The beta release of an innovative collaborative stand-alone authoring tool transforms manuscript preparation with semantic enrichment and real-time collaboration capabilities.
Scholarly publisher and technology provider Pensoft Publishers announces the beta launch of ORPHO, a revolutionary online platform designed to streamline collaborative scientific writing and produce AI-ready, future-proof scholarly literature.
ORPHO presents a significant advancement in scholarly publishing technology, combining intuitive writing features with sophisticated semantic enrichment capabilities. The new platform builds upon Pensoft’s fifteen years of experience as a developer of semantic publishing infrastructure.
Key Features
Within a shared online workspace, researchers can start with built-in customisable templates, create their own or import an existing file. They can then team up with collaborators in real time using track changes, role-based user rights, inline comments, and document-level chat. More significantly, ORPHO automatically structures scientific content according to international publishing standards, making research outputs findable, discoverable, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) once published.
Unlike its predecessor, the ARPHA Writing Tool, ORPHO is available as a standalone real-time collaborative workspace decoupled from journals hosted on Pensoft’s ARPHA Publishing Platform. Once a manuscript is ready, authors receive AI-FAIR machine-readable content that can be formatted to meet multiple journal requirements at the click of a button.
The platform’s adaptability to domain-specific workflows is currently being piloted in biodiversity science. ORPHO integrates seamlessly with leading biodiversity data aggregators, including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) and PlutoF, via import and export facilities for structured data, making ORPHO particularly valuable for researchers handling taxonomic, ecological and biodiversity data.
ORPHO: A new intelligent workspace for scientific writing.
Why ORPHO?
The name draws inspiration from multiple sources which reflect the tool’s philosophy and heritage. Named after Orphium: a unique plant genus endemic to South Africa whose sole species (Orphium frutescens) is known as the sea rose, ORPHO reflects the platform’s distinctive nature, heritage, and core philosophy.
It also evokes Orpheus, the legendary musician of ancient Thrace whose home region, the Rhodopi Mountains, lies in present-day Bulgaria, where ORPHO’s developer, Pensoft, is headquartered. The name thus honours the tool’s origins whilst embodying the exceptional creative performance it enables.
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Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev, founder and CEO of Pensoft, comments:
“We are well aware that researchers today face an overwhelming list of formatting requirements and technical demands in an AI-driven landscape. It is true that rapid technological advancement presents both immense opportunities and mounting complexities for researchers.
We built ORPHO to remove that friction by offering an intuitive, collaborative workspace that lets scientists focus on their research. As a scientific publisher, our mission is to make scholarly publishing a seamless, rewarding experience fit for the modern age.”
The beta release invites researchers, institutions and publishing platforms to trial ORPHO and provide feedback. Access is available at orpho.net.
The 4th BioSyst.EU meeting took place in Uppsala, Sweden, from 17 to 19 August 2026, organised by the Swedish Systematics Association, in collaboration with Uppsala University.
The 4th BioSyst.EU meeting took place in Uppsala, Sweden, from 17 to 19 August 2026, organised by the Swedish Systematics Association, in collaboration with Uppsala University. For three days, the conference brought together European systematists to celebrate the discipline in the very city where it was born, home to Carl Linnaeus and the foundations of modern taxonomy.
BioSyst.EU exists to give individual scientists across Europe a shared platform, working through their national and regional societies rather than institutions. It sits alongside the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF), which represents natural history institutions, and together the two bodies aim to strengthen systematic biology, phylogenetics and biodiversity research across the continent.
This year’s programme combined talks, workshops and symposia with visits to historical sites connected to Linnaeus. The main event was preceded by an early career meeting on Sunday 16 August, which gave students and early career researchers a chance to connect before the conference proper began.
Pensoft were delighted to attend with our own booth, where colleagues came to chat about our publishing services, from manuscript to final publication, as well as our tools for managing and publishing taxonomic and biodiversity data.
Pensoft’s booth at BioSyst.EU, 2026.
It was a great opportunity to introduce our journal portfolio – more than half of which comprises taxonomy and systematics titles – to old friends and new faces alike, including titles such as:
ZooKeys– one of the world’s leading journals for zoological taxonomy and biodiversity research, publishing new species descriptions and revisions across the animal kingdom
MycoKeys– dedicated to fungal systematics, taxonomy and biodiversity, supporting mycologists with rapid, richly illustrated publishing
PhytoKeys– focused on plant systematics and biodiversity, covering everything from single species descriptions to large-scale floristic studies
Metabarcoding and Metagenomics (MBMG) – a journal built around the fast-growing field of DNA-based biodiversity assessment, from environmental DNA to large-scale metagenomic surveys
Zoosystematics and Evolution – published with the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, covering zoological systematics, morphology and evolutionary biology
Pensoft’s journal portfolio comprising taxonomy and systematics titles.
