Subterranean Biology

Pensoft launches ORPHO: A new intelligent workspace for scientific writing

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.

Taxon names, for example, can be automatically imported and linked through persistent identifiers from sources like the Catalogue of Life (CoL), International Plant Names Index (IPNI), World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) and World Flora Online (WFO).

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.

***

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.

China’s First Cave-Dwelling Freshwater Snail Named After A Mythical Mountain God

This study marks the first freshwater cave snail ever recorded in China, and it represents the highest-altitude distribution known among cave-dwelling species in the family Erhaiidae.

Recently published in the journal Subterranean Biology, the research marks a major milestone for the study of subterranean aquatic life in East Asia. Prior to this discovery, there were no records of freshwater cave snails within Chinese territory, and the region’s subterranean freshwater mollusks were generally poorly studied.

Mythological Namesake and Unique Adaptations

Perfectly suited to its pitch-black environment, Erhaia dijiang is a true troglobiont, having evolved without eyes entirely while its ocular structures show total degeneration. Its shell is small, conical, and highly translucent, while its body is delicate and unpigmented, with slender tentacles.

Natural habitats of *Erhaia* *dijiang*. Credit to He et al., 2026.

Fittingly, researchers named the species dijiang after “Di Jiang,” a mountain patron god from ancient Chinese mythology described as a faceless beast in the classic text Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海经). The name suits the animal’s habits: in laboratory observations, the snails proved highly photophobic, actively seeking out dark crevices beneath rocks to escape light.

Beyond its mythological namesake, the species is also notable for where it was found. Discovered at an elevation of 2,062 meters, Erhaia dijiang sets a new record for the highest-altitude distribution among all known cave-dwelling snails in Erhaiidae, evidence that freshwater cavesnails can survive in karst caves at altitudes exceeding 2,000 meters.

According to the researchers, the species inhabits underwater gravel and crushed stone at depths of less than one meter, where cave water temperatures remain consistently near 20°C. While rapid water flow during the rainy season occasionally flushes a small number of snails out through the cave’s outlet, they are never found in nearby surface streams and stay strictly within two meters of the cave entrance. In the lab, the snails fed on diatoms growing on rock surfaces as well as artificially supplied fish food.

Urgent Call for Conservation

Erhaia dijiang new cave snail from China — *Erhaia* *dijiang*. Credit to He et al., 2026.

However, despite marking a significant advance for the study of subterranean aquatic life in East Asia, the research team warns that the survival status of this newly discovered species is “far from optimistic.”

During their initial field survey in August 2025, the population density of Erhaia dijiang was found to be extremely low. The team was only able to locate three live adult individuals and a single empty shell in the shallow underground waters, and no juvenile snails were observed.

The researchers are urgently calling for extensive surveys of Chinese caves to improve our understanding of these complex ecosystems, along with the rapid formulation of conservation measures to protect these vulnerable, endemic mollusks.

Original study:

He Y-M, Xiang H-Q, Yang J-M, Zheng H, Yang S-Z, Zhou Y-F, Zheng J (2026) A new eyeless species in Erhaiidae (Gastropoda, Truncatelloidea) from a cave in Yuxi City, Yunnan, China. Subterranean Biology 56: 127-136. https://doi.org/10.3897/subtbiol.56.188075

The Pensoft Biodiversity Cup 2026 comes to a close

Now that the 2026 FIFA World Cup is over, it’s time for us to blow the final whistle on Pensoft’s Biodiversity Cup.

The floodlights have dimmed, the confetti has settled, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup has officially come to an end. A huge congratulations to Spain, who saw off Argentina 1-0 after extra time to lift their second World Cup trophy.

And with the football finished, it’s time for us to blow the final whistle on our own tournament too. Throughout the World Cup, we ran the Pensoft Biodiversity Cup alongside the real competition – a weekly knockout contest on our Instagram page, pitting some of the most remarkable species described in our journals against one another.

Every Thursday we opened the polls, and every Monday we brought you the result. Now that the dust has settled, we thought it was the perfect moment to look back at how the tournament unfolded.

