In news
The Grasshopper Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is initiating the Red List Assessment of grasshoppers in India for the first time by the end of this year
Highlights
- The assessment will include a new species of grasshopper discovered recently in the Eravikulam National Park in Kerala’s Idukki district, Dhaneesh Bhaskar, regional vice chair for Asia.
- So far, none of the Indian grasshopper species have been listed in the Red Data Book.
- Most of the 1,033 known Indian grasshopper species were described by foreign researchers.
- The insects remain a neglected group.
- Red List Assessment of the grasshoppers of India will be started in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) on the border between Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.
- The Red List assessment of endemic grasshoppers of NBR would update their conservation status and kick off India’s grasshopper conservation activities
New species
- Wide-nosed pygmy grasshoppers (Cladonotinae: Cladonotini, Xerophyllini) of India and Sri Lanka
- The new species Tettilobus trishulahas been given the common name ‘Shiva’s pygmy trishula’ since it has protrusions on its pronotum that are shaped like the trident, the weapon of the Hindu deity, Shiva.
The Red List of Threatened Species, founded in 1964, is the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species.
Source: DTE