It was also a pleasure to meet some of our authors, reviewers and subject editors at the booth!
Alice Petzold – subject editor in Natural History Collections and Museomics.
Oleksandr Holovachov – author in Biodiversity Data Journal, and Metabarcoding and Metagenomics.
Oleksandr Ordynets – author and reviewer for Biodiversity Data Journal, MycoKeys, and Plant Ecology and Evolution.
Viktor Hartung – subject editor for Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift.
Conference presentation highlights
One of the undoubted highlights of the conference was the keynote talk by Sandra Knapp, editor-in-chief of PhytoKeys, titled Taming the beasts: strategies for studying megadiversity. Knapp tackled the question: what do we do with genera that contain more than a thousand species?
She subsequently made the case that studying genera properly, from geography to identification, pays dividends for both collaborative science and our understanding of evolution.
Sandra Knapp at Pensoft’s booth.
Sandra Knapp’s presentation at BioSyst.EU 2026.
Another highlight was the keynote lecture by Paul Hebert, Chair of the MBMG Advisory Board: The End Game – All Species & Their Interactions. Hebert reflected on the tens of millions of multicellular species we share the planet with, most still undescribed and many at risk of disappearing before they are even documented.
Paul Hebert’s presentation at BioSyst.EU 2026.
Among the other talks we attended was by one of our long-time partners, Olaf Banki, on the Catalogue of Life: taxonomic data services and infrastructure for all. Olaf reflected on the initiative’s evolution, from its origins thirty years ago to today, where the Catalogue of Life now serves as the taxonomic reference underpinning close to 4 billion species occurrences mediated through GBIF.
He gave a valuable overview of where the initiative stands: what it offers different user groups, including taxonomists and data infrastructures, where taxonomic data gaps remain, and how the community can contribute going forward.
Olaf Banki’s presentation at BioSyst.EU 2026.
Notably, Pensoft’s journals are integrated with Catalogue of Life to help list the species of the world. You can find out more about this initiative by accessing the following blog post.
A final highlight was Alexander Edwards’ presentation, titled Where Were You Yesterday? Interrogating Floral Constancy in Bumble Bee Workers Using Pollen Metabarcoding. Edwards presented work using ITS2 pollen metabarcoding to study the foraging behaviour of individually marked Bombus terrestris workers in a semi-natural university garden, sampling pollen non-lethally from returning foragers over several days.
Alexander Edwards’ presentation at BioSyst.EU 2026.
Award winners
And a massive congratulations to all our award winners! In the Best Student Poster category, first prize went to Giada Spagliardi of the University of Toronto for her poster Finding depth at the surface: museomics and species boundaries of bubble-rafting gastropods, while the runner-up prize was awarded to Hannah Cremer of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, Frankfurt, for Long Hidden in Tubes: First Steps Towards Resolving the Filograna/Salmacina Complex (Serpulidae).
In the Best Student Talk category, first prize was awarded to Alexander Edwards of the University of Kassel for his talk Where Were You Yesterday? Interrogating Floral Constancy in Bumble Bee Workers Using Pollen Metabarcoding, with the runner-up prize going to Tina Kiedaisch of the University of Munich (LMU) for Intercontinental dispersal, ecological shifts and repeated origins of C4 photosynthesis shaped the evolution of Amaranthaceae s.s..
The awardees at BioSys.EU 2026.
An excursion to Linnaeus’ Hammarby
On 20 August, participants also had the option to join an excursion to Hammarby, Linnaeus’ summer house just outside Uppsala. It is a rare chance to step inside an authentic 18th century Swedish manor that reveals both the private life of Linnaeus and the scientific work he carried out there!
Pensoft notably visited the University of Uppsala Botanical Garden, also known as the Linnaean Garden, where Olof Rudbeck the Elder and Carl von Linnaeus worked:
The Linnaean Garden, 2026.
Until next time
The 4th BioSyst.EU meeting was a fitting tribute to the roots of systematics, held in the city where the discipline effectively began. From megadiverse genera to pollen metabarcoding and the future of biodiversity monitoring, the talks reflected how dynamic the field remains. We were delighted to be part of it, and to spend three days connecting with the scientific community. We look forward to the next BioSyst.EU meeting!
Catching up with Michael Schmitt at Pensoft’s booth – our subject editor for Zookeys and Arthropods systematics and phylogeny.
Researchers at the University of Idaho have identified a new species of spider in the mountains of northern Idaho and given it a name that pays tribute to the university itself: Hexura vandal.
