KOCHI: “This one is special for me as we have named it after my mentor Dr PS Easa for his contributions towards wildlife research, conservation and management in the Western Ghats over the past four decades. Happy and proud to present Hemidactylus easai sp. nov,” posted herpetologist and photographer Sandeep Das, known for his works on endemic frogs, on his Facebook page on Saturday.
Sandeep and his colleagues are celebrating the discovery of a new large species of gecko of the genus Hemidactylus, which was discovered in Attapadi-Palakkad in the Western Ghats region in the state. “It is much larger than the ones seen in homes. We were looking for new amphibian reptiles and also the purple frog when we came upon this in a house,” he said.