Here’s how each fixture played out, with the winning species (as voted for by you!) shown in blue bold:

Date	Species #1	Species #2
11/06	Nadzikambia goodallae	Ferreiraella populi
18/06	Hellwigia opalina	Neohelicomyces coffeae
25/06	Thecacera sesama	Dolichopoda balrogi
02/07	Pikelinia floydmuraria	Trachischium lalremsangai
09/07	Theridion himalayana	Pyralis papaleonei
19/07	Iberoscia zaragozai	Echinodorus nenufar

General recap of Pensoft’s Biodiversity Cup.

Our first week’s competition kicked off with a cloud-forest chameleon named after Jane Goodall, which faced off against a public-named deep-sea chiton from the abyssal Pacific:

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Nadzikambia goodallae vs Ferreiraella populi.

The chameleon, Nadzikambia goodallae, came out on top in this opening clash, advancing past the deep-sea chiton Ferreiraella populi.

Round two, meanwhile, pitted a turquoise-flowered jade ginger from Sulawesi against a newly identified fungus found on dead coffee branches in Yunnan:

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Hellwigia opalina vs Neohelicomyces coffeae.

…and round two went to the fungi! Neohelicomyces coffeae ended up decisively defeating the jade ginger Hellwigia opalina in this Plant vs Fungi edition.

Round three brought Cave vs. Coast: a Balrog-named cave cricket unearthed on Kastellorizo faced a sesame-speckled nudibranch discovered off northeastern Taiwan:

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Thecacera sesama vs Dolichopoda balrogi.

Our third round went to the underdog (or in this case, undercricket): Dolichopoda balrogi, which hopped past Thecacera sesama in a unanimous win.

Round four was our Animal Kingdom edition, with the newly described Pink Floyd spider Pikelinia floydmuraria facing off against the burrowing snake Trachischium lalremsangai for the top spot:

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Pikelinia floydmuraria vs Trachischium lalremsangai.

The snake slithered through – Trachischium lalremsangai defeated Pikelinia floydmuraria, its burrowing lifestyle proving harder to top than a rock-star spider name in this round.

Our second-to-last round paired the smiley-faced Himalayan Happy-Face Spider, Theridion himalayana, against Pyralis papaleonei, a papal-named moth endemic to Crete’s White Mountains:

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Theridion himalayana vs Pyralis papaleonei.

The moth flew past the competition! Pyralis papaleonei took the win over Theridion himalayana, its rare papal namesake and striking wing bands proving enough to edge out even a face full of smiles.

Our own final on 19 July ended up mirroring the World Cup final to a tee, with a species from Spain going head-to-head with one from Argentina:

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Iberoscia zaragozai vs Echinodorus nenufar.

Representing Spain in the final was Iberoscia zaragozai, a newly described genus and species of cave-dwelling isopod, published only this April in our open-access journal Subterranean Biology.

Discovered in caves across Catalonia, Murcia and the Valencian Community, this blind crustacean measures barely 3-4 mm long, yet required a new genus to accommodate it, thanks to its unique features – right down to its antennal sensory structures.

Fittingly, it’s named in posthumous tribute to the Spanish arachnologist Juan Antonio Zaragoza-Miralles, in recognition of his decades of work on the cave-dwelling fauna of the Iberian Peninsula.

Standing in Argentina’s corner was Echinodorus nenufar, a new aquatic plant described in PhytoKeys back in January. Found in the temporary ponds and seasonal wetlands of the dry Chaco region of northern Argentina and western Paraguay, it earns its name – “nenúfar” being Spanish for water lily – thanks to its rounded floating leaves and creamy-white flowers, which give it an uncanny resemblance to a true Nymphaeaceae water lily.

Like the seasonal killifish it shares its ephemeral ponds with, it has evolved to complete its whole life cycle in habitats that can appear and vanish with the rains.

Two species, two countries, both barely a few months old to science. This is a proper final if ever there was one. And… just like their footballing counterparts, it was the Spanish contender that came out on top!