Researchers at the University of Idaho have identified a new species of spider in the mountains of northern Idaho and given it a name that pays tribute to the university itself: Hexura vandal.
The spider belongs to a small group of funnel-web spiders related to tarantulas. Until now, only two species in this genus were known, both living hundreds of miles away in the coastal forests and mountains of Oregon and Washington.
Finding a third species so far inland, in the Rocky Mountains near the town of Kooskia, came as a surprise to the research team, led by Arnau Calatayud-Mascarell, Ethan J. Briggs and Chris A. Hamilton. It extends the known range of the genus by roughly 500 kilometres and is the first new taxonomic work done on this group of spiders in almost fifty years.
Distribution and habitat of Hexura spiders including new records, records from iNaturalist, Gertsch and Platnick (1979), and The Burke Museum of Natural History in Seattle, Washington. Blue = H. picea, Pink = H. rothi, Yellow = H. vandal.
Associate Professor Dr. Chris A. Hamilton stated:
“It’s always exciting when you realize the samples you’ve been looking at are an undescribed new species. This is one of the main reasons we do this job – to document Earth’s incredible biodiversity and expand our foundational biological knowledge of our planet. It just makes it even more exciting when that undescribed diversity can be found in your backyard (figuratively speaking).”
The name is where the story becomes especially local. Rather than a Latin descriptor, the researchers chose “vandal”, which is a direct nod to the university’s own mascot. The nickname dates back to 1917, when student journalist Harry Lloyd McCarty described the men’s basketball team’s fierce style of play as “vandalizing” their opponents. The name stuck, and the University of Idaho remains the only Division I university in the United States with the Vandals as its mascot.
Hexura vandal sp. nov. female (L) and male (R). Credit: Arnau Calatayud-Mascarell et al., (2026).
When discussing how the name was picked, Hamilton said:
“It didn’t take very long for the lab to sit down and decide what to name the new species. It was basically, this is really unique because it’s only found in Idaho and it’s not very far (relative) from campus. It’s black (sorry that it’s not black and gold like the school colors!). It’s a predator that attacks. It’s a Vandal.”
The discovery comes with a note of caution. Hexura vandal has so far only been found in a handful of sites within a very small area of forest in Idaho, despite repeated searches nearby. The region faces pressure from logging, and wildfires, which are becoming more frequent, and tend to strike during the spiders’ breeding season. Taken together, these factors have led the researchers to consider the micro-endemic species likely endangered, and they hope the discovery will help build the case for protecting its habitat.
University of Idaho, home of the Vandals, is Idaho’s land-grant university and the state’s first Carnegie R1 research institution — a ranking reserved for the top 4% of U.S. universities. From its residential campus in Moscow, U of I serves the state through centers in Boise, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Falls and McCall, nine research and Extension centers, and Extension offices in 42 counties. With more than 12,000 students, U of I is a leader in student-centered experiential learning, interdisciplinary research, business and community service and global outreach. The Vandals compete as a founding member of the Big Sky Conference and as an affiliate in the Big West and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
Pensoft is an independent, open-access scholarly publisher and technology provider, best known for its 30+ biodiversity journals, including ZooKeys, Biodiversity Data Journal, PhytoKeys, MycoKeys, One Ecosystem, and Metabarcoding and Metagenomics. Ever since becoming the first to introduce semantic enrichments and hyperlinks within a scientific article in the field of biodiversity in 2010, Pensoft has been working on various tools and workflows designed to facilitate data findability, accessibility, discoverability and interoperability.
Cover image:
Top: US Highway 12, near Hexura vandal sp. nov. type locality, Apgar Campgrounds, Lowell, Idaho.; Bottom: Mixed conifer forest logs, Hexura vandal sp. nov. type locality, Apgar Campgrounds, Lowell, Idaho
Original source:
Calatayud-Mascarell A, Briggs EJ, Hamilton CA (2026) Hidden in the woods: A new species of Hexura (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Antrodiaetidae) from a highly restricted range in Idaho. ZooKeys 1290: 339–355. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1290.200898
A researcher from the University of North Carolina Asheville has drawn on 20 years of collaborative fieldwork to create a single illustrated reference for scientists, conservationists and nature enthusiasts.
A researcher from the University of North Carolina Asheville has published the first comprehensive checklist of the native terrestrial reptiles of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), drawing on 20 years of collaborative fieldwork to create a single illustrated reference for scientists, conservationists and nature enthusiasts.
