New Species

How many nature enthusiasts can relate to this scenario: you’re watching the landscape go by as you drive, and suddenly you see an area that could be favorable habitat for your target species. Stop the car! That’s what Prakrit Jain did, and it helped him and his coauthors describe a new species of Paruroctonus scorpion from the San Joaquin Valley. So much makes this scorpion interesting, from the unique and at-risk habitat it occupies to the fascinating story of its description. Why describe new species? Prakrit says it best: “Because if this scorpion can get conservation attention then it doesn’t just save the scorpion it saves everything that lives alongside it, and that might be thousands of different species.” 

Prakrit Jain’s paper “A new species of alkali-sink Paruroctonus Werner, 1934 (Scorpiones, Vaejovidae) from California’s San Joaquin Valley” is in issue 1185 of Zookeys.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1185.103574

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Prakrit Jain - Transcript

New Species: Paruroctonus tulare

Episode image courtesy of Prakrit Jain

Follow Prakrit on Instagram: @bothrops_et_al 

Connect with Prakrit on iNaturalist: @prakrit 

iNaturalist records of this new species: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/192661164

News coverage of this species description: 

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/new-species-scorpion-california-san-joaquin-18537552.php

https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/47542/20231208/new-scorpion-sting-getting-pricked-cactus-discovered-california-desert.htm

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12837863/deadly-species-eight-legs-scalloped-pincers-California.html

Take the community survey: https://forms.gle/y7utvaRuxeCQVMJy9

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at [email protected]

If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

Southern Africa is home to over 1,200 species of irises, and if that number doesn’t blow you away, hearing Dr. John Manning’s speak about his new species certainly will. In this fascinating episode we are taken on a deep dive into Iridaceae’s stunning pollinator-driven diversity, evolution over millions of years and several continents, and the critical role of herbaria as the backbone of science past, present, and future. “They look static, and they look like dead plant specimens,” John says, “but they represent a great deal of life.”

Dr. John Manning’s Paper, “Moraea saxatilis, a new montane species from the Groot Winterhoek Wilderness Area of the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa” is in volume 165 of the South African journal of Botany.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2023.12.008

A transcript of this episode can be found here: John Manning - Transcript

New Species: Moraea saxatilis

Episode image courtesy of John Manning

Learn more about the Compton Herbarium here: 

https://www.sanbi.org/biodiversity/foundations/biosystematics-collections/compton-herbarium/

Learn more about the CREW program here: 

https://www.sanbi.org/biodiversity/building-knowledge/biodiversity-monitoring-assessment/custodians-of-rare-and-endangered-wildflowers-crew-programme/

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at [email protected]

If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

Dr. Catalina Romero-Ortiz has been fascinated by pseudoscorpions for over a decade, and she wants everyone to understand how amazing they are. But beyond inherent scientific value, Catalina wants to share the importance of taxonomy in and out of the lab. She says, “As scientists, all of us are called to- there are some things that don’t work, you know? I think we [hold] in our shoulders much of the social responsibility… we are agents of change. And we need it.”

In this episode, Catalina speaks with conviction about the role taxonomy plays in changing the world for the better. She and her coauthors name their new genus using the prefix ‘pax,’ meaning peace, to commemorate the Havana Peace Talks in 2012 which brought together participants in Colombia’s civil war with the goal of uniting towards a more peaceful future. 

Catalina Romero-Ortiz’s paper “A new genus and five new species of pseudoscorpions from Colombia” is in issue 1184 of Zookeys.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1184.106698

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Catalina Romero-Ortiz - Transcript

New Species: Cystowithius florezi, Parawithius bromelicola, Oligowithius achagua, Paciwithius valduparensis, Paciwithius chimbilacus

Episode image courtesy of Catalina Romero-Ortiz

Visit Catalina’s ResearchGate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Catalina-Romero-Ortiz

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at [email protected]

If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

What do glaciers and scorpions have in common? They’re the focus of Javier Blasco-Aróstegui’s paper in which he and his coauthor describe a new species from the foothills of Mount Olympus. It’s an area home to many legends, and also a surprising amount of biodiversity due to its unique topography. When a large-scale change in habitat restricts gene flow, it can result in species that are very different from their relatives and Javier has found one of those species. “Okay,” he remembers saying about the first specimen, “we’ve got something new and cool here.”

Javier Blasco-Aróstegui’s paper “Glacial Relicts? A New Scorpion from Mount Olympus, Greece” is in the November 9th issue of American Museum Novitates. 

