Zoological Survey of India Describes Three New Rhysida Centipede Species from the Western Ghats

21 October 2026National

Researchers from the Zoological Survey of India's Western Ghats Regional Centre and Malabar Christian College, Kozhikode, described three new centipede species from Kerala and Karnataka in October 2026 — *Rhysida quadrispinosa*, *Rhysida coorgensis* and *Rhysida neyyarensis*. The findings, published in the International Journal of Tropical Insect Science, raise India's known Rhysida species count to 23. The discoveries add to a run of Western Ghats and Himalayan finds reported through 2026, including the new *Begonia neelamorum* species from Arunachal Pradesh, and reinforce the Western Ghats' standing as one of the world's eight 'hottest' biodiversity hotspots, already recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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The Zoological Survey of India was established in 1916 and is headquartered at Kolkata under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change | Centipedes belong to the class Chilopoda within the phylum Arthropoda and have one pair of legs per body segment | India has four biodiversity hotspots: the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, the Himalaya, Indo-Burma and Sundaland

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