The study, led by Professor R. Graham Reynolds of UNC Asheville’s Department of Biology, is published in the open-access journal ZooKeys. It documents the 11 native reptile species across the archipelago’s Turks and Caicos Banks, eight of which are found nowhere else on Earth.
Two further species are represented in the islands by their own endemic subspecies. The checklist combines published research through 2026 with original field data collected by Dr Reynolds between 2006 and 2025, and includes original photographs, distribution information and conservation assessments for every species.
An adult male Turks and Caicos Anole (Anolis scriptus scriptus) watching his territory from the trunk of a tree. Big Ambergris Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands. Photograph by R. Graham Reynolds, UNC Asheville.
Dr Reynolds began studying the islands’ reptiles in 2006, in his first year of graduate school, working alongside Dr Glenn Gerber of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance:
“This quickly turned into a passion, and I have made studying these animals the focus of my career.
I conduct fieldwork several times a year on the islands, and this year is the 20th year of this work. In that time, I have published dozens of papers on the reptiles of the region and collected a huge amount of data, and I felt that, after two decades, it was time to produce something to showcase everything we’ve learned about these animals.”
Although information on the islands’ reptiles has existed scattered across books, online databases and journal articles, no single resource has previously combined photographs, distribution maps, natural history and conservation status for every species.
“Somewhat surprisingly, there has never been a comprehensive checklist for the terrestrial reptiles of the region.
“Portions of this are available elsewhere, such as distribution maps and some photographs on the online database CaribHerp, or island checklists and natural history information in a book chapter. But this is the first time that all of this information has been brought together to fully describe and illustrate the amazing terrestrial reptiles of the Turks and Caicos.”
Dr Reynolds
Seven of the 11 native species are of conservation concern. The Turks Island Skink is Critically Endangered and may now survive as a single protected population, while the Turks and Caicos Iguana, classified as Endangered, has been lost from around 90% of its historical range. Introduced predators, particularly feral cats and rats, are identified as the main cause of these declines, alongside habitat loss and road mortality.
An adult male Turks and Caicos Curlytail (Leiocephalus psammodromus apocrinus) perches on top of a Turks cap Cactus (Melocactus intortus). Big Ambergris Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands. Photograph by R. Graham Reynolds, UNC Asheville.
The study also revises the taxonomy of the Curly-tailed Lizard, recommending that six previously recognised subspecies be reduced to two, reflecting recent genetic evidence.
Original source
Reynolds RG (2026) An annotated checklist and species accounts of the native terrestrial reptiles of the Turks and Caicos Islands. ZooKeys 1290: 1-33. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1290.198843
For more articles on zoology, visit the ZooKeys website and follow the journal on BlueSky and Facebook.
New research expands the knowledge on chalcid wasps in Cyprus, with five new species described from the island. One was named after the Greek goddess Aphrodite.
Scientists have described five new species of parasitoid wasp from Cyprus, more than doubling the number of chalcid wasps known to be found nowhere else on the island. The wasps, all belonging to the family Pteromalidae, are small insects that play an important role as natural pest controllers, yet remain poorly studied across much of Southeastern Europe and the Middle East.
“Before the start of this study, our knowledge regarding the chalcid wasp fauna of the Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area (SBA) and the rest of the island of Cyprus was extremely limited,” said Koutsoukos.
Chalcid wasps comprise a hyperdiverse group of insects that serve as biological controllers both in natural and manmade ecosystems, and as such it is crucial to enrich our knowledge, towards understanding their true extend of biodiversity, ecology, and their role in the various trophic webs they participate across different ecosystems.
Ablaxia makrisi, photo credit to Evangelos Koutsoukos.
Erythromalus makrisi, photo credit to Evangelos Koutsoukos.
“Each of the five new species was named with a story behind it. Two of the species [Ablaxia makrisi and Erythromalus makrisi] were named after Mr. Christodoulos Makris, prominent Cypriot entomologist, for his contributions on the Cypriot biodiversity, and for collecting the holotypes of these two species,” Koutsoukos explained.
Hemitrichusakrotiriensis. Photo credit to Evangelos Koutsoukos.
Hemitrichus akrotiriensis takes its name from the Akrotiri peninsula, described by Koutsoukos as “a protected area and one the greatest biodiversity hotspots in Cyprus, where the holotype was also collected from.” Another species, Ablaxia toxeftrae, was named after Toxeftra beach in the Akamas peninsula, where its holotype was found.
The final species carries perhaps the most evocative name of all:
Janssoniella aphrodite was named after the Greek Ancient Goddess Aphroditi, since the holotype of this species was collected in Yeroskipou area of Paphos, where the Goddess was worshipped during ancient times.
said Koutsoukos
Janssoniella aphrodite. Photo credit to Mircea-Dan Mitroiu.
Janssoniella aphrodite, Head, frontal view. Photo credit to Mircea-Dan Mitroiu.
Janssoniella aphrodite, fore wing. Photo credit to Mircea-Dan Mitroiu.
Before this study, only three chalcid wasp species were known to be unique to Cyprus. “Our collecting efforts yielded many more interesting specimens, which might represent new species as well,” said Koutsoukos, “and as such it is evident that these numbers are an underestimation of the true biodiversity of the island.”
“The outcomes of this project will contribute towards the enrichment of our knowledge of the biodiversity, not only of the island of Cyprus and the U.K. SBAs, but the whole region’s as well,” Koutsoukos said.
Original study:
Koutsoukos E, Mitroiu M-D (2026) Enriching inventories of rare genera: five new species of Pteromalidae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) from Cyprus. ZooKeys 1286: 1-16. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1286.196157
Researchers have discovered a new genus and species of underground earthworm eel living beneath the Indo-Gangetic Plain in Bihar, northern India. The small, colourless creature, named Gangaichthys indonepalicus, is the first subterranean fish to be recorded from the Gangetic Basin.
Close-up of Gangaichthys indonepalicus. Image credit: Ishan Agarwal.
The investigation began after a short video clip posted on TikTok in 2024 showed an unusual tiny fish emerging from a water borewell near the border between India and Nepal.
“The unique morphology of the fish in the video, and the fact that there are no known stygobitic fish known from the region, motivated us to track down the species to ascertain its identity.”
The Research Team
Securing physical samples required an intensive fieldwork effort in Bihar, where the scientists manually pumped thousands of litres of water from local handpumps.
“Procuring samples of this unusual fish was challenging. Identifying potential handpumps (borewells) and wells, and obtaining permission from their owners to extract water for the purpose of searching for the fish proved difficult. This became more intensive when we finally began manually pumping water.”
Akshay Khandekar, Thackeray Wildlife Foundation
Live and habitat photos Gangaichthys indonepalicus: NRC AA 9519, holotype, 40.6 mm SL: Dorso lateral view of: A. Full body; B. Head; C. Bore-well from which holotype and one (damaged) paratype was collected; D. Bore-well from where another damaged specimen was collected. Image credit: Akshay Khandekar et al., 2026.
The first specimen emerged after pumping approximately 2000 litres of water but sustained damage during the process and died immediately. The second and only intact specimen (later designated as the holotype of this species) was found from the same borewell after pumping an additional 500 litres of water.
Gangaichthys indonepalicus in a syringe. Image credit: Ishan Agarwal.
The newly described fish measures roughly four centimetres in length and features physical adaptations suited to life in total darkness, including reduced eyes covered by skin, an unpigmented translucent body, and an apparent absence of ribs.
Advanced micro-CT scanning and genetic analysis confirmed that it represents a completely distinct genus within the earthworm eel family Chaudhuriidae.
“Gangaichthys means fish of the Ganga. The Ganga or Ganges is one of the most important rivers in India, both as a source of fresh water, food and livelihood for millions of people; besides having an important role in the Hindu religion.
This is the first stygobitic fish from the Indo-Gangetic plains and from the Gangetic basin.”
Ishan Agarwal, Thackeray Wildlife Foundation
As for the naming of the species itself, Tejas Thackeray commented:
“As the species occurs on the border between India and Nepal we picked indonepalicus as the specific epithet, which reflects the distribution of the species.”
Agarwal also reflected on the broader context of the find and the challenges of studying subterranean habitats:
“India is an incredibly diverse country, spanning huge gradients in climate and topography and multiple biogeographic regions. However, there is a huge gap in knowledge, both Linnaean and Wallacean shortfalls, with many more species yet to be discovered.
This exciting discovery is in some ways symptomatic of general biodiversity research in India, though sampling subterranean habitats is especially challenging.”
Original source:
Khandekar A, Thackeray T, He Y, Mohapatra A, Agarwal I (2026) Gangaichthys indonepalicus, a new genus and species of miniature stygobitic earthworm eel (Synbranchiformes, Chaudhuriidae) from alluvial aquifers in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, Bihar, northern India. ZooKeys 1289: 185-202. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1289.188089
For more articles on zoology, visit the ZooKeys website and follow the journal on BlueSky and Facebook.
Scientists from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador officially described Pristimantis milpe, an abundant and widely distributed species that had been confused with another species for over a century. To solve the mystery, researchers reviewed specimens collected in Ecuador during the 19th century and preserved at the Natural History Museum in London.
Reproductive pair (amplexus) of the Milpe Robber Frog photographed at night on a leaf in the tropical forest of the Ecuadorian Chocó. Photo: Santiago R. Ron.
The finding is exceptional because, unlike many recently described species – which are usually rare or restricted to small geographic areas – Pristimantis milpe is a common frog, widely distributed, and easy to detect by its nocturnal call. The species inhabits the Chocó forests of western Ecuador and southern Colombia, in a range that exceeds 67,000 square kilometers, from sea level up to 1,200 meters in altitude.
Amphibiologist Santiago Ron. The leading author of the study.
The scientific description was published in the international journal ZooKeys, which specialises in research on biodiversity and taxonomy. The identification of Pristimantis milpe was made possible thanks to a review of the historical amphibian collections preserved at the Natural History Museum in London (NHM).
Facade of the Natural History Museum in London, where the key specimens that clarified the taxonomic mess are kept. Photo: Santiago R. Ron.
To resolve a taxonomic confusion that lasted for more than a century, Santiago Ron, a researcher at PUCE and lead author of the study, travelled to England to examine the original specimens – known as “types” – that were collected in Ecuador during the 19th century and preserved ever since.
Santiago Ron reviewing jars with historical specimens preserved in the collections of the Natural History Museum in London. Specimens were collected in the 19th century in Ecuador and preserved in London.
The analysis allowed these historical specimens to be compared with current populations of frogs from the Ecuadorian Chocó. The researchers determined that the specimens had been erroneously associated with another species. This confusion caused a species that had been present and observed for decades to remain without a scientific name of its own.
“That such a common species has gone unnoticed under the wrong name for decades highlights the importance of correctly connecting scientific names with living populations in nature.”
Jhael Ortega, a PhD student at Virginia Tech and one of the study authors
The Milpe Robber Frog (Cutín de Milpe) is a species with nocturnal habits. Males usually call from the leaves of shrubs and bromeliads located several meters high within the forest. Their vocalisation is characterised by a loud and distinct sound, similar to a “click.”
The Milpe Robber Frog lives in a wide variety of habitats, from parks in urban areas to primary forests. The individual in the photo comes from the Río Ayampe Reserve in the Manabí province. Photo: Diego Paucar.
One of its most striking features is the dimorphism between females and males. Females present a distinctive color pattern on the groin and thighs, with orange or light blue tones accompanied by black spots. Males, on the other hand, have more uniform shades.
The species is found in the forests of the Ecuadorian Chocó and southern Colombia, one of the most important regions for biodiversity conservation.
The Ecuadorian Chocó forest is home to more than 250 species of amphibians, including the Milpe Robber Frog, Pristimantis milpe. Photo: Santiago R. Ron.
The study demonstrates the scientific value of natural history collections. Specimens preserved for centuries allow current researchers to review classifications, compare characteristics, and answer questions that remained open for generations.
In this case, the analysis of specimens collected in the 19th century, combined with the study of current populations, allowed Pristimantis milpe to be formally recognised as a distinct species.
The work also shows that biodiversity still holds surprises even in abundant and well-known species, and that scientific research requires connecting historical knowledge with the tools and observations available today.
Original source
Ron SR, Paredes-Aguirre P, Paucar DA, López Y, Apunte K, Ortega JA (2026) Long overdue: a new, widespread, species of Pristimantis (Anura, Strabomantidae) from the Chocó region and the synonymy of Pristimantis subsigillatus. ZooKeys 1286: 121-152. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1286.194383
For more articles on zoology, visit the ZooKeys website and follow the journal on BlueSky and Facebook.
Scientists exploring seamounts off the coast of Costa Rica have discovered a new coral so genetically and morphologically distinct that it required the creation of an entirely new family for its classification.
Bright yellow and tree-like, the coral was found growing some 360 to 529 metres beneath the surface of the Pacific. The discovery is described in the open-access journal ZooKeys.
Map showing the geographic location of the collected samples within the Pacific Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Costa Rica. Made by Beatriz Naranjo (UCR).
The colonies, which can grow to over a metre tall, were collected using the remotely operated vehicle SuBastian aboard the research vessels Falkor and Falkor (too), operated by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, during expeditions to the seamounts off Isla del Coco and the Costa Rican Pacific margin in 2019 and 2023.
Researchers found the coral thriving in large numbers on rocky outcrops that were almost entirely blanketed by brittle stars, creating a shimmering, star-strewn seafloor from which the golden coral branches rose like glowing trees.
That image inspired the coral’s name. The new genus, Laurinque, comes from “Laurinquë”, meaning “golden tree” in Quenya, the Elvish language devised by J.R.R. Tolkien for The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, chosen in reference to the colonies’ bright yellow, tree-like form.
