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PODCAST

New Species

New Species Podcast

Just a fraction of the species on our planet are known to science, but more are described and published every day. This podcast talks to the authors of these new species to get the behind-the-scenes stories of how new species are found and named, as well as why these discoveries should matter to everyone, not just scientists. Join us on our journey to better understand the wonderful biodiversity of our planet! Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies), and support the podcast at

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All Episodes

00:29:21

A New Porcupine with Héctor Ramirez-Chaves

New Species ·

2025/09/09

Simultaneously one of the cutest and most pain-inducing creatures, porcupines capture attention all over their worldwide range. In this paper, Héctor Ramirez-Chaves and his coauthors describe a new species of porcupine from the Andes of Colombia. The work has taken them across different ecosystems and to a good handful of international museums. As Héctor describes Colombia’s incredible biodiversity, he also addresses the critical nature of his work. “We still need to study rodents here in Colombia,”

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00:48:50

A New (Old) Apple with Todd, Cameron, and John

New Species ·

2025/08/12

The moment John Bunker saw the 200+ year old tree, he knew it might be special. He had no idea however, that it was one of America’s oldest surviving apple trees, a French ancestor to many of the apple varieties we know and love today. Combining Todd Little-Siebold’s historical research and Cameron Peace’s genetic work, in this special interview the three of them are able to tell a story of this apple tree that is not unlike the story of many new species discoveries. A transcript of this episode can

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00:52:52

A New Butterfly with Zac MacDonald and Julian Dupuis

New Species ·

2025/07/29

Think butterfly genomics is a simple topic? Think again, but this time think alongside Zac MacDonald and Julian Dupuis. Not only are they answering some of the most interesting contemporary conservation questions, but they’re doing so using a very curious butterfly as their model organism. “One of the difficult things with studying these kinds of butterflies….is we don't really understand fitness or adaptive value as well as we do in cougars or in foxes or in dogs or in other vertebrates that

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00:56:15

Five Deep-sea Isopods with Henry Knauber

New Species ·

2025/07/15

Deep-sea isopods come in all shapes and sizes, and Henry Knauber is excited to see all of them. In this paper, he and his coauthors describe five new species and redescribe another as part of a large expedition to examine the biodiversity of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench region of the northwest Pacific Ocean. These new species are part of what he calls his “god complex,” a cluster of closely-related cryptic species he has spent much of his scientific career distinguishing and naming after Greek gods

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00:33:38

A New Toxungenous Scorpion with Léo Laborieux

New Species ·

2025/05/27

“Serendipity is a real grabbing force of science,” says Léo Laborieux as he shares his experience describing his new species of scorpion. While at a remote research station in the Colombian rainforest, Léo found a handful of scorpions that exhibited a unique venom ‘flicking’ behavior. Armed only with his phone and a few basic supplies, Léo documented the behavior, diagnosed the scorpions as being a new species, and came to fascinating conclusions about venom biomechanics. In this episode he brings

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00:30:55

A New Begonia with Dipankar Borah

New Species ·

2025/05/13

Begonias are known around the world as a plant of beauty and diversity. What can they teach us about the world around us? Through his work on Begonias and other flowering plants found in Northeast India, Professor Dipankar Borah sees the world differently. It’s not just for his own benefit though.“Much of my time is spent making students aware of their surroundings,” He says. “We trek to forests, cook food from the wilderness, and then find joy in the simple yet profound experiences. Through these

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00:46:06

A New Bee Fly with Lisa Rollinson and Allan Cabrero

New Species ·

2025/04/30

For some people, a box of 100-year-old bee flies might seem daunting, but for Lisa Rollinson and Allan Cabrero, It was an exciting challenge. As part of a Smithsonian-based internship, Lisa worked with Allan to identify the flies, creating a new key for several genera and discovering a new species along the way. Flies aren’t the most charismatic group, but Lisa sees them as an unexpected opportunity to introduce people to taxonomy. “I think science can be really good for getting people curious and

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00:31:50

Two New Damselflies with Shantanu Joshi

New Species ·

2025/04/29

Shantanu Joshi is fascinated with creatures of all kinds, but especially damselflies, the small quick fliers of the order Odonata. In this episode he takes us deep into the forests of Northeast India, a place of immense beauty and interfering colonial history. Undersampling and poor specimen quality are a few reasons the diversity of this area is not well known, and Shantanu and his coauthors are determined to fill in the gaps. As with his project The Odonata of India, Shantanu shares in incredible

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00:24:19

A New Astigmatid Mite with Hemen Sendi

New Species ·

2025/04/01

What if I told you that the oldest known biotic association of arthropods is a piece of Lebanese amber from the Cretaceous period? At the same time that flowering plants were diversifying, astigmatid mites were finding a very convenient way to get around: on the backs of termites. Can mites and termites be friends? How does one identify a tiny mite specimen without damaging its equally-important host? Learn the answers to these questions and more from Dr. Hemen Sendi on this episode of the New

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00:46:53

A New Woolly Devil with Isaac Lichter Marck

New Species ·

2025/03/18

Sunflowers come in all shapes and sizes, and the group has gained a new member. Nicknamed the “woolly devil,” Ovicula biradiata is the product of the amazing bi-national collaboration between taxonomists, conservationists, and community scientists in Big Bend National Park. But it comes at a time when the future of National Parks is uncertain.“I think this particular discovery has inspired a lot of people outside of the world of biodiversity science to recognize that we still have a lot of work to

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00:35:39

Science Communication: Hard Conversations with Ethan...

New Species ·

2024/12/24

Someone who identifies as a nature lover might not be excited to see trees cut down or large machines rolling across the forest floor. Science doesn’t always align with everyone’s expectations, and often scientists have to explain their work to audiences that aren’t interested or who don’t agree. Ethan Tapper has many of these conversations. Ethan works to manage Vermont forests sustainably and help them thrive, which often includes practices that might seem destructive or contrary to a forest’s

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00:35:30

BONUS: Bats! (1999) with Amanda Grunwald

New Species ·

2024/12/10

Amanda and I discuss and review Bats! (1999) Our ratings: Enjoyability: 🦇 🦇 🦇 🦇 Accuracy: 🦇🦇 🦇 🦇 🦇 This episode is the first in a new bonus series where I watch B-list horror movies with scientists and we rate them on accuracy and enjoyability. All episodes are free, for future episodes you will just have to sign up through Patreon at Patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod. If you choose to support the podcast with a paid subscription, it is really appreciated! My 2025 goal is to cover the cost of

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00:20:56

A New Malagasy Spider with Matjaž Gregorič

New Species ·

2024/12/10

On an expedition to Madagascar, Matjaž Gregorič and his research team came upon a damaged termite nest that had a few other invertebrate visitors. When they experimentally damaged the nest again, they found two unexpected things: spiders ballooning in to prey on the termites as they rebuilt, and hopeful ants standing by to steal termites from those spiders. It created what the authors called “a perilous Malagasy triad”, a three-way predator-prey-kleptoparasite interaction that tells a very

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00:27:09

Two New Cave-Dwelling Snails with Rodrigo Salvador

New Species ·

2024/11/26

Rodrigo’s paper “Idiopyrgus Pilsbry, 1911 (Gastropoda, Tomichiidae): a relict genus radiating into subterranean environments” is in November 8th issue of Zoosystematics and EvolutionIt can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.100.136428 A transcript of this episode can be found here: Rodrigo Salvador - Transcript Follow Rodrigo on X/Bluesky: @Kraken_Scholar and @krakenscholar.bsky.social Follow the Journal of Geek Studies on X/Bluesky:@JGeekStudies and @jgeekstudies.bsky.social New Species:

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00:45:04

A New Schizomid with Sean Birk Bek Craig

New Species ·

2024/11/12

What happens when a hymenopterist finds a mysterious arachnid in a Danish hothouse? Sean Birk Bek Craig was exploring the floor of a hothouse, also known as a greenhouse, when he came upon an interesting creature. “I could see that it was an arachnid when I looked up close,” he said, “but immediately just looking at it with my eyes… I was really perplexed about what the devil that was!” Short-tailed whip-scorpions, or members of the order Schizomida, are tiny arachnids who aren’t typically in

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00:48:20

Two New Pseudoscorpions with Danniella Sherwood

New Species ·

2024/08/28

Species descriptions are often the result of great teamwork, and Danniella Sherwood is a great believer in that teamwork. This approach led Danni and her coauthors to name both of their new species after people who have made great contributions to conservation on the species’ home, Ascension Island. This includes turtle conservationist Jacqui Ellick and two of the paper’s coauthors (to their enormous surprise), Philip and Myrtle Ashmole. “So it really was a team effort,” Danni says, “It takes a

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00:40:26

A New Polychaete Worm with Chloé, Marcos, and Juan

New Species ·

2024/07/31

This paper started because Chloé Löis Fourreau and Marcos Teixeira were both too sick to dive during a NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) bioblitz expedition in the Red Sea. Hoping to at least collect something, they swam to the shoreline and began snorkeling in the shallow water. When they began turning over rocks, what felt like a wasted day turned into an amazing intertidal discovery. In this episode, Chloé and Marcos are joined by their colleague Juan Sempere-Valverde to tell the

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00:47:08

A New Gall Wasp with Louis Nastasi

New Species ·

2024/07/23

Louis Nastasi has a deep love of wasps, and a particular fascination with Cynipid wasps, gall wasps that can specialize on just a few plants or even a single species. In this episode he tells us about their diversity and the tangled phylogenies he works on, and answers the question his paper poses; “Cryptic or underworked?” There’s so much we don’t know about gall wasps, and it has so many implications for conservation, agriculture, and more! Louis Nastasi’s paper “Cryptic or underworked

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00:29:52

10 New Staphylinid Beetles with Adam Haberski

New Species ·

2024/06/24

What can tiny, flightless beetles tell us about the history of mountain geography and climate? It turns out, quite a bit! In this episode, Dr. Adam Haberski introduces us to the wild world of Staphylinid beetles, some of the most diverse creatures on the planet. We learn about the joys (and pitfalls) of collecting in the Southern Appalachians, as well as their billion-year-old history and the amazing beetle lineages that they helped shape. Adam Haberski’s paper “A review of Nearctic Lathrobium

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00:49:14

Basics 3: Description with Marc Milne

New Species ·

2024/06/04

In part 3 of Taxonomy Basics, Marc Milne of the University of Indianapolis tells us all about the process of identifying and publishing new species. He has tips and tricks for microscope work, finding online resources, and many other facets of the description process.Marc is a spider taxonomist and ecologist who specializes in several different groups including Linyphiids and Nesticids. He is also a professor of Biology, and teaches classes that include ecology and genetics. Taxonomy Basics is a

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102 results

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