Abstract

This paper examines the biodiversity of animals in Kerala forests, particularly in terms of species diversity and function. Kerala forests is a subset of the Western Ghat forest which is known to be a megabiodiversity centre for plants. Since animal diversity is ultimately linked to plant diversity through the food chain, it can be expected to reflect the rich plant biodiversity. In fact, this is already evident from the presence of several endemic species of animals reffered to later, but there is severe dearth of information for many groups of animals. In general, the invertebrate animals of Kerala is very poorly known and the available literature is very widely scattered