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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

science natural sciences

All Episodes

00:29:31

A Genus and Two New Species of Staphylinids with...

New Species ·

2026/09/29

There’s a new genus of Staphylinid beetle named after one of the most legendary Manga characters! Fang-Shuo Hu and his coauthor Alexey Solodovnikov have been working on teasing apart some complex beetle lineages, leading them to describe a new genus and two new species. The genus Luffy is named after One Piece’s infamous Monkey D. Luffy, and the species are L. nika (Luffy’s magical fruit) and L. schillhammeri in honor of Harald Schillhammer, a Staphylinologist whose mentorship helped Fang-Shuo along

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00:27:46

Re-release: Adelopsis Beetles with Eduardo Gomyde

New Species ·

2026/09/20

Hi everyone,Today I’m re-releasing an old episode in honor of a friend. It was actually just under a year ago that this episode on Adelopsis Beetles with Eduardo Gomyde aired. With his passing this week, I wanted to take a moment to remember him. Eduardo was an incredible taxonomist, so dedicated to his “little brown beetles.” He appreciated the beauty in everything. I have also rarely met a kinder person. The time he spent on this earth was not nearly enough, and I know I’m one of many who will

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00:34:06

Two New Catfish with Ananda Serejo

New Species ·

2026/09/09

What kind of catfish are in your local river? In Northeastern Brazil, catfish are so diverse and specialized that sometimes each river its own species. In fact, Ananda Serejo has been studying this group of catfish for 10 years, working hard to untangle their phylogeny. “The intraspecific variation, it's very, very, very hard to find” she says. “You need to have this integrative approach, use more than one line of evidence that you could be more sure about what you are proposing” Ananda is

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00:42:06

A New Scale Insect with Lily Deeter

New Species ·

2026/08/11

Lily Deeter works on scale insects, tiny creatures that many people aren’t familiar with, or only see as a pest. But once you get to know them, you’ll be hooked. Not only do they have fascinating morphology, physical characteristics that at times can seem otherworldly, but with a little practice you’ll be looking for them everywhere. “I don't think that the insect is just hanging out where entomologists tend to hang out,” Lily explains; the locations she found her new species include her

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00:57:17

The Shared Practice of Art and Science with Aissa,...

New Species ·

2026/07/09

If you want to be a scientist, you enroll in 4-10 years of higher education. If you want to be an artist, you go to art school and learn a classic technique. Two choices; a binary. Right?Or, could it be that there’s an entire spectrum of choices in between? In this episode, we explore the places where art and science connect with three talented people who have a foot in both worlds. Aissa Domingo is an artist, photographer, and illustrator, Nicole Parish is an artist and naturalist, and Kathleen

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00:27:02

All About Crayfish with Zack Graham

New Species ·

2026/06/11

Crayfish, Crawfish, Crawdad; no matter what you call them, If you live in the southeastern United States, their biodiversity hotspot is in your backyard! Astacologist (crayfish biologist) Dr. Zack Graham joins us on this episode to tell us just how wild these freshwater crustaceans are. He shares just a bit of his knowledge on their biodiversity, interesting behaviors, their impact on American culture, and some of the unique threats they continue to face. At the end of the day, why do crayfish

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00:38:05

A New Cordyceps Spider with Alex Bently

New Species ·

2026/05/14

While giving a tour in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Alex Bently identified a clump on a leaf as a dead spider parasitized by a Cordyceps fungus. When it moved under his touch, he realized that it was actually a unique case of mimicry, and worked with David Ricardo Díaz Guevara and Nadine Dupérré to describe it as a new species. In this episode, Alex shares the unique nature of this spider, as well as what we can learn from it about the complex relationships that can occur between fungi and other

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00:38:26

Rediscovered Freshwater Shrimps with Prakash Sanjeevi...

New Species ·

2026/05/06

Freshwater shrimps are difficult to study. They’re nocturnal, they live in leaf litter, and yet they are involved in both commercial fishing and the pet trade, making research on their diversity critical. Dr. Prakash Sanjeevi and Maclean Santos have a new strategy for adapting to these challenges: harnessing the power of community. Through educational videos, social media, workshops, and more they provide training to already-interested hobbyists, who in turn help them find rare specimens for papers

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00:37:18

Who Describes the Spiders? With Katherine Montana and...

New Species ·

2026/04/15

“I hope that individual taxonomists take a step back and really think about the choices they make when it comes to collaboration…I want taxonomists to consider equity in their work, and not just consider that but actively support actions that are making a difference in the way we do science.” Cláudia Xavier’s words here address the issue that is the focus of her new paper; who actually gets the opportunity to be a taxonomist? In this episode, I talk to Katherine and Cláudia about their experiences

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00:01:43

Coming Soon - New Species en Español!

New Species ·

2026/04/02

New Species en Español will be a Spanish-language version of the New Species Podcast, hosted by Ivonne Garzón. Subscribe to it here: https://open.spotify.com/user/31jdpbfn26x3w7sa2b76db3z2vxa?si=160a1a8eac644f00Or wherever you get your podcasts.

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00:37:43

No New Species! With Takahiro Sugiyama, Ryutaro Goto,...

New Species ·

2026/04/01

Sometimes, a collection of new species turns out to be… no new species!Takahiro Sugiyama, Ryutaro Goto, and Chloé Fourreau began studying the unique ectoparasitic scale worm Gastrolepidia clavigera in part because of its fascinating diversity of color, likely contributing to its ability to camouflage on sea cucumbers. After some genetic work, they found that this entire rainbow of scale worms all actually seem to belong to the same species! Takahiro Sugiyama, Ryutaro Goto, and Chloé Fourreau’s paper

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00:31:45

Two New Trapdoor Spiders with Donard Geci

New Species ·

2026/03/31

Donard Geci fell into studying spiders by accident, but now he can’t imagine his life without them. He’s one of the only arachnologists in the Balkans, a hotspot for spiders as well as plenty of other flora and fauna. It’s difficult, he says, “but you have many things to do here because many groups are unexplored.”Trapdoor spiders are masterful architects, and there is so much work to do in order to better understand their relationships to one another. Fortunately, Donard isn’t deterred at all and

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00:41:06

Two New Tachinid Flies with Rodrigo Dios

New Species ·

2026/03/24

There are plenty of taxonomists who use museum collections as a resource, but not everyone makes collections the basis of their work. Rodrigo Dios studies Tachinid flies, a group that displays some of the most diverse parasitism behavior of all animals. By reorganizing and rediscribing museum specimens, he finds that we have a lot to learn from both flies and museum collections. “It's crazy,” says Rodrigo, about working in collections. “You can actually assess all this knowledge, all this

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00:40:00

A Bug's Life (1998) with Jesse and Charleigh Hurlburt

New Species ·

2026/02/23

“The queen especially was not like, like totally not like mad mad, but like mad at him…”That analysis is from Charleigh (age 6 ), who I talked to along with her dad Jesse (older than 6) about the 1998 classic A Bug’s Life! We discussed serious matters such as the number of legs ants have, if insects have blood, and if the movie missed an opportunity by not including a dung beetle (I think they did). Charleigh and Jesse co-host the amazing podcast arthropod adventures, which teaches listeners about

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00:00:41

New Species Census 2026

New Species ·

2026/01/16

Hi everyone, incredibly it's time for the third biennial New Species Census! Every two years I ask listeners to answer a few questions about who they are, how they listen, and what they would like from the podcast in the future. Take the survey: https://forms.gle/V8G9VSKxfvaxhxdx5The survey will be open until February 13th 2026, after which time I'll post a summary of the feedback on instagram.* Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts! I'm so grateful to everyone who listens to

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00:43:33

A New Isopod with Benedikt Kästle

New Species ·

2026/01/15

Do you ever wonder if your pet could be a new species? Paleontologist Benedikt Kästle took a closer look at his, and it led to a brand new genus and species! Also known as woodlice, these popular pets are easy to keep and easier to enjoy for the way they skitter and roll up. Benedikt explains that his scientific background can help members of the isopod community connect the valuable experience they have from rearing isopods to the broader research community, where much about isopods is still

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00:29:51

All About Stoneflies with Anna Eichert

New Species ·

2025/12/31

Stoneflies, or Plecoptera, are an order of insects with around 4,000 species. But that’s about to change. In her paper “Stonefly systematics: past, present, and future,” Anna Eichert and her colleagues from around the world map out the way stoneflies have changed as a group over time, some of the factors that shape our current understanding of the stoneflies, and what can change in the future to make sure our knowledge of stonefly diversity continues to grow. Learn from Anna’s account of her

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00:27:41

New Adelopsis Beetles with Eduardo Gomyde

New Species ·

2025/11/25

The genus Adelopsis is one of the many groups of LBB’s, ‘little brown beetles’ that often get left behind or unidentified by researchers. Eduardo Gomyde is a scientist giving them a closer look. “We're not just identifying species,” he explains, “but we are also analyzing and understanding the finer scale of the [features] that help us to differentiate them.”Using Scanning Electron Microscopy, Eduardo and his coauthor carefully examined the tiniest of details. To find these specimens they had to

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00:31:18

Three New Lichens with Erin Manzitto-Tripp

New Species ·

2025/11/04

How much do you know about lichens? These incredible taxa are understudied, but today’s guest is making sure they’re not undervalued. “You can’t look at lichens under a microscope and not become immediately obsessed,” says Dr. Erin Manzitto-Tripp. “It’s an endless world of magnificent, beautiful biodiversity.”Erin works in the mountains of Colorado to describe new species of lichens along with the rest of her fantastic lab. For this paper they called not just on the power of nature, but also on the

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00:25:50

Three New Fossil Dictyopterans with Soo Bin Lee

New Species ·

2025/10/21

The Cretaceous insects in the family Umenocoleidae have been difficult to classify, but for Soo Bin Lee they are a window into one of the most interesting periods of our prehistoric world. While closely related to the modern cockroaches in order Blattodea, fossil Umenocoleids have been found and researched across the world and found to be present across a larger portion of geologic time than expected. They’re linked to the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution, an important period of change when

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124 results

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