What’s in name? A lot when it’s Goa! - Herald

February 4, 2013 GERARD DE SOUZA PANJIM: It ‘s not just cars like the Hyundai Verna and the Mahindra Goa (the Mahindra Scorpio is called the Mahindra Goa in European markets) that share their names with villages within Goa or with the state itself, but crabs, amphibians, geckos too. All these have been bestowed a similar honour – that of being named after the state or villages where they have been found. After the first known case of Indian coolie loach, named Pangio goaensis, by the scientist Tilak, who discovered it in from the Colem River in Goa and chose to name it after the state, researchers have discovered a slew of species; they in return have chosen to honour the state in return by naming the species they discovered after it. As recently as 2010, National Institute of Oceanography and Goa University researchers chanced upon a species of crab while on a project assigned by the Ministry of Shipping through the NIO. The research is part of a Ballast Water Management Programme, India, executed by National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, for the director general (Shipping), Ministry of Shipping, Government of India. They later named it Charybdis goaensis, after the state. Earlier in 2007, researchers Gopalakrishna Bhatta, K P Dinesh, P Prashanth and Nirmal Kulkarni digging through the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary located in the Western Ghats of Sattari discovered and described two new species of caecilians (a kind of amphibian) and named them Gegeneophis goaensis and Gegeneophis mhadeiensis after the state and the Mhadei River, the source of the Mandovi. Caecilians are an order of amphibians that superficially resemble earthworms or snakes. They mostly live hidden in the ground, making them the least familiar order of amphibians. There is earlier history too of a gecko, the ‘Goan day gecko’ being given the name Cnemaspis goaensis and the case of Lysoma goaensis a species of skink, both discovered and described by the scientist R C Sharma in 1976. Besides there are species that have been found in the state but have been given other names like that of the Chorla Ghat striped Ichthyophis named Ichthyophis davidi which is named in honor of Dr. David Gower, Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum, London in recognition of his contributions to Indian caecilian studies. And we’re talking only of animals here. There are also species of plants, algae and fungi that have been discovered and named after the state. Nirmal Kulkarni, who was among the researchers who discovered the caecilian species, stressed the importance of biodiversity that the state throws up. “Just work over a few years has thrown up so many species. There is huge dearth of researchers and scientists who are needed to study these species and the many more species that are there hidden in these rich forests,” Kulkarni told a seminar on biodiversity recently. In his blog Kulkarni laments that the new species in Goa have been given a raw deal and lies in virtual obscurity out of the mainstream of knowledge of most, a situation he wants to change and soon. http://www.heraldgoa.in/News/Main%20Page%20News/What-rsquo-s-in-name-A-lot-when-it-rsquo-s-Goa/70315.html