We had an absolute blast running the Biodiversity Cup alongside this year’s World Cup, and we hope it gave you a fun new way to discover some of the incredible species being described in our journals. Thank you to everyone who voted, shared and cheered along from the side lines.

Keep up with our latest news and campaigns by following us on Facebook, Bluesky, X, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok.

Cave-Dwelling Snail Discovered in Greece, Named for Hermes and the Nymph Who Nurtured Him

Deep in a single Greek spring, scientists discovered a new cave-dwelling snail and named it after Hermes and the nymph who raised him.

Thousands of years ago, according to Greek myth, the nymph Cyllena nurtured the infant Hermes, messenger of the gods and famously the swiftest of the twelve Olympians, on Mt. Kyllini in southern Greece.

Now, in that same mountain, researchers from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens have identified a completely new genus and species of subterranean freshwater snail living in a single isolated spring on its slopes. In a fitting nod to the area’s mythology, and perhaps a bit of irony, given the messenger god’s legendary speed, they named it Cyllena hermes.

The full details of the discovery have been published as a research article in Subterranean Biology, a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the International Society for Subterranean Biology.

Live specimens of *Cyllena* *hermes* gen. et sp. nov. **A–F** live mature specimen, shown from the moment of emergence from the shell to active locomotion while foraging **G–I** another mature specimen; White arrows indicate the direction of movement J immature specimen floating at the water surface while feeding K caddisfly case (Insecta, Trichoptera) constructed from gastropod shells, including shells of *Cyllena* *hermes* gen. et sp. nov. Scale bars: 1 mm. Credit to Radea et al., 2026

So far, the snail is known from just one place on Earth: a karstic spring roughly 610 meters up the mountain’s foothills, in the Korinthia region of the Peloponnese. There, groundwater seeps out of carbonate bedrock and forms a small stream that feeds toward Lake Stymphalia, part of the sprawling underground hydrological network beneath the Stymphalia closed karst basin.

habitat of Cyllena hermes — Type locality of *Cyllena* *hermes* gen. et sp. nov., Korinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Karstic spring waters emerging from Mt Kyllini and forming a stream flowing toward Lake Stymphalia. Credit to Radea et al., 2026

Because the snail relies entirely on this single, isolated water source, it is highly sensitive to environmental stressors such as prolonged droughts and water extraction for surrounding neighboring areas, leading the research team to classify the species as Vulnerable under the IUCN Red List criteria.

When establishing this new monotypic genus and species, the researchers chose a name steeped in ancient Greek mythology tied to the mountain itself. The genus honours Cyllena, the nymph who raised Hermes there, while the species name pays tribute to Hermes himself, who legend says was born in a cave on that same mountain, where the new snail species was found.

immature speciemen of the snail Cyllena hermes — *Cyllena* *hermes* gen. et sp. nov. Views from a single immature specimen. A dorsal view B ventral view **C, D** lateral view **E–G** scanning electron micrographs of shell and protoconch respectively. Scale bars: 1 mm (**A–E**); 100 μm (F); 50 μm (G). Credit to Radea et al., 2026

This significant finding highlights the rich, yet often undocumented biodiversity dwelling within Greece’s extensive underground karst ecosystems, while also bringing attention to the fragile nature of these highly localized environments.

Original source:
Radea C, Protopapas D, Parmakelis A, Koskeridou E (2026) From the dark to the light: A new genus and species of stygobiont hydrobiid (Caenogastropoda, Truncatelloidea) from southern Greece. Subterranean Biology 57: 1-21. https://doi.org/10.3897/subtbiol.57.189090

The Evolutionary Adaptations of Cave-Dwelling Catfish in Brazil

What do brain morphology and sensory structures tell us about the evolutionary adaptations between catfish that live on the surface and those that live in caves?

Cave fauna fascinates young and old alike. Deep within the karst systems of Chapada Diamantina, Brazil, lives one of the world’s most diverse groups of cave-dwelling fish.

