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Giri's geckoella (Cyrtodactylus varadgirii) is a species of gecko, a lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species is endemic to India.

The specific name, varadgirii, is in honour of Indian herpetologist Varad Giri.

This gecko is found in parts of western and central India. It is one of the most widely distributed members of this genus in India, occurring throughout most of the state of Maharashtra and parts of the states of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

This is nocturnal, insectivorous and terrestrial, living in dense leaf-litter on the forest floor.

Small for its genus, C. varadgirii may attain a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of 5.5 cm (2.2 in).

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369546506_New_distribution_records_of_two_uncommon_microhylid_frogs_Melanobatrachus_indicus_Beddome_1878_and_Mysticellus_franki_Garg_Biju_2019_from_Nelliyampathy_Kerala_India

This spider species was peer reviewed by Javed Ahmed and David Hill and a paper was published here: http://peckhamia.com/peckhamia/PECKHAMIA_204.1.pdf

This is first time that my name got mentioned in an peer-reviewed scientific article. Thanks to Chinmay for taking this up with curiosity and leading it to peer review. Otherwise this spider would have been erroneously considered as Portia fimbriata.

We had a gala time in seeing variety of biodiversity even though the place looked dry. We had also seen 3 White-browed Bulbuls busy in quarreling that they did not notice our presence. Two of them fell to the ground while fighting and they fell close to me and Jithesh that we could have touched them with our hands. And we had other good experiences while exploring there.

Regarding this discovering this spider, Chinmay had spotted a Trapdoor spider under log that covered ant hill(crazy black ants) . So while he was checking the ant hill carefully , I saw something running hurriedly. I pointed out to Chinmay to which he got excited and screamed "It's a Portia bro!" Then made it to settle on a large seed pod cover. We started photographing it. Everyone got to a chance it see it. Portia was skittish though. So while I was photographing(I took the last chance to photograph) it stayed for little while. Then it jumped off. We search frantically. But disappeared amongst the thick leaf litter below.

Facebook posts:

https://www.facebook.com/harshithjv1986/posts/10158457652794365

https://www.facebook.com/groups/154108581805633/permalink/622996294916857/ (- Chinmay's detailed post on a group)

Found this family of scorpions consisting of 1 adult and atleast-3-4 young individuals under a rock. I think they were in a symbiotic relationship with 3 individuals of White-bellied Pug-snout Frog. The scorpions protect the frogs from predators and the frogs protect the young from pests like ants.