New Species

Cedric Lee was collecting slugs with another diplopodologist James Bailey when they stumbled upon a very odd creature; thin and string-like with lots of fine legs and a long body. “We recognized that it might be something special,” explains Cedric as he shares how they uploaded the image to iNaturalist. Enter Dr. Paul Marek, who saw the pictures and immediately got in touch. After some collection and analysis, they have a new millipede to share, Illacme socal, one of only three species in genus Illacme, which is the only genus of the family Siphonorhinidae present in North America. Millipedes are critically understudied and there’s so much more for us to learn. Listen in as Paul and Cedric tell you all about diplopodology and their new discovery!

Cedric and Paul’s paper “A new species of Illacme from southern California (Siphonophorida, Siphonorhinidae)” is published in issue 1167 of Zookeys.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1167.102537

Watch a video of an individual of the new species burrowing here: https://vimeo.com/823446011?share=copy

New Species: Illacme socal 

Episode image courtesy of Paul Marek

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Paul Marek and Cedric Lee - Transcript 

You can find Cedric’s work on his inaturalist profile: https://www.inaturalist.org/people/cedric_lee

You can find Paul’s work on his university website: https://millipedes.ento.vt.edu/

Or on Twitter at @apheloria

A guide to myriapods by Paul Marek and WIlliam Shear: https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/113652/CURBIO.18835_PEM_28Oct22_VTWorks.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Check out our new 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

“I always say that insect taxonomists will never get really rich but you will see parts of the world where nobody else gets a chance to go to. It’s a great chance to explore the world”

This special episode with Dr. Robert Anderson of the Canadian Museum of Nature brings us across the globe and through several decades of research in a fascinating corner of the beetle world. Bob shares the origin story of his fascination with insects, how he became Major League Baseball’s official entomologist, and even a musical secret about the prolific carabid beetle expert George Ball. This interview is a reflection on nearly 4 decades of entomology, and you won’t want to miss a minute. 

Bob Anderson's papers can be found in Zookeys, Zootaxa, The Canadian Entomologist, and many other publications. Papers mentioned in this episode include:

A taxonomic monograph of the Middle American leaf-litter inhabiting weevil genus Theognete Champion (Coleoptera: Curculionidae; Molytinae; Lymantini)[2010 - Zookeys]: https://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2010/f/z02458p127f.pdf

A new species of Toxorhinus Lacordaire (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Dryophthorinae; Rhynchophorini) from Ecuador

[2023 - Zootaxa]: https://doi.org/10.11646/ZOOTAXA.5270.2.9

A revision of the North American genus Proctorus (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Ellescini) with descriptions of two new species

Coauthor: Jake H. Lewis

[2022 - Zookeys]: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1131.90392

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Bob Anderson - Transcript

Episode image courtesy of Bob Anderson. The weevil pictured is Cylindrocopturinus catherineae, the beautiful weevil he named after his wife

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

“Here in the South, our grasslands are where most of our, a huge part of our biodiversity are. And most people don't even know that we have natural grasslands in the Southeast…but they were some of the first things to be developed because they were already open. You didn't have to clear them…And so they were lost early on. And all we have now are these small little fragments. Within the last, I'll say seven years now, I've described close to 40 new species of grasshoppers, if we include these seven, from the southeast alone. And 34 of them, probably 35, are grassland inhabitants. So we almost, you know, we're in danger of losing all these species before we even knew they existed. Right here in our backyard in Eastern North America. You think, you know, oh, it's North America. We know, you know, most everything here. Well, we don't.”

In this episode, Dr. JoVonn Hill pulls us headfirst into the world of grasshopper research as he tells us about collecting in central Texas. He shares his thoughts on what accessibility in publications can look like, the unique role of scientific illustration, and advises us on the importance of an afternoon Dairy Queen break.

JoVonn’s paper “Diversification deep in the heart of Texas: seven new grasshopper species and establishment of the Melanoplus discolor species group (Orthoptera, Acrididae, Melanoplinae)” is in issue 1165 of Zookeys. 

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1165.104047

New Species:

Melanoplus nelsoni - Nelson’s pouncer

Melanoplus walkeri - Walker’s pouncer

Melanoplus susdentatus - Hog-toothed pouncer

Melanoplus balcones - Balcones pouncer

Melanoplus corniculatus - Antlered pouncer

Melanoplus comanche - Comanche pouncer

Melanoplus tonkawa - Tonkawa pouncer

Episode image courtesy of JoVonn Hill

Follow JoVonn on Twitter: @JoVonnH

Mississippi State Moth Photographers Group: https://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/

Grasshoppers of North America: Volume 1 and Volume 2

A transcript of this episode can be found here: JoVonn Hill - 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

Have you ever seen a series of fine squiggles in a leaf? Those might be leaf-mining moths in the genus Argyresthia. These tiny moths are closely linked with many agricultural crops, but factors including sampling bias and their small size mean we don’t know as much about them as we’d like. Jacob Gorneau and his team examined material from Guatemala and described three new species.

