New Species

Many parts of the world are celebrating all things spooky this time of year, and spiders are getting their time to shine. Whether you’re a spider lover or not, you have to admit that spiders have some stunning diversity and fascinating natural history.

To celebrate that, this is a re-release of an episode we originally published on February 9th of 2021. It’s a wonderful interview with Dr. Rosemary Gillespie who studies “Happy Face Spiders,” spiders from the Hawaiian Islands with unique colors and patterns. Dr. Gillespie is a professor of Environmental Science, Policy & Management, professor in the Division of Insect Biology, and Director of the Essig Museum of Entomology at the University of California - Berkeley. She and Brian, creator of the podcast, discuss why these spiders are called Happy Face spiders, how they got to Hawaii, and why they are important in the Hawaiian ecosystem.

Rosemary Gillespie’s paper “A happy family: systematic revision of the endemic Theridion spiders of the Hawaiian Islands” is in the January 5th 2021 edition of Invertebrate Systematics.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1071/IS20001

To learn more about Dr. Gillespie, follow her on Twitter @Berkeley_Evolab or Instagram @berkeley.evolab. You can also check out her website at  https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/rosemary-g-gillespie.

Follow the first author on the paper, Adrià Bellvert, on Twitter @AdriaBellvert, or follow the senior author, Dr. Miquel Arnedo, on Twitter @MiquelArnedo.

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

Mud snakes may not look as exciting as some of their other snake relatives, but in this episode Dr. Justin Bernstein tells us just a few of the fascinating details he and his team have uncovered while studying them. How do you compare the genetic makeup of snake populations? Why should you turn off your headlamp while collecting in Mangrove forests? Learn all of this and more as Justin tells us stories from his travels and helps us unravel the mysteries of these fantastic snakes.

Justin Bernstein’s paper “Undescribed Diversity in a Widespread, Common Group of Asian Mud Snakes (Serpentes: Homalopsidae: Hypsiscopus)” is in Volume 110, Issue 3 of Ichthyology and Herpetology.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1643/h2022015

New Species: Hypsiscopus murphyi

Episode image courtesy of Bryan Stuart

Follow Justin on twitter: @JustBernstein

And check out his website: https://justinbernstein.org/

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 heard of snakes in the genus Atractus? They’re the largest snake genus in the world, and recently they received three new members found in an unexpected place. In this episode, Alejandro Arteaga shares the story of how he and his team found three new species of fossorial snakes in the Andes mountains of Ecuador, and what this discovery has to say about the conservation of biodiversity in this unique region of the world.

Alejandro Arteaga’s paper “Leaving no stone unturned: three additional new species of Atractus ground snakes (Serpentes, Colubridae) from Ecuador discovered using a biogeographical approach” is in the September 15th issue of Zookeys.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1121.89539

New Species: Atractus discovery, Atractus zgap, and Atractus michaelsabini

Episode image courtesy of Alejandro Arteaga

For more coverage of Ale and his work, check out the Khamai foundation’s press release: https://www.khamai.bio/news/three_new_ground_snakes.html

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

New Species: Jakapil kaniukura

Facundo Riguetti’s paper “A new Cretaceous thyreophoran from Patagonia supports a South American lineage of armoured dinosaurs” is in the August 11th issue of Scientific Reports, volume 12 article 11621.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15535-6

New Species: Jakapil kaniukura (Riguetti, Apesteguía & Pereda-Suberbiola)

https://www.instagram.com/lautarorodriguezblanco/ (Lautaro Rodríguez Blanco; sculpture)  

https://www.instagram.com/paleogdy/ (Gabriel Díaz Yanten; 3D models and renders)

https://www.instagram.com/mauricio_alvarez_art/ (Mauricio Alvarez; illustration and skin of models)

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

 What's an ambrosia beetle? How do you go about finding one? Learn all of this and more as we interview Dr. Rachel Osborn of the A.J. Cook Arthropod Research Collection at Michigan State University. She'll take us on an adventure with a tribe of beetles about the size of a grain of rice, and reveal a newly-discovered clue to their evolutionary history.

Dr. Rachel Osborn’s paper “New Xyleborine (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) Genus With an Afrotropical-Neotropical Distribution” is in Volume 6, Issue 4 of Insect Systematics and Diversity. 

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixac016

New Species: Xenoxylebora pilosa, Xenoxylebora addenda, Xenoxylebora calculosa, Xenoxylebora hystricosa, Xenoxylebora serrata, and Xenoxylebora sulcata (Osborn, Smith & Cognato).