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1206/4003.1

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Javier Blasco-Aróstegui - Transcript 

New Species: Euscorpius olympus

Episode image courtesy of Javier Blasco-Aróstegui

Follow Javier on Instagram: @javierblar

Or on Twitter: @jblascoarosteg

Check out his ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Javier-Blasco-Arostegui

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at [email protected]

If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

When researchers talk about species disappearing before we can discover them, they’re talking about species like Javier Lobon-Rovira’s new gecko. With a specific and rapidly fragmenting habitat, this species of Paroedura might have left the world as an unknown cryptic species.

“My goal in my life,” Javier tells us, “is not to describe new species… but when you describe new species and you put it on an evolutionary frame, you can provide the grounds to better understand how the species distributed in the space and in the time, and which factors that are involved have some implication in the diversification pattern of the species that is completely needed to keep the natural selection or the continued evolution of the species to survive.”

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback on episode length - this episode ended up being short and sweet, but in the future we will have longer episodes, closer to 45 minutes.

Javier Lobon-Rovira’s paper “Another step through the crux: a new microendemic rock-dwelling Paroedura (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from south-central Madagascar” is in volume 1181 of Zookeys.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1181.108134

New Species: Paroedura manongavato 

Episode image courtesy of Javier Lobon-Rovira

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Javier Lobon-Rovira - Transcript

Check out Javier’s amazing photography: www.javierlobonrovira.com

Follow Javier on Instagram: @javilbn_wildphotography

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

The island of Saint Helena can’t be described without the word special. It’s a small territory in the south Atlantic that is home to some of the most unique biodiversity in the world, including some extremely rare cloud forest spiders. An island full of spiders might not sound exciting for some, but to Danniella Sherwood it’s a dream! Listen in as Danni tells us all about the island and its history, the wolf spiders that find their home there, and the amazing community that supported and guided her work. 

Danni Sherwood’s paper “Saint Helenian wolf spiders, with description of two new genera and three new species (Araneae: Lycosidae)” is in volume 19 issue 5 of Arachnology. 

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.13156/arac.2023.19.5.816

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Danni Sherwood - Transcript

New Species: Molearachne sanctaehelenae, Dolocosa joshuai, Hogna veseyensis

Episode image courtesy of Danniella Sherwood

For more information on the FCDO funded Cloud Forest Project: https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/conservation/projects/st-helena-cloud-forest-project/

Follow the Saint Helena National Trust here:

https://www.facebook.com/SHnationaltrust/

https://www.twitter.com/Shnationaltrust

Follow the Species Recovery Trust:

https://www.facebook.com/TheSpeciesRecoveryTrust/

https://www.twitter.com/speciesrecovery

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at [email protected]

If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

On this podcast we talk a lot about natural history collections. In fact, a spot (or more) of collections work is pretty much required to describe a new species. But what actually counts as a natural history collection? How many are there in the world? And what happens to all of that juicy data waiting in the stacks to be worked on? Dr. Makenzie Mabry has some of those answers and more. We talk about all of the different types of information that can be associated with specimens, the different resources researchers and non-researchers can use to access it, as well as some of the strengths and challenges to the way we build, use, and share museum data.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

IDigBio - Integrated Digitized Biocollections, a platform for organizing, storing, and sharing specimen data

Symbiota - Platform aimed at helping smaller collections manage and distribute their data

GBIF - The Global Biodiversity Information Facility which acts as a network for distributing biodiversity data

Bionomia - A platform that links natural history specimens to their contributors

Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) - a group that develops data standards for collections in order to help in the sharing of knowledge and information

Makenzie’s publications can be found in journals including Plants People Planet, Journal of College Science Teaching, Plant and Cell Physiology, and PhytoKeys.

Follow her on twitter: @KenzieMabry

Or Instagram: @kenziemabry_phd

Makenzie’s website: makenziemabry.weebly.com

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Makenzie Mabry - Transcript

Check out our website: www.newspeciespodcast.net

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at [email protected]

If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

You’ve got to hand it to leaf insects; their camouflage is so well-refined that studying them is difficult and collecting them is near-impossible. A sub-group of stick insects, members of the family Phylliidae have evolved to leaf like the best of them, even going so far as to uptake leaf pigments to match their colors. In order to study these creatures, Royce Cumming had to visit and take loans from collections all over the world, looking at historic specimens often found only because a passing storm had knocked them out of the canopy. 

But Royce is not deterred. He and his coauthors are organizing and describing Phylliids in order to make studying them more approachable, and to help people better appreciate their uniqueness. Listen in as he describes identifying and reclassifying leaf insects, pulling us into their strange and beautiful world. 