Laurinqueelenya gen. et sp. nov., morphology of the holotype, in situ. Photographs by ROV SuBastian.
The species name, elenya, is Quenya for “stellar” or “of the stars”, a nod to the fields of brittle stars among which the coral was discovered. Together, the pairing evokes a scene the researchers likened to a mystical elvish landscape on the deep seafloor.
Working out where this coral belonged in the coral family tree proved unusually difficult. The team sequenced three genes commonly used to classify corals, and each one pointed to a different, unrelated family, an unusually high level of disagreement.
Holotype (ethanol preserved fragment) detail of anthocodiae and polyp arrangement of Laurinqueelenya. Photographs by Fiorella Vásquez (UCR).
To settle the question, researchers turned to phylogenomics, analysing hundreds of genes at once. This revealed that the coral does not belong to any known family at all, but represents a unique evolutionary lineage most closely related to the family Eunicellidae, but distinct enough in both its genetics and its anatomy to warrant a new family, Laurinqueidae, and a new genus, Laurinque, built specifically to house it.
“I saw the octocoral garden for the first time in 2019 and I was impressed by the beauty of the landscape, which inspired, later the elvish name of the taxa. I thought the species could belong to a known family and genera, but after the preliminar morphological analysis I realised that it was something very different that I could not match with the known taxa.
In 2023 we collected more samples and thanks to the exhaustive molecular analyses made by my colleagues, Cathy McFadden, Catalina Murillo and Andrea Quattrini, we were able to determine the taxonomic placement of the stunning species, in one of the most enigmatic sites.”
Laurinqueelenya gen. et sp. nov., in situ colonies in Las Gemelas II. Photographs by ROV SuBastian.
The research was led by Dr Breedy, working alongside an international team of collaborators. The expeditions were supported by the Schmidt Ocean Institute and a National Geographic Society research grant.
The discovery adds to a growing list of undocumented species being revealed on Costa Rica’s seamounts, and demonstrates how much of the deep ocean, which covers roughly two-thirds of the planet’s surface, remains unexplored.
Coral gardens such as these are considered vulnerable marine ecosystems, providing structurally complex habitat for a wide range of other deep-sea life.
Cover image
In situ colony of Laurinque elenya gen. et sp. nov. in Las Gemelas II. Credit: ROV SuBastian.
Original source
Breedy O, McFadden CS, Murillo-Cruz C, Yánez-Suárez A-B, Robert K, Quattrini AM (2026) A coral among stars: A new octocoral family (Anthozoa, Octocorallia, Malacalcyonacea) from seamounts in the tropical eastern Pacific. ZooKeys 1283: 253-272. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1283.191899
For more articles on zoology, visit the ZooKeys website and follow the journal on BlueSky and Facebook.
Scientists have described a new species of lizard from the high mountain forests of western Thailand, and have given it a name straight out of fantasy television: Acanthosaura syrax, named after Syrax, the dragon ridden by Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon.
Adult female paratypes of Acanthosaurasyrax. Photo credit to Trivalairat et al., 2026.
The lizard belongs to a group known as mountain horned dragons, agamid lizards recognised by the spiny crests running along their neck and back. It was discovered in the evergreen forests of Mae Wong National Park, in the Tak-Kamphaeng Phet Province, at elevations above 1,300 metres, where it appears to live nowhere else. The find brings the total number of known species in the genus Acanthosaura to 23.
Forest habitat of Acanthosaurasyrax in Mae Wong National Park, Mae Wong District, Kampheang Phet Province, Thailand . Photo credit to Trivalairat et al., 2026.
The research team, led by Poramad Trivalairat and colleagues from Chulabhorn Royal Academy and Kasetsart University, chose the name Syrax deliberately. The dragon of that name in the fantasy world is known for its striking yellow colouring, its comparatively modest size next to other dragons, and for producing an unusually large number of eggs.
The researchers found all three qualities echoed in the real animal: A. syrax has yellowish-green tones in its colouring, is one of the smallest members of its genus, and lays notably large clutches of eggs for its size. The team has proposed “Syrax mountain horned dragon” as its English common name, alongside a Thai name that translates the same way.
Adult male holotype of Acanthosaura syrax. from Mae Wong District, Kampheang Phet Province, Thailand. Photo credit to Trivalairat et al., 2026
Adult female paratypes Acanthosaura syrax. Credit to Trivalairat et al., 2026.