In fact, Brazilian cavefishes are the richest troglobitic (cave-dwelling) ichthyofauna worldwide, boasting 13 different genera. While the surface world is teeming with life, the subterranean realm, or the hypogean habitat, demands a very specific set of skills to survive.

The research, conducted by Thalia Rodovanski (from the Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brazil) and her team, was published in Subterranean Biology and took a closer look at the Copionodontinae, a subfamily of primitive catfishes.

Shallow water pool in Igatu. Photo credit to Maria Elina Bichuette.

Building on previous findings regarding the aggressive (agonistic) nature of Copionodontinae species, the researchers used this behavioral foundation to investigate how their physical and sensory structures have evolved in response to their environment.

By comparing surface-dwelling (epigean) species such as Copionodon pecten, C. lianae, and G. rodriguesi with their cave-bound cousin, Glaphyropoma spinosum, the researchers undertook the task of uncovering how these fish transitioned from the sunlit rivers to the pitch-black cave riverine systems.

Specifically, they did this by measuring the brain morphology and sensory structures such as barbels, eyes and counted pores of the lateral canal system on the head.

Shallow water pools in Igatu. Photo credit to Maria Elina Bichuette.
Researcher in a cave system in Igatu. Photo credit to Maria Elina Bichuette.

The curious findings

One of the most striking finds involved the genus Glaphyropoma. While the cave-dwelling G. spinosum shows classic troglomorphisms (adaptations for life in constant darkness), such as reduced eyes and a loss of skin pigment, the researchers found something surprising: even the surface-dwelling species in this group showed eye asymmetry and reduction.

*Copionodon pecten*. Photo credit to Maria Elina Bichuette.

Based on this, the researchers hypothesized that the asymmetry in the eyes is a plesiomorphic character (an ancestral trait) of the genus, rather than a feature developed in response to the specific habitat of each species. This pre-existing condition likely favored the colonization of hypogean (underground) habitats by G. spinosum.

In other words, Glaphyropoma already had a tendency toward reduced eyes. Instead of evolving small eyes because of the cave environment, they likely had them from the start. This is known as exaptation: a trait that originally evolved for one function (or no function at all) and was later co-opted for a new, different purpose, in this case, better suited for the dark.

*Glaphyropoma spinosum*. Photo credit to Adriano Gambarini.

As you can imagine, seeing in pitch black is quite hard. Therefore, these species had to rely on their other senses. The study found that the cave-dwelling G. spinosum has a longer telencephalon than its relatives. This is significant because it is the part of the brain responsible for navigating through chemical cues, creating mental maps (spatial memory), and participating in social interactions. Interestingly, the mesencephalon (the vision-processing center) hasn’t shrunk significantly yet, suggesting that these fish are still in the middle of their evolutionary transition.

The researchers concluded that while G. spinosum shows clear cave-specialized traits, many of these features are shared by its surface-dwelling cousins.

However, because of a lack of specimens of G. rodriguesi, the only known epigean species of the genus, which occurs sporadically in caves, it is not yet possible to definitively conclude if the sensory troglomorphisms detected in this study are related to taxonomic identity or the habitat itself.

Ultimately, such research is key to understanding more about the complex life of the highly specialized species that inhabit these fascinating environments.

Original source:

Rodovanski T, Bichuette ME, Cetra M, Mattox GMT (2026) The influence of subterranean habitats in the sensorial and brain morphology of hypogean and epigean Copionodontinae catfish (Siluriformes, Trichomycteridae). Subterranean Biology 55: 27-42. https://doi.org/10.3897/subtbiol.55.175751

How Tiny Cave Shrimps Power the Underworld of the Yucatan

Stable isotopes reveal how tiny cave shrimp act as keystone species and interact with one another within the food web of subterranean ecosystems.

Beneath the lush rainforests of the Yucatan Peninsula lies a hidden, subterranean world: a vast network of flooded sinkholes and anchialine caves. These unique underwater systems, which mix fresh and saltwater and are influenced by the tides, have no open connection to the surface and have served as an evolutionary refuge for millions of years.

When marine biologist Fernando Álvarez first encountered these sinkholes (cenotes), he was captivated.

My first impression of these incredibly beautiful places was that I had to work there to find out how that rich crustacean fauna had evolved in those exceptionally large cave systems.
Álvarez recalls

Entrance to a cenote. Photo credit to Fernando Álvarez.
Entrance to a cenote. Photo credit to Fernando Álvarez.
The cenotes where Typhlatya shrimps occur. Photo credit to Fernando Álvarez.

A recent study published in Subterranean Biology, reveals that the answer lies with a tiny, fascinating creature: the anchialine cave shrimp of the genus Typhlatya.

The Keystone of the Cave Food Web

The cenotes where Typhlatya shrimps occur. — The cenotes where *Typhlatya* shrimps occur. Photo credit to Fernando Álvarez.

In most surface ecosystems, sunlight fuels plants, which then feed the rest of the food chain. In the pitch-black depths of anchialine caves, nature has found other ways. Instead of photosynthesis, this ecosystem relies on a chemosynthetic route.

Organic matter from the rainforest floor decomposes and percolates through the porous limestone rock, eventually bringing methane into the cave’s waters. Methanotrophic bacteria consume this methane to produce energy and grow. And this is where Typhlatya shrimp comes in. Equipped with specialized, scraping appendages, these shrimps are adapted to graze on these bacterial mats.

Because they convert microbial growth into animal biomass, Typhlatya shrimps act as “keystone species,” introducing essential nutrients into the cave’s food web. They serve as a crucial initial link that larger subterranean predators feed on.

What we see now is that Typhlatya shrimps are a key component of the anchialine trophic web.
explains Álvarez

Stable Isotopes reveal ecological niches

To better understand how these shrimps survive, Brenda Durán and Fernando Álvarez used stable isotope analysis (looking at carbon and nitrogen signatures in the shrimps’ tissue) to figure out exactly what they are eating.

Typhlatya mitchelli. Photo credit to Fernando Álvarez.
Typhlatya mitchelli. Photo credit to Fernando Álvarez.

Over the years my research has evolved from very descriptive taxonomic studies… to more ecological studies about the interactions among species.
Álvarez notes regarding the motivation behind the study.

Their findings revealed that the different species of Typhlatya living in the Yucatan have carved out their own unique dietary niches, allowing them to peacefully coexist.

For instance, Typhlatya mitchelli relies mostly on decaying vegetation and nitrifying bacteria found in shallower cave sections. While, Typhlatya dzilamensis hangs out deeper in the caves near the halocline (the zone where fresh and saltwater mix), exploiting organic material trapped in that layer. Typhlatya pearsei feeds heavily on the methanotrophic bacterial biomass near the cave ceilings.

@pensoft.publishers
Beneath the lush rainforests of the Yucatan Peninsula lies a hidden, subterranean world: “My first impression of these incredibly beautiful places was that I had to work there to find out how that rich crustacean fauna had evolved in those exceptionally large cave systems.” – Marine biologist Fernando Álvarez. 👇 A reminder to check out our blog here for further insights: https://blog.pensoft.net/?p=18058 👇 Full article in the open-access journal Subterranean Biology: https://doi.org/10.3897/subtbiol.55.164068 #shrimp #yucatan #sciencenews #subterranean #ecology
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Interestingly, the study found that the shrimps’ diets remain stable across the rainy and dry seasons. However, their diets do shift based on regional geography, such as the difference between the deep, isolated sinkholes of the “Ring of Cenotes” and the sprawling, highly interconnected tunnels of the “Caribbean Cave Area”.

A Fragile World Under Threat

These remarkable cave shrimps belong to an ancient lineage that has survived since the time of the dinosaurs, with relatives spanning the globe from the Mediterranean to Australia. Yet, they are now facing a modern, unprecedented threat.

The rapid urbanization of the Yucatan Peninsula brings deforestation, pollution, and severe environmental deterioration. Because these caves rely entirely on the organic matter percolating from the rainforest above, any damage to the surface environment directly destroys the “vertical integrity” necessary for the caves to function. As Álvarez warns:

We are losing the vertical integrity that these anchialine caves need to function; any changes occurring on the surface within the caves’ area will inevitably affect them.

The anchialine caves of the Yucatan Peninsula are complex, unique ecosystems filled with extraordinary biodiversity. To save the remarkable Typhlatya shrimp and the hidden food web it supports, we must protect the forests above ground.

Blind eel in an anchialine cave. Video credit to Fernando Álvarez.

The Yucatan Peninsula is an area of extraordinary cultural wealth and contains sophisticated and unique ecosystems as the anchialine caves, but sadly all this is disappearing.
he reflects

After all, the survival of this dark, subterranean world depends entirely on the health of the sunlit world above.

Original study

Durán B, Álvarez F (2026) The trophic role of cave shrimps of the genus Typhlatya seen through stable isotope eyes. Subterranean Biology 55: 43-56. https://doi.org/10.3897/subtbiol.55.164068

Pensoft and the University of Zurich sign strategic OA Agreement to support Swiss research

The agreement encompasses five key research and medical bodies, and allows corresponding authors to publish their findings without individual Article Processing Charges.

Pensoft and the University of Zurich have signed a comprehensive Open Access (OA) agreement, starting a partnership that enables researchers at participating institutions to publish their findings in Pensoft’s peer-reviewed journals without incurring individual Article Processing Charges (APCs).

The agreement encompasses five key research and medical bodies, namely the University of Zurich, the University Hospital of Zurich, Balgrist University Hospital, University Children’s Hospital Zurich, and the Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik.

Researchers from these institutions can now publish without worrying about APCs in 65 peer-reviewed journals published by Pensoft or hosted on its advanced ARPHA platform, including flagship titles such as ZooKeys, PhytoKeys, Biodiversity Data Journal, NeoBiota, and IMA Fungus.

Under this new framework, publishing costs for corresponding authors affiliated with the respective institutions are 100% covered by a centralised institutional deposit secured by the University of Zurich. By removing financial barriers, the agreement encourages scientists to disseminate their work to both the academic community and the wider public, making research immediately and freely available upon publication.

This initiative ensures that research is shared under open licences in strict accordance with the FAIR principles—making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

“We are excited to start this partnership with the University of Zurich and sign an agreement that reflects our strong commitment to inclusive and equitable open science. By supporting researcher-driven publishing, we continue to foster a sustainable environment for high-impact scientific communication.”
Prof. Lyubomir Penev, CEO of Pensoft

“We are pleased to extend our portfolio of gold open access journals, in which our researchers can publish their findings without paying individual APCs. We thereby strengthen our commitment to open research information.”
University Library Zurich

Are you affiliated with a research institution operating with OA agreements? Is your institution interested in helping resident researchers navigate the complex processes underpinning academic publishing and knowledge sharing? Reach out to <publishing@pensoft.net> to discuss a potential collaboration.

Pensoft and Bibsam Consortium announce new OA agreement to advance scholarly publishing in Sweden

The agreement covers almost 100 institutions, including Karolinska Institutet, Lund University, Uppsala University, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Pensoft and the Bibsam Consortium, operated by the National Library of Sweden, are pleased to announce the signing of a comprehensive Open Access (OA) agreement, marking a significant step in the transition towards a more transparent and open scholarly publishing landscape in Sweden.

Thanks to this move, researchers at participating institutions will be able to publish their findings in 65 journals published by Pensoft or using its advanced publishing platform ARPHA, including flagship titles such as ZooKeys, PhytoKeys, Biodiversity Data Journal, NeoBiota and IMA Fungus, without incurring individual article processing charges (APCs).

The agreement encompasses 97 research bodies, including Karolinska Institutet, Lund University, Uppsala University, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

All authors affiliated with participating institutions can benefit from this agreement, with publishing costs 100% covered by an institutional deposit secured by the National Library of Sweden.

Unlike subscription-based systems, an OA framework ensures that scientific findings are immediately and freely available to the global community, supporting the global shift toward accessible science and adhering to the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable).

OA agreements like this one reduce the financial burden on scientists and encourage them to share their work with both academia and the wider public, ultimately lowering barriers to sharing knowledge in a time when scientific input is key to resolving global challenges.

“We are excited to start this partnership with Bisbam and sign an agreement that reflects our strong commitment to open science. By supporting researcher-driven publishing, we continue to foster a sustainable environment for high-impact scientific communication.”
Prof. Lyubomir Penev, CEO of Pensoft

“We are delighted to announce the addition of Pensoft Publishers to our portfolio of nationally funded agreements for 2026. This represents an important step towards achieving full open access to scientific publications in Sweden.”
Niklas Willén, License Manager at Bibsam Consortium and National Library of Sweden

Are you affiliated with a research institution operating with OA agreements? Is your institution interested in helping resident researchers navigate the complex processes underpinning academic publishing and knowledge sharing? Reach out to <publishing@pensoft.net> to discuss a potential collaboration.

Insects and innovation: Pensoft in Portland 2025

Pensoft attended the Entomological Collections Network Annual Meeting and Entomology 2025, both held in Oregon’s largest city.

In November 2025, Pensoft’s Chief Communications Officer, Teodor Metodiev, crossed the Atlantic to represent the publisher at two entomology events in Portland, Oregon: the Entomological Collections Network (ECN) Annual Meeting (8–9 November) and the Entomology 2025 conference (9–12 November).

Entomological Collections Network Annual Meeting

Held at the Hyatt Regency in Portland, the ECN 2025 annual meeting brought together professionals dedicated to the care, management, and use of entomological collections. The hybrid event featured live talks, pre-recorded lightning presentations and a silent auction in support of collection initiatives.

Pensoft’s stand at the ECN meeting.
Natural History Collections and Museomics featured prominently at the event.
Deborah Paul, one of the Editors-in-Chief for Natural History Collections and Museomics, with Teodor Metodiev.

At ECN 2025, Pensoft spotlighted its journals in entomology, particularly the newly launched diamond open-access journal Natural History Collections and Museomics (NHCM), which welcomes research on the preservation, digitisation and analysis of natural history collections. Building on last year’s successful collaboration, the meeting again highlighted the Topical Collection “Entomological Outreach Collections and Community Engagement,” published in NHCM and inspired by the 2024 ECN programme.

Entomology 2025

Pensoft joined more than 3,200 insect science professionals at the Entomological Society of America’s annual meeting, Entomology 2025 (Ento2025), hosted at the Oregon Convention Center. Over four days, the conference offered symposia, workshops, networking sessions, mixers and a busy exhibit hall.

Pensoft exhibited at booth #715, showcasing the publisher’s portfolio of entomology journals and promoting two key EU-funded projects on pollinators: VALOR and AGRI4POL. Featuring professional scientific illustrations, attractive open-access publishing opportunities, and results from Pensoft-partnered EU projects, the booth attracted considerable interest from attendees.

A highlight of Pensoft’s presence at Entomology 2025 was the participation of Lars Straub, Editor-in-Chief of the newly launched Diamond Open Access journal Advances in Pollinator Research (APR). Straub moderated two student 10-minute presentation competitions and presented his own research, “Neonicotinoid exposure reduces fitness of a widespread butterfly, Vanessa cardui.”

Dr Alfred Daniel Johnson, a Journal of Hymenoptera Research author.
Dr Kevin Li, a One Ecosystem author.
Dr Claire Rutledge, a NeoBiota author.
Dr Lars Straub, Editor-in-Chief of Advances in Pollinator Research .
Dr Priyadarshini Chakrabarti Basu, an Advances in Pollinator Research editor.
Dr Yihang Li, a ZooKeys author.
Dr Jose ‘Joe’ Martinez, a ZooKeys author.
Yeshwanth, H M, a ZooKeys author.

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Following a fantastic week in Portland at both ECN 2025 and Entomology 2025, Pensoft looks forward to continuing its close collaboration with the entomological and collections communities. The Entomological Society of America’s next annual meeting, Entomology 2026, will take place on 8–11 November in Columbus, Ohio, where Pensoft plans to create more partnerships and continue its support for open science in insect research.

Record-breaking success: Study on spider megacolony is the most popular article published by Pensoft

In less than a month, a paper in Subterranean Biology surpassed nearly 27,000 Pensoft studies in popularity.

Pensoft is thrilled to announce a new record in science communication: the research article “An extraordinary colonial spider community in Sulfur Cave (Albania/Greece) sustained by chemoautotrophy,” authored by István Urák et al., has achieved unprecedented publicity.

Published in the journal Subterranean Biology, the paper has become by far the most popular research article ever published across Pensoft’s scientific journal portfolio in terms of both news media coverage and overall online attention.

Issue 53 (2025) of Subterranean Biology, where the spider megacolony paper was published.

Thanks to an integration with our partners at Altmetric, we have quantifiable metrics that measure just how exceptional the attention to this article is. The paper’s Altmetric Attention Score of 2254 places it in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric globally. For less than a month, it became more popular than nearly 27,000 research papers published by Pensoft and tracked by Altmetric.

The study was covered globally by major news outlets, reaching audiences far beyond niche scientific circles. The article garnered over 2,200 online mentions linking directly to the publication, with Altmetric tracking attention from 290 news outlets specifically. The story was featured by numerous top global news organizations, including The New York Times, BBC, The Washington Post, The Independent, Die Welt and NBC News,as well as popular science publications such as Smithsonian Magazine and Science Alert.

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Beyond traditional media, the study gained significant traction on various social platforms, including YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, alongside mentions on Bluesky and X.

@zekedarwinscience
A massive spider web colony in a bizarre ecosystem underneath the border of Greece and Albania #evolution #spider #animals #biology #learnontiktok
♬ original sound – Zeke Darwin

The paper details fascinating discovery from the Sulfur Cave, which sits on the border between Albania and Greece. There, the research team documented an extraordinary spider community centered around a massive communal web spanning more than 100 square meters. This giant structure, dense enough to resemble a living curtain, is home to an estimated total of over 110,000 spiders, comprised of approximately 69,000 Tegenaria domestica and 42,000 Prinerigone vagans individuals.

A video of the spider colony in Sulfur cave. Courtesy Blerina Vrenozi

Crucially, this study marks the first documented instance of colonial behavior in both of these spider species, and the first recorded case of colonial web-building in a chemoautotrophic cave environment.

This unusual coexistence, where the larger, normally predatory T. domestica does not eat the smaller P. vagans, is believed to be facilitated by the cave’s total darkness and, most importantly, the overwhelming abundance of food resources. The ecosystem is sustained entirely without sunlight through chemoautotrophy, where sulfur-oxidizing bacteria form biofilms that support invertebrates that serve as the spiders’ primary, highly dense food source. This specialized, isolated environment has also driven the evolutionary adaptation of the spiders, which are genetically distinct from their surface relatives, illustrating the remarkable genetic plasticity that emerges under extreme environmental conditions.

In terms of popularity, the article comes right before two studies from our flagship taxonomic journal, ZooKeys. Our second most popular article is a crustacean study titled “A new species of supergiant Bathynomus A. Milne-Edwards, 1879 (Crustacea, Isopoda, Cirolanidae) from Vietnam, with notes on the taxonomy of Bathynomus jamesi Kou, Chen & Li, 2017,” published in ZooKeys in January 2025.

The Dark Side of the ocean: New giant sea bug species named after Darth Vader

Following closely is “Review of Neopalpa Povolný, 1998 with description of a new species from California and Baja California, Mexico (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae),” published in ZooKeys in January 2017, which describes a new moth species with a curious scientific name.

New species of moth named in honor of Donald Trump ahead of his swearing-in as president

We are proud that our journal Subterranean Biology is the platform for publishing such globally compelling research. This record success only confirms the widespread interest in high-quality, specialized scientific discoveries.

We continue our dedication to effective, high-reach science communication and look forward to sharing other compelling research with both scientists and the wider public.