An insect-lover from childhood, Jacob has always been fascinated by moths, and these Argyresthia moths are no exception. They’re a small group both in number (with only 200 species) and in size (approximately 1/8th of an inch or smaller), but there’s a lot to learn about them, especially in relation to their host plants. Listen in as Jacob tells us all about his work, his future plans, and why we should care about these tiny animals. 

Jacob Gorneau’s paper “Three new species of the genus Argyresthia Hübner, [1825] from Guatemala, with notes on host plant evolution and Nearctic taxa (Lepidoptera: Argyresthiidae)” is in Volume 51 Issue 201 of SHILAP Revista de lepidopterología.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.57065/shilap.444

Another of Jacob’s papers mentioned in this episode - Measuring What We Don't Know: Biodiversity Catalogs Reveal Bias in Taxonomic Effort: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biac116

Take a look at Jacob’s website for spiders, scorpions, and more! https://jacobgorneau.github.io/

Jacob is also part of National Moth Week: https://nationalmothweek.org/

You can follow him on twitter: @jacobgorneau

Or instagram: @fortheloveofleps

New Species: Argyresthia quetzaltenangonella, Argyresthia guatemala, Argyresthia iridescentia

Episode image courtesy of Jacob Gorneau

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Jacob Gorneau - 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

When a scientist comes on the podcast, we always ask them how they named their new species. It’s a privilege that comes with a species description, and we’ve seen firsthand how different that answer can be. For some it’s a straightforward geographic name, for others it’s about morphology, and still others name after collectors, celebrities, or loved ones. Dr. Stefano Mammola wants to know why.

Beginning in 2020 he and a team of researchers from all over the world analyzed 48,464 etymologies across nearly 300 years to examine naming trends in spider taxonomy to answer the question, “what’s in a spider name?” They cite many different projects (including this podcast!) and, as Stefano shares in this interview, come across some real surprises along the way.

Stefano Mammola’s paper “Taxonomic practice, creativity, and fashion: What’s in a spider name?” is in the February 13th issue of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac097

A transcript of this conversation can be found here: Transcript - Stefano Mammola

Episode image courtesy of Stefano Mammola

Check out Stefano’s website: https://publications.cnr.it/authors/stefano.mammola

And his twitter: @stefanomammola1

Check out this data and more on the World Spider Catalog

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

Amanda Grunwald is fascinated by arthropods, by reptiles, pretty much anything that creeps or crawls. But what about the creatures that fly? Here we dive into her work on bats in the genus Pseudoromicia, simple-nosed bats that are relatively less known. She takes us from the mountains of Cameroon to a genetics lab in Chicago, and we discuss what responsible science looks like and why it’s important. 

A review of bats of the genus Pseudoromicia (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) with the description of a new species” is in volume 21 issue 1 of Systematics and Biodiversity.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1080/14772000.2022.2156002

Or open access here: http://ir-library.mmarau.ac.ke:8080/bitstream/handle/123456789/13562/A%20review%20of%20bats%20of%20the%20genus%20Pseudoromicia.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Amanda Grunwald - Transcript

New Species: Pseudoromicia mbamminkom

Episode art courtesy of Amanda Grunwald

To learn more about Amanda’s work, check out: batcon.org

Further reading on the topic of a more ethical taxonomic practice: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01460-w

Researchers mentioned in this episode: Dr. Eric Bakwo Fils, Dr. Patrick Atagana, and Frank Mayo https://www.researchgate.net/lab/Bakwo-Fils-Eric-Moise-Lab

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies), 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. Ángel Valdés has known since childhood that he would study sea slugs, and several years ago that dream took him to New Caledonia to work with a large international research team. While divers and other collectors swept the shoreline and beyond for marine life, Ángel diligently photographed every sea slug, including some unexpected finds. Were those hours worth it? Definitely, in part because he and his team have described seven new species of Nudibranchs, in the family Discodorididae. 

Nudibranchs, also known as sea slugs, are found all over the world. But what’s so special about these “cryptic” New Caledonian species, and what might they have to do with curing rare diseases? Learn all of this and more on this episode of New Species Podcast. 