Royce Cumming’s paper “On seven undescribed leaf insect species revealed within the recent “Tree of Leaves” (Phasmatodea, Phylliidae)” is in issue 1173 of Zookeys.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1173.104413

New Species: Phyllium iyadaon, Phyllium samarense, Phyllium ortizi, Pulchriphyllium heracles, Pulchriphyllium delislei, Pulchriphyllium bhaskarai, Pulchriphyllium anangu

Episode image was taken by Ashwin Viswanathan via iNaturalist and is used with permission by Royce Cumming

Follow Royce on Instagram: @RoyceCumming

Or check out his ResearchGate profile, where all of his work is shared open access: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Royce-Cumming

Check out this video on the phytochemical camouflage Royce talks about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JygVv3coRaU&t=1s

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Royce Cumming - Transcript

Further coverage of Royce and this paper:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/01/science/leaf-stick-insects-phyllium-asekiense.html

https://www.iflscience.com/these-7-new-species-of-leaf-insect-are-masters-of-cryptic-camouflage-70459?fbclid=IwAR2J4dMO9DUPiwVfecoyR9jQS5MS0KpAz3oUzvBPPDS67tsaFR9CawaNrKA

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/31/new-walking-leaf-insect-species-discovered-genetic-analysis?fbclid=IwAR2eUc8vKouQz4oV7Cmkg_Boj9gihStzxE8r6n3TlzjYlmMCdIySvPIxYg4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUymjLIPWUk

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at [email protected]

If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

Mysmenopsis is a tiny spider genus that has been shaped by women; women have collected, identified, and described the majority of members of the genus. In fact, Dr. Nadine Dupérré alone described 25 species, almost half of the genus’ known diversity. So it’s fitting, Cláudia Xavier explains, that her five new species are named after women, including Dupérré herself and Dr. Emilie Snethlage, whose position as director of the Museu Goeldi made her the first woman in South America to lead a scientific institution. 

Mysmenopsids are tiny, kleptoparasitic spiders found across the Americas, particularly in northern South America. They are cryptic, their small size making it difficult to observe them, never mind dissect and study them. But that’s just what Cláudia and her coauthors did. In this interview she shares what it’s like studying spiders smaller than an apple seed - the good, the bad, and the painful! In her writing both in and out of the museum, Cláudia hopes to demystify spiders and bring more attention to their diversity. 

Cláudia Xavier’s paper “On the symphytognathoid spider genus Mysmenopsis Simon, 1898 (Araneae: Mysmenidae) from the Brazilian Amazonian region: description of five new species and new records” is in issue 5219 off Zootaxa.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5319.1.4

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Cláudia Xavier - Transcript

New Species: Mysmenopsis rodriguesae, Mysmenopsis nadineae, Mysmenopsis snethlageae, Mysmenopsis lopardoae, Mysmenopsis regiae

Episode image courtesy of Cláudia Xavier

Follow Cláudia on Instagram or Twitter: @claudiia_xavier

Read Cláudia’s writing on Fauna News: https://faunanews.com.br/category/colunas/invertebrados/

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at [email protected]

If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreoNesticuscom/NewSpeciesPod

Grab your parkas, we’re going to Antarctica! Or at least some researchers did in the 1960s, but it took starfish expert Dr. Chris Mah until the past few years to take a look at their samples and find a new genus and eleven new species of starfish. And not just any starfish, starfish from the deep-sea. In a special guest introduction, Dr. Thom Lindley from our friends at the Deep-Sea Podcast explains what exactly “deep-sea” means, from the creatures that live there to the physics of water pressure at depths of thousands of meters. Learn about “the chonkiest of starfish,” Darth Vader’s character arc, and what happens when you mishandle pressurized fish gut contents on this episode of New Species Podcast. (Spoiler alert on the fish guts: they don’t stay in the fish).

Chris’ paper “New Genera, Species, and observations on the biology of Antarctic Valvatida (Asteroidea)” is in volume 5310 number 1 of Zootaxa. See the episode details for a link to the paper, and to learn more about Chris and his work, you can follow him on twitter, @echinoblog, or you can check out his blog which covers all things marine invertebrates at www.echinoblog.blogspot.com

A very special thanks to Dr. Thom Linley and the rest of the crew from the Deep-Sea podcast for the wonderful introduction to this episode. Please go give their podcast a listen, or check out their website https://www.armatusoceanic.com/podcast

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5310.1.1

Episode image courtesy of Chris Mah

The Smithsonian’s digital database: https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Chris Mah - Transcript

Check out our website: www.newspeciespodcast.net

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at [email protected]

If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod