Scientists have discovered Lestes paloti, a new species of spreadwing damselfly, in the Western Ghats of Kerala. It belongs to the family Lestidae of the order Odonata and is named after Dr. Muhamed Jafer Palot of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI). Recorded from six districts – Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Malappuram, Palakkad and Ernakulam – it lives on laterite hillocks and scrub vegetation. It changes colour with the season, looking brown in the dry season and bluish during the monsoon. The find comes 97 years after the last Lestes species was described from the Western Ghats and raises Kerala's odonate diversity to 192 species.