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26 Jul 2026ENVIRONMENT3 questions

Two New Spiders and the Quiet Work of Knowing India's Biodiversity

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Article summary

The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) documented two new spider species — Simonia lawbah from Meghalaya in the north-east and Hamataliwa papikonda from Andhra Pradesh — adding to the national record of India's fauna. The ZSI, headquartered in Kolkata and founded in 1916, is the premier national body for surveying and cataloguing the country's animal life, and each new description refines the inventory on which conservation, environmental clearance and biodiversity policy depend. Discoveries of small, cryptic organisms like spiders are routine but cumulatively important: they reveal how incompletely India's biodiversity is known, especially in richly diverse regions such as the north-east and the Western Ghats, and they strengthen India's documented claim over its genetic resources under the frameworks that govern access and benefit-sharing. The naming of species after their localities — lawbah and papikonda referencing places in Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh — also anchors the record geographically.

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recallTests whether you read the article and retained key facts.
1Q
applicationTests whether you can apply the concept to a new scenario.
1Q
analysisTests whether you can reason across multiple related facts.
1Q

Sample questions — answers revealed after test

ENVIRONMENTRecallEasy

Q1. Which one of the following correctly pairs a biodiversity hotspot in India with its location?

ASundaland — the Himalayan region.
BIndo-Burma — India's north-east, including Meghalaya.
CWestern Ghats — the Gangetic plains.
DHimalaya — the Nicobar Islands.
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ENVIRONMENTApplicationMedium

Q2. Why is the documentation of a species considered a precondition for its legal protection and for a country's claim over its genetic resources?

ABecause undocumented species are automatically owned by the country that first exports them.
BBecause a species not formally described is invisible to conservation and clearance processes, and access-and-benefit-sharing frameworks require resources to be identified and attributed.
CBecause documentation confers a patent on the species to the discovering scientist.
DBecause only documented species can be exported for commercial use.
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ENVIRONMENTAnalysisHard

Q3. Consider the following statements: 1. The Zoological Survey of India documents the country's fauna, while the Botanical Survey of India documents its flora. 2. That new species are still being described in regions like Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh indicates large gaps in India's biodiversity inventory. 3. Because India is a megadiverse country, its fauna has been almost completely documented, leaving little scope for new discoveries. Which of the statements given above are correct?

A1 and 2 only
B1 only
C2 and 3 only
D1, 2 and 3
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