The native distribution of the small labyrinth fish species Pseudosphromenus cupanus includes southern India and Sri Lanka. According to literature it has a range including also Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Indonesia (Sumatra) but there are no voucher specimens or reliable observations from those areas. The distribution record of P. cupanus was inflated partly by including P. da...

Three new species of the ant-eating spider genus Hermippus Simon, 1893, H. globosus sp. nov., H. inflexus sp. nov. and H. gavi sp. nov. are described and illustrated from the Western Ghats in the Kerala region of southern India. The genus is redefined and two species groups are recognized: the cruciatus-group with all the five described Oriental species including H. cruciatus Simon, 1905, H. ar...

An erosional landscape characterized the Western Ghats in the Deccan Volcanic Province of India. The upland region shows the absence of sedimentological records for the stratigraphic period from post-Eocene to prePleistocene, except laterites which are extensively developed. The absence of any sedimentological records, therefore, has put severe constraint on the reconstruction of the Tertiary h...

Sixteen Piper species, including P. nigrum, have been collected from the 483 sites, majority from Western Ghats and maintained at the Indian Institute of Spices Research, Calicut. Fifteen qualitative morphological characters of 16 wild species of southern India were studied and plotted for the hierarchical clustering, using SPSS software. The cluster groups were compared using BIOCLIM model of ...

Janakia arayalpatra (Periplocaceae) known to the local kani tribe as 'Amruthapala' is a rare and endemic wild plant species of southern forested region of Western Ghats. The medicinal value of this plant as a potential drug was reported by the authors earlier (on the basis of the information collected from the Kani tribe). Preliminary ethnopharmacological investigation of the plant showed promi...

A long-term survey (1990-2000) of pollination modes of 86 tree species was carried out at Kakachi, a mid-elevation wet forest site in southern Western Ghats, India. Observations were made on 86 tree species. This comprises 80% of the total arborescent species present in the site. Approximately 75% of these species were specialized to a single pollinator group such as bee, beetle, or moth. Polli...

Piper nigrum leaves were collected from five locations from Kerala within a radius of 150 km, altitudinal variance of 1000m and annual rainfall variance of 1400mm. The extracted Piper nigrum leaf oil was profiled using a GC-MS, Beta Caryophyllene was the only constituent that was present in all the five locations, of which the highest concentration was noted in the high altitude region of Idukk...

Piper nigrum leaves were collected from five locations from Kerala within a radius of 150 km, altitudinal variance of 1000m and annual rainfall variance of 1400mm. The extracted Piper nigrum leaf oil was profiled using a GC-MS, Beta Caryophyllene was the only constituent that was present in all the five locations, of which the highest concentration was noted in the high altitude region of Idukk...

Piper nigrum leaves were collected from five locations from Kerala within a radius of 150 km, altitudinal variance of 1000m and annual rainfall variance of 1400mm. The extracted Piper nigrum leaf oil was profiled using a GC-MS, Beta Caryophyllene was the only constituent that was present in all the five locations, of which the highest concentration was noted in the high altitude region of Idukk...

Piper nigrum leaves were collected from five locations from Kerala within a radius of 150 km, altitudinal variance of 1000m and annual rainfall variance of 1400mm. The extracted Piper nigrum leaf oil was profiled using a GC-MS, Beta Caryophyllene was the only constituent that was present in all the five locations, of which the highest concentration was noted in the high altitude region of Idukk...