Indian government has released a information about the new species of Plants and Animals that has been found in last year.
Animal Discoveries, New Species and Records 2016 is booklet brought out by the Zoological Survey of India and Plant Discoveries 2016, by the Botanical Survey of India.
Of the new animal species, 258 are invertebrates and 55 vertebrates. As many as 97 species of insects, 27 of fish, 12 species of amphibians, 10 of Platyhelminthes, nine of Crustacea and six of reptiles have been discovered and described by the scientists. There are 61 species of moths and butterflies (order Lepidoptera) and 38 of beetles (Coloeptera).
Most of the new species were from the four biological hotspots of the country — the Himalayas, the Northeast, the Western Ghats and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Animal Discoveries 2016 says that for the first time, the number of animal species in the country, including protozoa, has crossed one lakh — 1,00,693 is the exact count.
Till last year, India was home to 97,514 species of animals.
India is one of the 17 megadiversity countries and it has about 6.42 per cent of the global fauna.
Plant Discoveries 2016 says that along with 186 new species, scientists have discovered seven new genera, four subspecies and nine new varieties from India, taking the number to 206. The publication lists 113 new records from India.
The geographical distribution of the new plant species reveals that most discoveries were made in the Western Ghats (17%), followed by the Eastern Himalayas (15%), the Western Himalayas (13%), the Eastern Ghats (12%) and the west coast (8%).
FULL LIST OF NEW PLANTS SPECIES IN INDIA
FULL LIST OF NEW ANIMAL SPECIES IN INDIA