New Species

Dr. Bill Shear is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biology at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. He talks to me about his paper published in the May 24 issue of the Zootaxa in which he and his coauthor describe three new genera and eighteen new species of millipedes from the US! We talk about the difference between millipedes and centipedes, the “poor man’s rainforest” in temperate leaf...

Dr. Noushka Reiter is a Senior Research Scientist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. She talks to me about her paper published in the May 13 issue of Phytotaxa in which she and her coauthors describe two new species of orchids from Australia! We talk about why orchids are so popular, gnats trying to have sex with flowers, why orchids need fungi to grow, how to get small...

Dr. Tom Giarla is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Siena College in Albany, NY. He talks to me about his paper published in the May issue of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society in which he and his coauthor describe two new species of semi-aquatic mice from Africa! We talk about catching semi-aquatic mice, a possibly extinct species from which he collected DNA, how to prepare a mammal...

Alireza Zamani is a Ph. D. candidate at the University of Turku in Finland. He talks to me about his paper published in ZooKeys on April 27 in which he and his coauthor describe 17 new species of ant spiders from Iran and Turkmenistan! We talk about names derived from the Persian language, collecting spiders in mine fields, names of new species derived from Persian and Kurdish history, and the ama...

Dr. Roberto Garibay-Orijel is a researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. He talks to me about his paper published in Phytotaxa on April 23 in which he and his coauthors describe a new species of elfin saddle cup fungus from high altitudes in central Mexico! We talk about edible mushrooms, the difficulties of identifying new species of mushrooms, where monarch butterflies hide dur...

Dr. Abel Batista is a researcher at the Universidad Autonoma de Chiriqui in Panama. He talks to me about his paper published in Zoological Research in which he describes a new species of harlequin toad! We talk about the challenges of finding these environmentally sensitive organisms, the dangers of field work in areas where “narcos” and armed guerilla fighters roam, we listen to the call of this...

Dr. Rebecca Godwin is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Piedmont University in Demorest, Georgia, USA. She talks to us about her paper published in ZooKeys in which she describes 33 new species of trapdoor spiders! We talk about flying tarantulas, the challenges of finding spiders that live underground behind a secret door, the reactions of people in university mailrooms to shipments sent to sp...

National Geographic Explorer Joe Martinez is a Ph. D. student in the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity in the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida. He talks to us about his paper published in ZooKeys in which he describes six new species of jaguar moths! We talk about why these are called “jaguar” moths, why do they fluoresce (they glow!) in UV light, and wh...

Joseph Schubert is the Legacy Registration Officer for Entomology and Arachnology at Museums Victoria in Australia. He talks to us about his paper published in Evolutionary Systematics in which he describes a new species of peacock spider! We talk about why these are called “peacock” spiders, how social media platforms like Facebook are helping find new species, and how to find and collect these i...

Dr. Bruce Patterson is the MacArthur Curator of Mammals at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. He talks to us about his paper published in the April issue of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society in which he and his coauthors describe two new genera and three new species of pipistrelle-like bats! We talk about the ecological importance of bats for pest control, how bats help ma...

Dr. Jade Savage is a Professor of Biology in the Department of Biological Sciences at Bishop’s University in Quebec, Canada. She talks to us about her recent paper published on March 15th in ZooKeys ! Dr. Savage and her coauthor, Dr. Vera Sorokina, described 4 new species of muscid flies! We talk about where these flies are found, how she determined that these were new species, how she chose names...

Episode 9: New Species—17 of them—of ant-like spiders from the Afrotropical region. Ruan Booysen is a Ph. D. student at Free State University in South Africa. He talks to us about his recent paper published on March 4th in Zootaxa ! Mr. Booysen and his coauthor, Dr. Charles Haddad, described 17 new species of ant-like spiders, including one with female reproductive structures that look like a smil...

Dr. Shahan Derkarabetian is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. He talks to us about his upcoming paper to be published in the next issue of Invertebrate Systematics ! Dr. Derkarabetian and his coauthors describe not only two new species, but each new species is in a new genus, and each genus is in a new f...

Dr. Doug Fudge, an Associate Professor in the Schmid College of Science and Technology at Chapman University where he heads the Comparative Biomaterials Lab, is our guest for this episode. He talks to us about his paper available as early access in the journal the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society . Dr. Fudge explains how to find and catch hagfish the important ecological roles of hagfishe...

Shasta Henry, a Ph. D. candidate in entomology in the Discipline of Geography and Spatial Science at the University of Tasmania, is my guest! We discuss the significance of the name given to this new species, why it took 79 years to give this new species a name, how they shoot defensive stuff from their butts, and the importance of cockroaches in natural environments! The title of the paper is “ P...

Our guest for this episode, Dr. Michael Sharkey, is a Professor Emeritus. He talks to us about his paper published February 2nd in ZooKeys wherein he describes 403—yes, 403!!!—new species of braconid parasitoid wasps from Costa Rica! Dr. Sharkey explains to us what a braconid wasp is, what a parasitoid is, how he and his coauthors could find 403 new species for a single paper, how to come up with...

Our guest for this episode, Dr. Rosemary 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 talks to us about her paper that will be published in the next issue of Invertebrate Systematics wherein she and her coauthors describe *eight...

Our guest for this episode, Dr. Adam Cossette, is a vertebrate paleontologist and an Assistant Professor of Anatomy working in the College of Osteopathic Medicine at the New York Institute of Technology in Jonesboro, Arkansas.  Dr. Cossette talks to us about his recent description of a 60 million year old fossil that is a new species of “alligator,” Bottosaurus fustidens . We talk about how t...

Our guest for this episode, Dr. Gonzalo Giribet, is an invertebrate biologist working at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, where he is Curator of Invertebrates and Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. Gonzalo is the first author of a recent paper about four new species of daddy long legs (also called harvestmen or opilionids) from New Caledonia! We learn that these harvest...

Our guest for this episode, Dr. Mark Scherz, is one of the authors of a recent paper about a new genus (!!) of tiny frogs, Nanohyla , from Southeast Asia, the "pygmy narrow-mouthed frogs."  We learn about these amazing frogs that are 10 - 15 millimeters (about a half inch) long, get to listen to the call of a possibly new species of frog, and talk with Dr. Scherz about how to decide that a ne...