The Western Ghats is one of the oldest mountain ranges in India, the Indian plate is estimated to have separated from Madagascar approximately 80 million years ago which was part of the Gondwana supercontinent (Gunnell and Harbor, 2008). The uplift of mountains in peninsular India is estimated to have occurred during the Neogene (23 –2.6 million years ago) (Radhakrishna, 1993) and this process may have led to lineage diversification in at least some organisms in the Western Ghats (e.g., Vijayakumar et al, 2016). The montane Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot has a rich endemic fauna (Srinivasulu et al, 2014; Vijayakumar et al, 2016). Geographical isolation of populations is likely a major cause of high speciation in this region. Such isolation could be caused by habitat fragmentation, climatic barriers and/or geographic changes (e.g., mountain uplift; rising seas). The high elevation (>1,400 m) shola grassland-forest mosaics in the Western Ghats are highly patchy, discontinuous ‘sky island’ habitats. They are rich in endemic biodiversity, and highly threatened by anthropogenic pressure (Robin & Nandini, 2012). The rainforests of India were much more widespread during the Palaeocene-early Eocene (ca. 57–66 Million years ago) and the southern Western Ghats is one of the main areas now harbouring remnant wet forests (Prasad et al, 2009). The southern Western Ghats are often defined as the mountains South of the lowland Palghat Gap (Pascal et al, 2004). In this study we consider all areas in the Nilgiri hills and South of this as the southern Western Ghats.