, 9 of Crustacea and 6 of reptiles.
  • There are also 61 species of moths and butterflies and 38 species of beetles.
  • The new species were discovered in the four biological hotspots of the country viz. the Himalayas, the Northeast, the Western Ghats and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
  • For the first time number of animal species including protozoa crossed one lakh.
  • A large number of species has also been updated during the last year.
  • Along with 186 new plant species, seven new genera, four subspecies and nine new varieties have also been discovered.
  • The new plant species were mostly discovered in the Western Ghats (17%), followed by the Eastern Himalayas (15%), the Western Himalayas (13%), the Eastern Ghats (12%) and the west coast (8%).