Sri Lanka’s biodiversity is significantly important both in a regional and global scale. Sri Lanka has the highest species density (number of species present per 10,000 sq. km) for flowering plants, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals in the Asian region. The currently recognized statistics of the major plant and animal taxa that are treated in this book is given in the text. However, it should be noted that there are many other taxonomic groups in Sri Lanka that are excluded from this text due to lack of clear data on their current status