Ángel Valdés’ paper “Seven new “cryptic” species of Discodorididae (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Nudibranchia) from New Caledonia” is in the March 7th issue of Zookeys.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1152.98258

New Species: Atagema kimberlyae, Atagema sobanovae, Jorunna daoulasi, Jorunna hervei, Rostanga poddubetskaiae, Sclerodoris faninozi, Sclerodoris dutertrei

Episode image courtesy of Ángel Valdés

Visit Ángel’s website: https://www.cpp.edu/faculty/aavaldes/index.shtml

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Ángel Valdés - 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

Muy a menudo, los científicos que entrevistamos en el podcast hablan inglés como su segundo, tercer o cuarto idioma. Y muchos de los oyentes también son multilingües. Me parece muy importante hacer que estas entrevistas sean accesibles en los idiomas que hablan los científicos, y estoy muy agradecida de que me hayan ayudado a grabar este episodio y espero hacer más de lo mismo en el futuro.

This episode is a Spanish translation of our previous interview with Cristian Pertegal. To listen to this conversation in English, please refer to the episode published April 4th, 2023.

Las arañas de trampilla son un misterio relativo para los aracnólogos: son un grupo pequeño que no es muy conocido a pesar de su coloración a menudo audaz y sus madrigueras únicas. Pero para Cristian Pertegal son una pasión y una fascinación, aunque en ocasiones también son un dolor literal. Escuche mientras Cristian comparte su amor por estas arañas, su morfología única, sus fascinantes trampillas y lo que pueden decirnos sobre nuestro mundo.

publicación de Cristian “Descripción de una nueva especie de araña trampera del sur de España, y nueva información sobre Nemesia uncinata (Araneae: Mygalomorphae: Nemesiidae)” es en el volumen 64, número 1 de Arachnology Letters.

Se puede encontrar aquí: https://doi.org/10.30963/aramit6401

Una transcripción de este episodio se puede encontrar aquí: Cristian Pertegal - Transcript

Imagen del episodio cortesía de Cristian Pertegal

Encontrar Cristian en instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cristianpertegal/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nemesidae.nemesia.7/

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cristian-Pertegal

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/entomologiaasturias

Asegúrese de seguir a New Species en (@PodcastSpecies), Instagram (@newspeciespodcast) y dale me gusta a la página del podcast en Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

Visita el sitio web: https://www.newspeciespodcast.net

Para obtener contenido adicional, suscríbase al podcast en Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

La música en este podcast es "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

Si tiene preguntas o comentarios sobre este podcast, envíenos un email a: [email protected]

Where there is a unique ecosystem to be studied, for example, a patch of tropical evergreen forest 1,000 meters up a mountain, sometimes it’s best to be pushy. Michael Curran had done his master’s research in altitudinal patterns and species richness in rural Mozambique, and when he heard about an expedition back to the area, he wrote to the researcher in charge and asked them to let him come along and catch a few bats. That risk certainly paid off, because he and his coauthors have now described a brand new species of Rhinolophid, or horseshoe bat.

Bats are mysterious creatures of mind-boggling diversity and beauty, and ecosystems like Mount Namuli hold just as much of both. Learn about all of this and more as Michael takes us on his journey of collection and description, and discover the unique story these bats have to tell. 

Michael Curran’s paper “A new species of horseshoe bat (Chiroptera: Rhinolophidae) from Mount Namuli, Mozambique” is in Volume 24, Issue 1 of Acta Chiropterologica.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3161/15081109ACC2022.24.1.002

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Michael Curran - Transcript

Listen to this episode on our website: www.newspeciespodcast.net

New Species: Rhinolophus namuli

Episode image courtesy of Michael Curran

See some more amazing photos of bats from Michael and his team: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/rare-african-bats

Check out Michael’s website: https://www.fibl.org/en/about-us/team/curran-michael

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies), 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

Trapdoor spiders are a relative mystery to arachnologists - they’re a small group that is not well known despite their often bold coloration and their unique burrows. But for Cristian Pertegal they are a passion and a fascination, even if they are occasionally also a literal pain. Listen in as Cristian shares his love for these spiders, their unique morphology, their fascinating trapdoors, and what they can tell us about our world. 

Cristian Pertegal’s paper “Description of a new trapdoor spider species, Nemesia amicitia spec. nov., from southern Spain, and new information on Nemesia uncinata (Araneae: Mygalomorphae: Nemesiidae)” is in Volume 64 Issue 1 of Arachnology Letters.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.30963/aramit6401

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Cristian Pertegal - Transcript

New Species: Nemesia amicitia

Episode image courtesy of Cristian Pertegal

Follow Cristian on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cristianpertegal/

And on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nemesidae.nemesia.7/

Or ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cristian-Pertegal

And also on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/entomologiaasturias

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

Check out our website: https://www.newspeciespodcast.net

For bonus content, subscribe to the podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

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]