Episode Image courtesy of Rachel Osborn

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: https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

Dilian Georgiev is an Associate Professor in the department of Ecology and Environmental Protection at The Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv. In this episode, he tells Zoe about his recent paper in volume 44 of Historia naturalis bulgarica, in which he and his coauthors describe a new species of spring-snail from the Belasitsa Mountains in South-West Bulgaria. He describes spring-snail evolution, tells us some stories about caving, and shares some wise words about the importance of conservation.

The title of the paper is "Bythinella fabiae n. sp., a new spring-snail species (Gastropoda: Rissooidea) from the Belasitsa Mountains, South-West Bulgaria."

The paper can be found here: https://doi.org/10.48027/hnb.44.041

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

Dr. Derek Hennen works for the Virginia Department of Agriculture as the Slow the Spread Coordinator monitoring the spongy moth populations in the state. He talks to co-host Brian Patrick about his paper inthe April 15th issue of ZooKeys in which he and his coauthors describe 17 new species of millipedes from the eastern United States. We discuss this massive work on millipedes from eastern US, and particularly the group restricted to the Appalachians, how to find millipedes, and how a species named after Taylor Swift got its name!

The title of the paper is “A revision of the wilsoni species group in the millipede genus NannariaChamberlin, 1918 (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Xystodesmidae).” The paper is currently available here: https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/73485/

To learn more about Derek, follow him on Twitter, @derekhennen, or his millipede account, @DearMillipede.

Ricardo Bassini-Silva is an acarologist and post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Pathology at the Universidade Estadual Paulista in Saő Paulo, Brazil. In this episode, he tells us about the new genus of mites he and his coauthors have published in their recent paper in the April issue of the Journal of the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. We discuss the diversity of mites, the process of taxonomic reclassification, and the wonderful world of ectoparasitism.

The title of the paper is “A New Genus for Euschoengastia chisosensis Wrenn, Baccus, and Loomis, 1976 (Trombidiformes: Trombiculidae).” The paper is currently available here: https://doi.org/10.4289/0013-8797.123.4.693

To learn more about Ricardo Bassini-Silva and his work, follow him on instagram @RicardoBassini.

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies), like the podcast page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast), and music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom).

If you would like to support this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPodcast

Kaila Pearson just graduated with her Master’s from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. She’s here today to talk to me about her paper in the April 22nd issue of Zootaxa in which she and her coauthor describe three new species of deep sea vampire worms. We discuss how life exists without any sunlight, how to collect worms that are a mile (or two!) deep in the ocean, the difference between a deep ocean vent and a seep, why they’re called vampire worms, and how these species got their names!

The title of the paper is “Vampire Worms: A revision of Galapagomystides (Phyllodocidae, Annelida), with the description of three new species.” The paper is currently available here: https://www.mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.5128.4.1

To learn more about Kaila, follow her on Instagram, @kailacoconut.

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies), like the podcast page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast), and music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom).

If you would like to support this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPodcast

Brogan Pett is our guests and he talks about his recent paper in which he and his coauthor describe a new species of spider from Madagascar in the March 14th issue of Zootaxa. Brogan is a doctoral researcher in the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter in the UK. Additionally, Brogan serves as the research director of SpiDervERse, a workgroup of the Belgian nonprofit organization Biodiversity Inventory for Conservation (BINCO). We discuss these unique spiders, their less explored habitat, and the incredible undescribed diversity of this group of spiders in Madagascar!

The title of the paper is “A new species of Copa (Araneae: Corinnidae: Castianeirinae) from dry forests in the north west of Madagascar.” The paper is currently available here: https://www.mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.5115.2.7

To learn more about Brogan Pett, follow him on Twitter, @broganConBio, and follow the Biodiversity Inventory for Conservation (BINCO), @BINCOnpo.

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies), like the podcast page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast), and music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom).

If you would like to support this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPodcast

In this episode, Zoe interviews Germán Chávez, Associate Researcher at the Instituto Peruano de Herpetologia and the Centro de Ornitología y Biodiversidad in Lima, Peru. His newly described frog is in the paper “A needle in a haystack: Integrative taxonomy reveals the existence of a new small species of fossorial frog (Anura, Microhylidae, Synapturanus) from the vast lower Putumayo basin, Peru” in the February 16th issue of the Journal of Evolutionary Systematics. (Link: https://evolsyst.pensoft.net/article/80281/element/8/4930//).

Germán describes the special adaptations of fossorial frogs, the epic journey he and his team took to collect their first specimens, and how this special little frog was named by its community.

To learn more about Dr. Chávez and his work, follow his institutions on Twitter: Instituto Peruano de Herpetologia (@IPHperu) and the Centro de Ornitología y Biodiversidad in Lima (@PeruCORBIDIteam).

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies), like the podcast page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast), and music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom).

If you would like to support this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPodcast