Discovered in the Andean cloud forests of northern Peru, a new species in the blazing star family (Loasaceae) has reinforced the vital role of citizen science in plant research.
An international research team collected, identified and documented the rare plant after seeing photographs uploaded by Peruvian naturalist, Carlos Pérez Peña, on the citizen science platform iNaturalist. Assigning the species the name Nasa katjae, they published the discovery in the open-access journal PhytoKeys.
Nasa katjae has striking scarlet-red flowers adapted for hummingbird pollination and is endemic to a single forest near Colasay in the Cajamarca region of Peru, not far from a populated area. Due to its extremely narrow range, it is likely particularly vulnerable to the threat of habitat loss.
The discovery highlights the importance of protecting the remaining pristine habitats in the Amotape-Huancabamba Zone, a biodiversity hotspot home to many rare and isolated species. The team behind the study emphasise that, without immediate conservation efforts, these ecologically fragile regions could be lost to agricultural expansion and climate change before they are fully understood.
Lead author Dr Tilo Henning of the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research remarked on the significance of the find: “If we have overlooked this striking plant, think about what we have missed in more unobtrusive organismal groups such as mosses, fungi and insects.”
“Discovering such a conspicuous flowering plant in a forest directly adjacent to a larger human settlement signifies that we have not even begun to fully map the biodiversity of some regions. We urgently need more taxonomists and funding to meaningfully tackle this.”
While some areas in northern Peru have recently received formal protection, the forest fragment in which Nasa katjae is found remains unprotected. The authors of the study urge decision makers to take action to safeguard these habitats before it is too late.
The discovery of Nasa katjae displays the power of digital tools and citizen science in biodiversity research. Platforms like iNaturalist prove invaluable in detecting and documenting rare species, complementing traditional fieldwork and accelerating new discoveries.
Original source
Henning T, Allen JP, Montesinos-Tubée D, Rodríguez-Rodríguez EF, Peña JLM, Acuña-Castillo R (2025) No end to endemism – contributions to the difficult Nasa Weigend Series Alatae (Loasaceae). A new species from Peru and the rehabilitation of “ Loasa” calycina Benth. PhytoKeys 252: 163-186. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.252.141635
Based on this press release by the California Academy of Sciences.
Researchers have discovered the first new genus and species of plant in a U.S. national park for nearly 50 years.
Described in the OA journal PhytoKeys, the new-to-science woolly devil (Ovicula biradiata) is a member of the sunflower family, despite looking quite different to its sunburst-shaped relatives.
The small, fuzzy flower grows in the harsh, rocky soils of the Chihuahuan Desert and only appears after rainfall. (Photo courtesy of Big Bend National Park)
The national park is located within the Chihuahuan Desert, the largest and most biologically diverse warm desert in North America, and is a highly studied floristic region.
“While many assume that the plants and animals within our country’s national parks have probably been documented by now, scientists still make surprising new discoveries in these iconic protected landscapes,” says corresponding author and Academy researcher Isaac Lichter Marck, PhD.
From an elevation of less than 1,800 feet along the Rio Grande to nearly 8,000 feet in Chisos Mountains, Big Bend includes massive canyons, vast desert expanses, forest mountains, and an ever-changing river. (Photo courtesy of Big Bend National Park)
Park volunteer Deb Manley was first to observe the plant in March of 2024 by who uploaded the unknown species to the community science app iNaturalist, where an international community of botanists assembled to identify the mysterious flower.
Known to botanists as a “belly plant,” or a small, discreet plant that can only be properly observed by lying on the ground, this distinctive wild flower with furry white foliage and maroon ray florets is an ephemeral species that only blooms after rain. It thrives in harsh rocky habitats with scant rainfall and grows alongside a variety of drought-tolerant shrubs, such as ocotillo, hedgehog cactus, and creosote.
Researchers have only observed the plant in three narrow locations across the northernmost corner of the park, and it is possible that populations of the species are already diminishing.
Big Bend National Park staff members Carolyn Whiting, Deb Manley, and Patty Manning discovered the plant while hiking through the northernmost reaches of the park. (Photo courtesy of Big Bend National Park)
“Plants that thrive in deserts are often quite unique, having evolved specific mechanisms to withstand the extreme drought-and-deluge conditions of these arid landscapes—from water-storing structures to rapid life cycles triggered by rain,” says Lichter Marck.
“But as climate change pushes deserts to become hotter and drier, highly specialized plants like the woolly devil face extinction.”
The plant’s woolly appearance and striking red petals inspired the name Ovicula biradiata. Ovicula, meaning “tiny sheep,” refers to the thick, white hairs that cover the plant’s leaves and honors a more iconic endangered species in Big Bend: the bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis). Biradiata, or “bi-radial,” refers to the two ray florets in each of the plant’s flowers. Researchers working with the plant affectionately dubbed the fuzzy flower the “woolly devil,” which has become its suggested common name.
Park botanist Carolyn Whiting observes the unknown species in March 2024. (Photo courtesy of Big Bend National Park)
“Now that the species has been identified and named, there is a tremendous amount we have yet to learn about it,” says Big Bend National Park botanist Carolyn Whiting.
“I’m excited to discover whether there are other populations in the park, the details of its life cycle, what pollinates it, and whether we’ll observe it this spring, given the current drought.”
Researchers are now investigating the woolly devil’s potential medicinal properties.
“Under the microscope, we noticed specific glands that are known to possess compounds with anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties in other plants within the sunflower family,” says Academy co-author Keily Peralta.
“While further research is needed to determine these properties, this discovery underscores the potential knowledge we stand to gain from preserving plant diversity in fragile desert ecosystems.”
Original source
Manley DL, Lichter Marck IH, Peralta K, Castro Castro A, Wogan KA, Whiting CV, Powell AM (2025) Ovicula biradiata, a new genus of Compositae from Big Bend National Park in Trans-Pecos Texas. PhytoKeys 252: 141-162. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.252.137624
Picture in your mind the discovery of a new species.
What do you see? Researchers cutting through dense, untouched rainforests? Perhaps a submarine plunging into a deep-sea trench, illuminating a new world?
Well, it’s not always quite so dramatic. In fact, researchers in China discovered Branchiostegus sanae when they were scrolling through online seafood markets and noticed some deepwater tilefish with unique cheek patterns.
Branchiostegus sanae. Credit: Huang et al.
These red-and-white facial markings reminded the research team of the Studio Ghibli character San from Princess Mononoke, whom they chose to honour in their naming of the species.
Published in the open-access journal ZooKeys, Branchiostegus sanae is a deepwater tilefish belonging to the family Branchiostegidae. Researchers confirmed its new-species status using genetic analysis, and chose “sanae” as the specific epithet (that’s the part that differentiates species within a genus), in a nod to Hayao Miyazaki’s animated creation.
Branchiostegus sanae at a seafood market. Credit: Jiangyuan Chen.
“Finding a new species in this group is a rare and fortunate event, especially one as distinctive as Branchiostegus sanae.
“In Princess Mononoke, San is a young woman raised by wolves after being abandoned by her human parents. She sees herself as a part of the forest and fights to protect it. The film delves into the complex relationship between humans and nature, promoting a message of harmonious coexistence between the two: something we hope to echo through this naming.”
Lead author, Haochen Huang.
The Chinese fishermen who sell the new-to-science species call it the“鬼马头鱼” (ghost horsehead fish), and this also contributed to the species name because, fittingly, “Mononoke” (もののけ) refers to supernatural spirits in Japanese folklore.
As their name suggests, deepwater tilefish are found at great depths, with some species found 600 m below the surface. They are important food fish, commonly found in seafood markets in East and Southeast Asia.
Branchiostegus sanae is far from the only new species discovered at a seafood market. Indeed, a new giant isopod was recently dicovered in the same way – and also recieved a pop-culture inspired name. Check it out below!
So far only 31 species are described in the family Branchiostegidae, and 19 species in the genus Branchiostegus. From 1990 to 2024, only three new species of Branchiostegus have been described.
Other species of the genus Branchiostegus found in Chinese waters. Credit: Huang et al.
The study, led by researchers from the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Science, Zhejiang University and Ocean University of China, involved a combination of morphological analysis and genetic sequencing. Specimens were deposited in prestigious marine biological collections in China to facilitate future research.
Original study
Huang H, Chen J, Ke Z, Zhang C (2025) Branchiostegus sanae, a new species of deepwater tilefish (Eupercaria, Branchiostegidae) from the South China Sea. ZooKeys 1227: 129–142. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1227.130512
Happy Lunar New Year! For more than a billion people worldwide, today is a day of gifts, dancing, celebration and – of course – plenty of delicious food.
Coinciding with the first new moon of the lunar calendar, the 29th of January marks the beginning of a vibrant 15-day festival, which includes 7 days of holiday in China.
As 2025 is the Year of the Snake, we have gathered some of favourite studies celebrating the the scaly world of serpents to celebrate the occasion!
The tug-of-war coral snakes
A different kind of food fight.
A study published in Herpetozoa includes incredible footage of two red-tailed coral snakes (Micrurus mipartitus) engaging in a tug-of-war over a caecilian, a legless amphibian.
Check out the video below.
Two Micrurusmipartitussnakes tugging prey in opposite directions. Credit: Henrik Bringsøe and Niels Poul Dreyer.
The event marked the first documented wild case of kleptoparasitism, or food theft, within the family Elapidae.
Rhynchocalamus hejazicus is a recently discovered and secretive snake species from the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia.
Upon the species’ discovery, researchers dubbed the stylish serpent “the missing piece of the puzzle” as it fills a large distribution gap for its genus.
Published in Zoosystematics and Evolution, the research also includes a completely black variation of of the species known as a ‘melanistic morphotype.’
An expedition into the jungles and cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador revealed five dazzling new species of eyelash vipers, previously misidentified as one species.
Published in Evolutionary Systematics, the study received global attention from publications such as National Geographic thanks to the taxonomic importance and visual appeal of the research.
Red-wine morph of the Central American Eyelash-Pitviper (Bothriechis nigroadspersus), photographed in the Caribbean Island Escudo de Veraguas, off the coast of Panamá.Credit:Alejandro Arteaga.
Two species of African shovel-snout snakes, Prosymna confusa and Prosymnalisima, were published as new species in ZooKeysback in 2022.
Endemic to Angola, the snakes have unique beak-like snouts that allow them to dig into sandy soils. They also have backward pointed lancet-shaped teeth that they use for cutting open lizard eggs.
Kalahari shovel-snout snake (Prosymna lisima) from southeastern Angola. Credit: Chad Keates.
As they spend the majority of their time underground, these species were not the easiest to study, but they are certainly a treat for the eyes when they surface their wedge-shaped heads!
The Pensoft journal collection contains innumerable snake studies, so we could go on forever sharing our favourites. Instead, we will wish you a happy and prosperous 2025 filled with plenty of safe snake encounters.
It is estimated that only around 20% of the world’s insects are formally described. A formal description is the foundational understanding of a species, including a scientific name, information on how to identify the species, its biology, and where it can be found. With such a large proportion of our insects lacking this foundational information, we are left viewing the insect world through a very small window. This has major implications for conservation of insects and the ecosystems in which they play integral roles. It also limits our understanding of our natural resources, with the study of insects being valuable in a variety of fields, from healthcare and biochemistry, to biological pest control, to insect-inspired engineering.
Unfortunately, with a worldwide lack of taxonomic experts, limited funding, and the immense scale of describing the world’s insects, documenting our insect diversity before it’s lost to extinction is a considerable challenge. But this is where community engagement and citizen science can shine.
The Insect Investigators citizen science project, which ran in Australia in 2022, aimed to involve schools throughout the taxonomic process, to contribute to large-scale collection and documentation of Australian insects, while fostering an appreciation for insect diversity and the role of taxonomy. Fifty rural schools from Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia participated by setting up Malaise traps (tent-like passive insect traps) to sample local invertebrates near their schools over four weeks. This project resulted in over 60 thousand insect specimens being collected from often under-sampled, more remote parts of Australia. The resulting specimens are preserved and deposited in Australian museums for future research, including taxonomic work.
Malaise traps set up at Kwoorabup Nature School (left) and Beerwah State High School (right) to sample insects as part of the Insect Investigators project.
Through this project, several schools were involved in collecting a rarely collected group of parasitoid wasps belonging to the subfamily Miracinae (aka miracine wasps). These tiny wasps (typically 1-2mm in length) are very difficult to collect using traditional methods, though they appear to be quite diverse in Australia. As parasitoids, miracine wasps require an invertebrate host to complete their lifecycle. For miracine wasps, this host is a leaf-mining caterpillar – the kind that eats small twisting tunnels on the inside of leaves. The wasps lay their eggs inside these caterpillars, and the wasp larvae hatch and eat the caterpillar from the inside out!
‘Insect soup’ – specimens collected via Malaise Trap at Kwoorabup Nature School.
Due to their caterpillar-eating biology, and the fact that they are picky eaters, usually targeting a specific species, these wasps can be used to control pests. For example, the miracine wasp species Mirax insularis in Puerto Rico, and Centistidea striata in Brazil, are known to attack coffee leaf-miners, a major pest of coffee plantations – so you may have one of these wasps to thank for your morning coffee!
As part of this project, we engaged with schools to involve them throughout the process of describing the miracine wasps they had collected. First, we ran in-person and online or hybrid workshops with the students to teach them about the new wasp they had discovered, and the taxonomic process involved in describing and naming it. The students then brainstormed a variety of creative names for the new species, which were collaboratively curated and voted upon to arrive at the final species names.
From Queensland, we have Mirax supremus, meaning ‘highest’ in Latin, named after the Pinnacle program at Beerwah State High School, which the students were a part of.
Mirax supremus.
From South Australia, comes Ceduna Area School’s species, Mirax ceduna, named after the school and town the wasp was collected from (colloquially known as the ‘golden bum wasp’).
Mirax ceduna.
And from Kwoorabup Nature School in Western Australia (WA), Mirax kaatijan, meaning knowledge/learning in the Noongar language of the south-west region of WA, to represent the new knowledge the students had learnt about insect diversity, and the importance of knowledge about our insects.
Mirax kaatijan.
Though the descriptions themselves are a small step towards the immense task of describing Australia’s insects, it was inspiring to see the students and their communities really engage with the process and build a connection with their local insects, and an appreciation for these tiny, often-overlooked wasps. We hope this project plays a role in inspiring the next generation of budding entomologists and taxonomists in Australia.
References
1. Stork, N.E., How Many Species of Insects and Other Terrestrial Arthropods Are There on Earth? Annual Review of Entomology, 2018. 63(1): p. 31-45.
2. Song, C., et al., Bee Sting-Inspired Inflammation-Responsive Microneedles for Periodontal Disease Treatment. Research (Wash D C), 2023. 6: p. 0119.
3. Mika, N., H. Zorn, and M. Rühl, Insect-derived enzymes: a treasure for industrial biotechnology and food biotechnology. Adv Biochem Eng Biotechnol, 2013. 136: p. 1-17.
4. Galli, M., et al., Can biocontrol be the game-changer in integrated pest management? A review of definitions, methods and strategies. Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection, 2024. 131(2): p. 265-291.
5. Gorb, S.N. and E.V. Gorb, Insect-inspired architecture to build sustainable cities. Current Opinion in Insect Science, 2020. 40: p. 62-70.
6. Zhang, Y., A. Reid, and J.F.C. Windmill, Insect-inspired acoustic micro-sensors. Current Opinion in Insect Science, 2018. 30: p. 33-38.
7. Suzuki, K., et al., Development of water surface mobile robot inspired by water striders. Micro & Nano Letters, 2017. 12(8): p. 575-579.
8. Engel, M.S., et al., The taxonomic impediment: a shortage of taxonomists, not the lack of technical approaches. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2021. 193(2): p. 381-387.
9. Slater‐Baker, M.R., et al., First record of miracine parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from Australia: molecular phylogenetics and morphology reveal multiple new species. Austral Entomology, 2022. 61(1): p. 49-67.
10. Navarro, P. and F. Gallardo, Host instar preference of Mirax insularis (Muesebeck) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a koinobiont parasitoid of Leucoptera coffeella Guerin-Meneville (Lepidoptera: Lyonetiidae). Journal of Agriculture- University of Puerto Rico, 2009. 93: p. 139-142.
11. Penteado-Dias, A.M., New species of parasitoids on Perileucoptera coffeella ( Guérin-Menèville) (Lepidoptera, Lyonetiidae) from Brazil. Zoologische Mededelingen, 1999. 73: p. 189-197.
12. Slater-Baker M-R, Guzik M, Rodriguez J, Howe A, Woodward A, Ducker N, Fagan-Jeffries E (2025) Three new species of Australian miracine parasitoid wasps collected by regional schools as part of the Insect Investigators citizen science project (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Miracinae). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 98: 19-45. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.98.137806
Back in 2018, I began conducting fieldwork on grasshoppers in Texas. Among the specimens I collected that year, I noticed something intriguing—what appeared to be a new species of Agroecotettix. That initial discovery set the stage for years of research, stretching through 2024. During this time, I continued to collect Agroecotettix specimens and studied collections from several institutions, including the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Brigham Young University, and the Mississippi Entomological Museum.
Agroecotettix aristus.
By analyzing these specimens, I identified 16 new species of Agroecotettix from the United States and Mexico. Interestingly, most of these species are associated with mountainous of Texas and Mexico. Some also inhabit the South Texas Plains ecoregion and the Edwards Plateau.
Habitat and Behavior of Agroecotettix
Agroecotettix grasshoppers are often found on thorny, leguminous shrubs such as Acacia and Vachella. Mesquite is typically not a host. In the Big Bend region of Texas, I often found them on Sotol—sometimes consuming pollen, other times seeking shade beneath the leaves during the heat of the day.
Individuals of Agroecotettix dorni roosting during the heat of the day on Dasylirion leaves
One sweltering day in Big Bend National Park, it was 113°F, and I was trudging through Boquillas Canyon, searching for grasshoppers. After two hours of seeing a couple grasshoppers, I was ready to leave. Then, glancing up, I spotted 40 or 50 grasshoppers clustered on the undersides of Sotol leaves, sheltering from the mid-day sun. Many of them were Agroecotettix, alongside other flightless desert grasshoppers like Phaulotettix and Netrosoma. It was just like picking fruit off a tree—no net needed.
A view from Big Bend National Park.
Agroecotettix crypsidomus.
Much of what we now know about Agroecotettix species stems from the work of Dr. Theodore Cohn. During the 1950s and 1960s, he conducted extensive fieldwork in Mexico, often in areas that are now too dangerous to access. His collections were invaluable for identifying several of the new species, highlighting the enduring importance of historical specimens and natural history collections.
Naming these species offered a unique opportunity to honor individuals and ideas that have influenced me such as:
LeVar Burton: One species is named after this the Reading Rainbow and Star Trek icon. Burton is an American treasure who has inspired a love of reading in millions, including me. As a child, I grew up watching Reading Rainbow and later found myself reading those same books to my own kids during school events.
Ted Turner: Another species honors Ted Turner, the entrepreneur and conservationist. Turner’s efforts to preserve vast swaths of the western U.S. have will have a lasting impact on biodiversity.
Image of Michael Dorn courtesy of Supercon Conventions under a CC BY 2.0 license
Michael Dorn: Known for playing Worf on Star Trek, Dorn inspired another species name. Work was always my favorite character. A portion of this species anatomy resembled a Klingon weapon, making the connection apt.
IDIC: One species is named after the Vulcan philosophy of “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.” This Star Trek principle seemed a fitting name for a species in this group of cryptic species.
Jay Silverheels: another species honors Silverheels’ cultural impact and the Texas landscapes where the series was set. A Native American athlete and actorwho most famously portrayed the fictional character Tonto in “The Lone Ranger” television series from 1949-1957, Silverheels was one of the first Native American actors to portray a major Indigenous character on a television series. Throughout his career, Silverheels advocated for more inclusion of Indigenous people in media and founded the Indian Actors Workshop in Los Angeles during the 1960’s.
Clayton Moore: Known for playing the Lone Ranger, “moorei” honors Clayton Moore for his portrayal of this fictional Texas Ranger that embodied justice, bravery, and connection to the American West.
Frida Kahlo: The species name kahloae patronym the iconic Mexican painter known for her vivid and symbolic artwork. Her enduring connection to Mexican culture makes her an apt figure to be commemorated through this species, which is endemic to Mexico.
Exploring the Agroecotettix genus has been a journey into the unexpected. What began as a few curious specimens turned into the discovery of 16 species (and counting). The biodiversity of this group, particularly in Mexico, is likely even greater than we currently realize.
The natural world never ceases to amaze. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you look a little closer using new techniques or tools—and suddenly, there’s a universe of diversity waiting to be discovered.
Research article:
Hill JG (2024) Desert diversification: revision of Agroecotettix Bruner, 1908 (Orthoptera, Acrididae, Melanoplinae) with descriptions of sixteen new species from the United States and Mexico. ZooKeys 1218: 177-230. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1218.133703
The Hades’ snake moray (Uropterygius hades), a dark brown, slender snake moray eel, has chosen the road less traveled, thriving in dim and muddy river mouths, unlike most of its marine moray eel relatives. It is widely distributed across the Central Indo-Pacific, and has been found in southern Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, southern Java, and Fiji. This new moray eel was named after Hades, the god of the underworld, due to its unique habitat, burrowing behavior, high sensitivity to light, and most notably, its deep, dark coloration.
Live photo of Uropterygius hades. Image credit: Dr Wen-Chien Huang
Scientists Dr Wen-Chien Huang, Dr Rodulf Anthony Balisco, Dr Te-Yu Liao, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan, Western Philippines University, the Philippines, and Dr Yusuke Hibino, Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History and Human History, Japan, describe this new species in a paper published in the open-access journal ZooKeys. They named it after Hades, the underworld god, to emphasize its imposing appearance and its habitat in dim, turbid environments. This idea was inspired by Dr. Wen-Chien Huang, who was influenced by Ralph Fiennes’ portrayal of Hades in the movie Clash of the Titans.
Live photo of Uropterygius hades. Image credit: Dr Wen-Chien Huang
There are approximately 230 species of moray eels worldwide, with most inhabiting marine environments. Only one species has been confirmed to spend the majority of its life in freshwater. Some marine species, like the slender giant moray (Strophidon sathete), can tolerate and occasionally enter lower-salinity environments such as river mouths. However, moray eels specifically adapted to estuarine habitats are exceedingly rare.
The discovery of Hades’ snake moray was actually accidental, when the three researchers from National Sun Yat-sen University investigated the cave of the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, aiming to survey the aquatic fauna and targeting a cave eel species, the bean-eyed snake moray (Uropterygius cyamommatus). This eel, with its highly reduced eye size, is considered an ideal example for studying the evolutionary processes that allow eels to adapt to cave environments. However, the researchers did not find any bean-eyed snake morays in the cave; instead, they collected a slender moray with a conspicuous, uniformly deep dark color.
Fresh specimen of Uropterygius hades. Credit: Dr Wen-Chien Huang
When kept in an aquatic tank, the Hades’ snake moray exhibits tail-first burrowing behavior, which is rarely seen in moray eels. Additionally, it is highly sensitive to light, consistently attempting to hide when exposed to it. Its small eyes—thought to be an adaptation to low-light environments—and its reduced number of head sensory pores—believed to help avoid clogging by the substrate—suggest that this species might be an excellent burrower, relying primarily on chemoreception rather than vision to detect prey or avoid predators.
Original source:
Huang W-C, Hibino Y, Balisco RA, Liao T-Y (2024) Description of a new uniformly brown estuarine moray eel (Anguilliformes, Muraenidae) from the Central Indo-Pacific Ocean. In: Ho H-C, Russell B, Hibino Y, Lee M-Y (Eds) Biodiversity and taxonomy of fishes in Taiwan and adjacent waters. ZooKeys 1220: 15-34. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1220.129685
If you follow any of Pensoft’s social media accounts, you will know that we have been counting down our top 10 favourite species described as new-to-science in our journals this year.
The list is—of course—entirely arbitrary, but it is also a fun way to look back on a year in which several weird and wonderful animals, plants and fungi were discovered.
In this blog post, we will tell you more about each species, share some honourable mentions, and reveal our number 1 spot!
Honourable mentions
The league of legends crab
Gothus teemo and Teemo.
When it was time to name a tiny, ‘furry’ new species of gorilla crab from China, researchers drew unlikely inspiration from the video game League of Legends.
Gothus teemo was named after the character Teemo thanks to its distinctive appearance and has drawn a lot of attention from fans of the franchise.
The new species is thought to have resembled a modern sandtiger shark (pictured).
Calling anything on this list a ‘new species’ is not accurate—rather, they are just new to published science. Nothing exemplifies this more than Palaeohypotodus bizzocoi, a long-extinct shark species that lived 65 million years ago, shortly after the fall of the dinosaurs.
What makes this discovery remarkable is that it was partially accidental. Find out how a 100-year-old box of teeth in Alabama led to the discovery of this ancient shark below.
Sometimes, it is the way in which a new species is discovered that makes it so special.
Such is the case for Schiedea waiahuluensis, a carnation species from Hawaii that is likely the first plant to be identified and collected using drone technology. Learn all about it below!
With its all-black colouration, Tylototriton gaowangjienensis, a crocodile newt from China, has drawn comparisons to Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon.
However, this alluring amphibian hides flashes of orange beneath its tail and toes! Find more pictures and information below.
Besides its adorable appearance, Hoplitis onosmaevae is remarkable due to its distribution. It is currently only known from a small region of the French Alps, and areas >2,000 km away in the mountains of Turkey and Iraq.
Another interesting aspect of Hoplitis onosmaevae is its specialised ecological niche: it is thought to only collect pollen from Onosma species. This narrow ecological niche makes it vulnerable to factors like climate change and changes in agricultural practices.
John L. Clark with Amalophyllon miraculum. Credit @phinaea on Instagram.
The discovery of Amalophyllon miraculum—in an area assumed to be a barren agricultural landscape of plant extinctions—represents an inspiration for biodiversity conservation. This “miracle” plant, as its name suggests, was found surviving in one of the small, isolated forest fragments that remain in the Centinela region of western Ecuador.
This spiky amphibian was discovered on Cerro Candelaria, a mountain in the Tungurahua province. The discovery of this new species in the upper Rio Pastaza watershed suggests this area might be a centre of rapid evolution for these fascinating frogs.
Entomologists and citizen scientists teamed up to discover this new species of flea beetle in the lush rainforests of Borneo. The discovery was made during a Taxon Expeditions trip, where non-scientist people got the chance to work alongside scientists to identify and describe new species.
What makes this discovery particularly exciting is the beetle’s size—it’s actually one of the largest among its relatives! Flea beetles that live in the leaf litter of tropical forests are typically much smaller, and as a result, we know very little about their ecology and diversity.
Discovered in the Red Sea, the ‘grumpy dwarf goby’ (Sueviota aethon) was published as a new species in ZooKeys. You can probably guess how it earned its name! This tiny fish, measuring less than 2 centimetres long, sports a permanent frown thanks to its large canines and fierce expression. Despite its small size, the grumpy dwarfgoby is thought to be a fearsome predator in its coral reef habitat.
Thismia malayanais a mycoheterotrophic plant, meaning it doesn’t photosynthesise. Instead, it acts as a parasite, stealing carbon resources from the fungi on its roots!
By stealing nutrients from fungi, it can thrive in the low-light conditions of dense forest understories where its highly specialised flowers are pollinated by fungus gnats and other small insects.
While the Tiputini velvet worm—Oroperipatus tiputini—may look friendly, it is an accomplished hunter that shoots a sticky substance from a pair of glands to trap its prey. This “living fossil” is a rare and unique invertebrate that evolved over 500 million years ago. The new species was discovered in the Ecuadorian Amazon at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station, which is part of the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve.
They say that life imitates art, and this new gecko species proves that to be true! Researchers in India have discovered a gecko with such a unique and beautiful colouration that they named it after painter Vincent van Gogh. The “Starry Night” gecko, or Cnemaspis vangoghi, was discovered in the Southern Western Ghats and stands out due to the male’s yellow head and forebody with light blue spots on the back, a striking combination reminiscent of the famous painting.
Yet another hectic year has passed for our team at Pensoft, so it feels right to look back at the highlights from the last 12 months, as we buckle up for the leaps and strides in 2025.
In the past, we have used the occasion to take you back to the best moments of our most popular journals (see this list of 2023 highlights from ZooKeys, MycoKeys, PhytoKeys and more!); share milestones related to our ARPHA publishing platform (see the new journals, integrations and features from 2023); or let you reminisce about the coolest research published across our journals during the year(check out our Top 10 new species from 2021).
In 2022, when we celebrated our 30th anniversary on the academic scene, we extended our festive spirit throughout the year as we dived deep into those fantastic three decades. We put up Pensoft’s timeline and finished the year with a New Species Showdown tournament, where our followers on (what was back then) Twitter voted twice a week for their favourite species EVER described on the pages of our taxonomic journals.
Spoiler alert: we will be releasing our 2024 Top 10 New Species on Monday, 23 December, so you’d better go to the right of this screen and subscribe to our blog!
As we realised we might’ve been a bit biased towards our publishing activities over the years, this time, hereby, we chose to present you a retrospection that captures our best 2024 moments from across the departments, and shed light on how the publishing, technology and project communication endeavours fit together to make Pensoft what it is.
In truth, we take pride in being an exponentially growing family of multiple departments that currently comprises over 60 full-time employees and about a dozen freelancers working from all corners of the world, including Australia, Canada, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Together, we are all determined to make sure we continuously improve our service to all who have trusted us: authors, reviewers, editors, client journals, learned societies, research institutions, project consortia and other external collaborators.
After all, great deeds are only possible when you team up with great like-minded people!
In 2024, at Pensoft, we were hugely pleased to see a significant growth in the published output at almost all our journals, including record-breaking numbers in both submissions and publications at flagship titles of ours, including the Biodiversity Data Journal, PhytoKeys and MycoKeys.
Later in 2024, our colleagues, who work together with our clients to ensure their journals comply with the requirements of the top scholarly databases before they apply for indexation, informed us that another two journals in our portfolio have had their applications to Clarivate’s Web of Science successfully accepted. These are the newest journal of the International Association of Vegetation Science: Vegetation and Classification, and Metabarcoding and Metagenomics: a journal we launched in 2017 in collaboration with a team of brilliant scientists working together at the time within the DNAquaNet COST Action.
In 2024, we also joined the celebrations of our long-time partners at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, whose three journals: Zoosystematics and Evolution, Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift and Fossil Record are all part of our journal portfolio. This year marked the 10th Open Access anniversary of the three journals.
In the meantime, we also registered a record in new titles either joining the Pensoft portfolio or opting for ARPHA Platform’s white-label publishing solution, where journal owners retain exclusivity for the publication of their titles, yet use ARPHA’s end-to-end technology and as many human-provided services as necessary.
Pensoft’s CEO and founder Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev with Prof. Dr. Marc Stadler, Editor-in-Chief of IMA Fungus and President of the International Mycological Association at the Pensoft booth at the 12th International Mycological Congress (August, the Netherlands).
Amongst our new partners are the International Mycological Association who moved their official journal IMA Fungus to ARPHA Platform. As part of Pensoft’s scholarly portfolio, the renowned journal joins another well-known academic title in the field of mycology: MycoKeys, which was launched by Pensoft in 2011. The big announcement was aptly made public at this year’s 12th International Mycological Congress where visitors of the Pensoft stand could often spot newly elected IMA President and IMA Fungus Chief editor: Marc Stadler chatting with our founder and CEO Lyubomir Penev by the Pensoft/MycoKeys booth.
On our end, we did not stop supporting enthusiastic and proactive scientists in their attempt to bridge gaps in scientific knowledge. In January, we launched the Estuarine Management and Technologies journal together with Dr. Soufiane Haddout of the Ibn Tofail University, Morocco.
Later on, Dr. Franco Andreone (Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali, Italy) sought us with the idea to launch a journal addressing the role of natural history museums and herbaria collections in scientific progress. This collaboration resulted in the Natural History Collections and Museomics journal, officially announced at the joint TDWG-SPNHC conference in Okinawa, Japan in August.
Around this time, we finalised our similarly exciting journal project in partnership with Prof. Dr. Volker Grimm (UFZ, Germany), Prof. Dr. Karin Frank (UFZ, Germany), Prof. Dr. Mark E. Hauber (City University of New York) and Prof. Dr. Florian Jeltsch (University of Potsdam, Germany). The outcome of this collaboration is called Individual-based Ecology: a journal that aims to promote an individual-based perspective in ecology, as it closes the knowledge gap between individual-level responses and broader ecological patterns.
The three newly-launched journals are all published under the Diamond Open Access model, where neither access, nor publication is subject to charges.
As you can see, we have a lot to be proud of in terms of our journals. This is also why in 2024 our team took a record number of trips to attend major scientific events, where we got the chance to meet face-to-face with long-time editors, authors, reviewers and readers of our journals. Even more exciting was meeting the new faces of scientific research and learning about their own take on scholarship and academic journals.
Pensoft’s CEO and founder Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev welcomed editors at PhytoKeys to the Pensoft-PhytoKeys-branded booth at the XX International Botanical Congress in July 2024 (Spain).
We cannot possibly comment on Pensoft’s tech progress in 2024 without mentioning the EU-funded project BiCIKL (acronym for Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library) that we coordinated for three years ending up last April.
This 36-month endeavour saw 14 member institutions and 15 research infrastructures representing diverse actors from the biodiversity data realm come together to improve bi-directional links between different platforms, standards, formats and scientific fields.
Following these three years of collaborative work, we reported a great many notable research outputs from our consortium (find about them in the open-science project collection in the Research Ideas and Outcomes journal, titled “Towards interlinked FAIR biodiversity knowledge: The BiCIKL perspective”) that culminated in the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub: a one-stop portal that allows users to access FAIR and interlinked biodiversity data and services in a few clicks; and also a set of policy recommendations addressing key policy makers, research institutions and funders who deal with various types of data about the world’s biodiversity, and are thereby responsible to ensuring there findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability (FAIR-ness).
Apart from coordinating BiCIKL, we also worked side-by-side with our partners to develop, refine and test each other’s tools and services, in order to make sure that they communicate efficiently with each other, thereby aligning with the principles of FAIR data and the needs of the scientific community in the long run.
During those three years we made a lot of refinements to our OpenBiodiv: a biodiversity database containing knowledge extracted from scientific literature, built as an Open Biodiversity Knowledge Management System, and our ARPHA Writing Tool. The latter is an XML-based online authoring environment using a large set of pre-formatted templates, where manuscripts are collaboratively written, edited and submitted to participating journals published on ARPHA Platform. What makes the tool particularly special is its multiple features that streamline and FAIRify data publishing as part of a scientific publication, especially in the field of biodiversity knowledge. In fact, we made enough improvements to the ARPHA Writing Tool that we will be soon officially releasing its 2.0 version!
OpenBiodiv – The Open Biodiversity Knowledge Management System
ARPHA Writing Tool 2.0
Amongst our collaborative projects are the Nanopublications for Biodiversity workflow that we co-developed with KnowledgePixels to allow researchers to ‘fragment’ their most important scientific findings into machine-actionable and machine-interpretable statements. Being the smallest units of publishable information, these ‘pixels of knowledge’ present an assertion about anything that can be uniquely identified and attributed to its author and serve to communicate a single statement, its original source (provenance) and citation record (publication info).
Nanopublications for Biodiversity
In partnership with the Swiss-based Text Mining group of Patrick Ruch at SIB and the text- and data-mining association Plazi, we brought the SIB Literature Services (SIBiLS) database one step closer to solidifying its “Biodiversity PMC” portal and working title.
Understandably, we spent a lot of effort, time and enthusiasm in raising awareness about our most recent innovations, in addition to our long-standing workflows, formats and tools developed with the aim to facilitate open and efficient access to scientific data; and their integration into published scholarly work, as well as receiving well-deserved recognition for their collection.
We just can’t stress it enough how important and beneficial it is for everyone to have high-quality FAIR data, ideally made available within a formal scientific publication!
🗨️Imagine if ALL these links were provided as hyperlinks within a #scholarly publication!
Pensoft’s CTO Teodor Georgiev talks about innovative methods and good practices in the publication of biodiversity data in scholarly papers at the First national meeting of the Bulgarian Barcode of Life (BgBOL) consortium (December, Bulgaria).
🤔What is a Data Paper?
👍 A means to describe a #dataset – like the ones on @GBIF – in a standardised, widely accepted #scientific article format.
👇🧵Highlights from @LyuboPenev's talk at the int'l symposium "#BiodiversityData in montane & arid Eurasia" in Kazakhstan 🇰🇿
Pensoft’s CEO and founder Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev presenting his “Data papers on biodiversity” talk at the “Biodiversity data in montane and arid Eurasia” symposium jointly organized by GBIF and by the Institute of Zoology of Republic of Kazakhstan (November, Kazakhstan).
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📸Today, at the @EASEeditors symposium, our @teodorpensoft gave a sneak peek into the AI-assisted tools at @ARPHAplatform we have been working on (e.g. Word -> JATS XML conversion) and the #ARPHA Writing Tool 2.0 (coming up in early 2025)!🎉
Pensoft’s CTO Teodor Georgiev presents new features and workflows currently in testing at the ARPHA Writing Tool 2.0 at the EASE Autumn Symposium 2024 (online event).Pensoft’s Head of Journal development, Marketing and PR Iva Boyadzhieva talks about Pensoft’s data publishing approach and innovations at the German Ecological Society 53rd Annual Conference (September, Germany).
Pensoft as a science communicator
At our Project team, which is undoubtedly the fastest developing department at Pensoft, science communicators are working closely with technology and publishing teams to help consortia bring their scientific results closer to policy actors, decision-makers and the society at large.
Ultimately, bridging the notorious chasm between researchers and global politics boils down to mutual understanding and dialogue.
Pensoft’s communication team attended COP16 (November 2024, Colombia) along with partners at the consortia of CO-OP4CBD, BioAgora and RESPIN: three Horizon Europe projects, whose communication and dissemination is led by Pensoft.
Throughout 2024, the team, comprising 20 science communicators and project managers, has been working as part of 27 EU-funded project consortia, including nine that have only started this year (check out all partnering projects on the Pensoft website, ordered from most recently started to oldest). Apart from communicating key outcomes and activities during the duration of the projects, at many of the projects, our team has also been actively involved in their grant proposal drafting, coordination, administration, platform development, graphic and web design and others (see all project services offered by Pensoft to consortia).
📸As leaders of the “Stakeholder engagement, comms & dissemination” WP at @BCubedProject, we joined the annual meeting to report on project branding, #scicomm & #DataManagement.
Naturally, we had a seat on the front row during many milestones achieved by our partners at all those 27 ongoing projects, and communicated to the public by our communicators.
Amongst those are the release of the InsectsCount web application developed within the Horizon 2020 project SHOWCASE. Through innovative gamification elements, the app encourages users to share valuable data about flower-visiting insects, which in turn help researchers gain new knowledge about the relationship between observed species and the region’s land use and management practices (learn more about InsectsCount on the SHOWCASE prroject website).
Another fantastic project output was the long-awaited dataset of maps of annual forest disturbances across 38 European countries derived from the Landsat satellite data archive published by the Horizon Europe project ForestPaths in April (find more about the European Forest Disturbance Atlas on the ForestPaths project website).
In a major company highlight, last month, our project team participated in COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan with a side event dedicated to the role of open science and science communication in climate- and biodiversity-friendly policy.
Pensoft’s participation at COP29 – as well as our perspective on FAIR data and open science – were recently covered in an interview by Exposed by CMD (a US-based news media accredited to cover the event) with our science communicator Alexandra Korcheva and project manager Boris Barov.
You see, A LOT of great things worth celebrating happened during the year for us at Pensoft: all thanks to ceaselessly flourishing collaboration based on transparency, trust and integrity. Huge ‘THANK YOU!’ goes to everyone who has joined us in our endeavours!
Here’s to many more shared achievements coming up in 2025!
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“You fool. No man can kill me,” said the Witch-king of Angmar.
“I am no man!” Éowyn replied, “I am a newly discovered freshwater snail species from Brazil!”
Okay, maybe that isn’t exactly how it goes – but it’s our way of letting you know that two newly discovered snail species have been named in honour of Éowyn and Meriadoc from The Lord of the Rings.
Described in the open-access journalZoosystematics and Evolution, Idiopyrgus eowynae and Idiopyrgus meriadoci were named by fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic series (who happen to also be successful researchers).
Idiopyrguseowynae.
Explaining the name Idiopyrgus eowynae, they said: “Éowyn exemplifies courage, resilience, and resistance against darkness, both internal and external, standing against Gríma Wormtongue and the Witch-king of Angmar.”
The discovered species are troglobitic and were found in a single limestone cave in the Serra do Ramalho karst area of Bahia state, northeastern Brazil. The gastropods belong to the family Tomichiidae, a group previously known for inhabiting surface freshwater environments but now shown to have adapted to subterranean ecosystems.
Both snails have unique periostracal hairs—thorn-like structures—on their shells, a feature uncommon among Brazilian freshwater snails. Their cave-specific adaptations include reduced pigmentation, fragile shells, and small size.
The Gruna do Pedro Cassiano cave, area and entrance.
The Gruna do Pedro Cassiano cave, where the snails were discovered, is a fragile ecosystem threatened by water extraction, deforestation, and climate change. Due to the species’ limited habitat and environmental threats to their subterranean ecosystem, the authors recommend a ‘Vulnerable’ classification. The findings highlight the importance of protecting Brazil’s subterranean biodiversity and raise concerns about the impact of human activities on these delicate ecosystems.
These concerns played a part in the naming of Idiopyrgus meriadoci, as the researchers state: “Besides standing with Éowyn against the Witch-king in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Merry is also an example of the fight for nature conservation in Middle-earth, pushing the Ents into action and ultimately ending Saruman’s threat to Fangorn Forest.”
Idiopyrgusmeriadoci.
On his choice of Tolkien-inspired names for the new species, lead author Dr Rodrigo B. Salvador of the Finnish Museum of Natural History said: “I tend to use lots of pop culture references in my species names—from books, comics, Dungeons & Dragons, and video games. If we think about it, there is a long-standing tradition in taxonomy of using names from mythology and literature to name species.
“Granted, in the old days, those names mostly came from Greek and Roman myths and Shakespeare. Today, we have newer mythologies and literature classics, so in a way, we’re just continuing that tradition.”
Salvador was also resposible for naming a land snail after Shar of Dungeons and Dragons, and more recently Baldur’s Gate, fame. Read about it below!
Salvador RB, Bichuette ME (2024) Idiopyrgus Pilsbry, 1911 (Gastropoda, Tomichiidae): a relict genus radiating into subterranean environments. Zoosystematics and Evolution 100(4): 1543-1556. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.100.136428
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