Beyond the name, the lizard stands out for possessing the smallest neck and back crest scales recorded anywhere in the genus, along with an overall small body size. It also lacks a black patch around the eye seen in several related species, and has a distinctive dark collar marking. DNA analysis of two genes backed up what the researchers saw by eye, showing that A. syrax is genetically distinct from its closest relative, A. lepidogaster, and from every other known species in the group.
Paratype specimens of Acanthosaurasyrax. Credit to Trivalairat et al., 2026.
The species appears to be confined to a narrow band of high-altitude forest, and the researchers say its populations are naturally scattered by the rugged terrain of the mountain range, a state of affairs that leaves it vulnerable should its habitat come under further pressure. They are calling for stronger protection of Mae Wong’s high-elevation forests, suggesting the new lizard could serve as a flagship species for the area alongside other rare wildlife found there, including the Asian forest tortoise, Oldham’s leaf turtle and the Indochinese tiger.
The study is published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.
Cover photo credit: Acanthosaurasyrax, credit to Trivalairat et al., 2026; Syrax dragon credit to Wiki of Westeros.
Original source:
Trivalairat P, Trivalairat K, Moungkhaek N, Caponov S, Lorsunyaluck B (2026) Acanthosaura syrax sp. nov., a new species of mountain horned dragon from high-elevation habitats of western Thailand (Squamata, Agamidae). ZooKeys 1287: 47-76. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1287.186636
An eight-year international research effort has produced the most comprehensive review of Honduras’ mammals since 1998, verifying 227 native species across 146 genera and 42 families, along with three introduced rodent species. The study, published in the open-access journal ZooKeys, also forecasts that as many as 28 further species could eventually be confirmed in the country, bringing the potential total to 258.
Manatee, photographed by Daniel Gonzalez-Socoloske.
The research was led by Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco of the Asociación para la Sostenibilidad e Investigación Científica en Honduras (ASICH) and the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz in Brazil, together with 14 co-authors from institutions across Honduras, the United States, Brazil, Guatemala and Costa Rica, including Panthera Honduras, the Smithsonian Institution and the Wildlife Conservation Society. The resulting work spans nearly 200 pages of species accounts, distribution data and conservation summaries.
The project began when Turcios-Casco was a master’s student researching the conservation status of Honduran xenarthrans:
“At that time, I realised something surprising: despite Honduras being one of the most biodiverse countries in Central America, its mammal fauna had not been comprehensively reviewed since 1998.
What began with a team of four researchers grew into a collaboration spanning museum curators, taxonomists, field biologists and conservation practitioners across multiple countries.”
Compiling the review meant verifying more than 300,000 records drawn from museum collections, scientific publications, technical reports and previously unpublished field observations dating back to the 1960s.
Mormoops megalophylla. Image credit: Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco.
“The greatest challenge was undoubtedly the verification process. Every record (and there were more than 300,000) had to be evaluated critically,” Turcios-Casco said, noting that shifting taxonomy meant the team was still updating species accounts just days before the manuscript’s final submission.
Among the review’s more unexpected findings was how little is known about some of Honduras’ most familiar mammals. “For some mammals, including squirrels, raccoons, and several small rodents, there were no modern distribution maps available,” Turcios-Casco noted. Even regionally widespread species, such as opossums and skunks, remain poorly documented within the country.
Nyctomys sumichrasti. Image credit: Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco.
Spilogale angustifrons. Image credit: Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco.
Caluromys derbianus. Image credit: Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco.
Alongside the species accounts, the review provides conservation summaries intended to guide research priorities and policy decisions:
“Because conservation begins with knowledge. One of the biggest challenges in biodiversity conservation is that we often want to protect species before we fully understand them.”
Turcios-Casco
Camera traps photos by Panthera-Honduras – White lipped peccaries.
Giant anteater.
Tapirs.
Puma.
The work also draws on cultural knowledge, incorporating common names used by Indigenous peoples and local communities alongside the scientific record.
“Rather than simply compiling species records, we tried to tell the story of Honduras’ mammals.”
Turcios-Casco
Looking ahead, the authors hope the review will serve as a foundation for the next generation of Honduran biologists.
“In that sense, the review is both a summary of what we know and a reminder of how much there is left to learn about the natural heritage of Honduras.
Turcios-Casco
Cover image:
Howler monkey, photographed by Daniel Gonzalez-Socoloske.
Original source:
Turcios-Casco MA, Castañeda F, Wilson DE, Miller B, Gonzalez-Socoloske D, Ramos EA, King TW, LaVal RK, Ordóñez-Garza N, Ordoñez D, Graciolli G, Thornton D, Martínez M, Estrada-Andino NM, Ávila-Palma HD (2026) Taxonomy, natural history, and conservation of the mammals of Honduras. ZooKeys 1288: 1–193. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1288.129555
