Episodes

  • Two New Cave-Dwelling Snails with Rodrigo Salvador
    Nov 26 2024

    Rodrigo’s paper “Idiopyrgus Pilsbry, 1911 (Gastropoda, Tomichiidae): a relict genus radiating into subterranean environments” is in November 8th issue of Zoosystematics and Evolution

    It 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: Idiopyrgus eowynae, Idiopyrgus meriadoci

    Episode image credit: Rodrigo Salvador

    @krakenscholar.bsky.social

    Journal of Geek Studies:https://jgeekstudies.org/

    Pensoft article, “The Snellowship of the Ring”: https://blog.pensoft.net/2024/11/11/the-shellowship-of-the-ring-two-new-snail-species-named-after-tolkien-characters/

    Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

    Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

    If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

    If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

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    27 mins
  • A New Schizomid with Sean Birk Bek Craig
    Nov 12 2024
    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 Denmark, but with a lot of research, Sean concluded it had probably been accidentally imported on one of the tropical plants, possibly from Thailand. With a few ups and downs, Sean described it as his very first new species, and gave it a specific epithet of “serendipitus” after the unexpected way it came into his life. Sean’s paper “First records of the order Schizomida from tropical hothouses in Denmark: Stenochrus portoricensis and a new species of Bamazomus (Schizomida: Hubbardiidae)” is in issue 67 of Arachnology Letters. It can be found here: https://arages.de/en/1030963?tx_psbpublicationmanagement_publicationmanagement_showdoi%5Baction%5D=showDoi&tx_psbpublicationmanagement_publicationmanagement_showdoi%5Barticle%5D=1011&tx_psbpublicationmanagement_publicationmanagement_showdoi%5Bcontroller%5D=Article&cHash=e268cf69e617c9feaa929fb54fe289ad A transcript of this episode can be found here: Sean Birk Bek Craig - Transcript New Species: Bamazomus serendipitus Episode image credit: Sean Birk Bek Craig Find Sean on X/Twitter: @BekBirk Read the paper describing Materia boggildi: https://bioone.org/journals/arachnology/volume-19/issue-6/arac.2023.19.6.888/A-new-Masteria-Araneae--Dipluridae-from-tropical-hothouses-in/10.13156/arac.2023.19.6.888.short Read the paper that nearly made Sean’s new species a synonym: https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/121754/ Read the paper describing a new Schizomid genus from Germany: https://arages.de/10.5431/aramit4906 Read Abrams’ paper “Too Hot to Handle”: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1055790319301824 Enjoy the World Schizomida Catalog: https://wac.nmbe.ch/order/schizomida/5 Read Matty’s thesis on biologists: https://research.ku.dk/search/result/?pure=en/publications/for-the-love-of-the-living(049e101d-c89d-472f-ba7a-f7a62e8337a4).html Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast) Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom) If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod
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    45 mins
  • Two New Pseudoscorpions with Danniella Sherwood
    Aug 28 2024

    In this episode, Danniella Sherwood brings us two new pseudoscorpions from Ascension Island, one of the most remote islands in the world. Ascension’s ecological history is full of many twists and turns, and it is home to amazing biodiversity that is in desperate need of conservation. Danni and her team worked together to address this need, producing a paper titled ‘David and Goliath’ with one very small and one very large new species. They also provide new faunistic records, or records that show that Ascension and the nearby Boatswain Bird Island are home to stunning endemic pseudoscorpion diversity.

    One of my favorite things about Danni’s story is the emphasis she places on teamwork. “It takes a village to produce good research,” She says. “it takes a village to work towards visions of conserving invertebrates in their habitats. You need to have people from all fields, all specialties, all viewpoints in order to make something that’s really impactful, really lasting and enduring to the fields of conservation and ecology and taxonomy.” Listen to this episode for a meaningful story of teamwork and community, and to learn the importance of taxonomy’s role in conserving island flora and fauna.

    Danniella Sherwood’s paper “David and Goliath: on the pseudoscorpions of Ascension Island, including the world’s largest, Garypus titanius Beier, 1961, and a new, minute, Neocheiridium Beier, 1932 (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones)” is in issue 42 of Natura Somogyienis.

    It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.24394/NatSom.2024.42.131

    A transcript of this episode can be found here: Danni Sherwood 2 - Transcript

    Listen to Danni’s other New Species episode about St. Helenian wolf spiders: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0o8dL8yEpRiFtMO1gVNjkc?si=c068e5d3b6fb40f7

    New Species: Garypus ellickae and Neocheiridium ashmoleorum

    Episode image credit: Adam Sharp

    Follow the Ascension Island Government Conservation Directorate here:

    https://www.facebook.com/AscensionIslandConservation

    https://twitter.com/aigconservation


    Follow Danni’s research on all manner of arachnids here:

    https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Danniella-Sherwood


    Follow the Species Recovery Trust:

    https://www.facebook.com/TheSpeciesRecoveryTrust/

    https://www.twitter.com/speciesrecovery


    Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

    Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

    If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

    If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

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    48 mins
  • A New Polychaete Worm with Chloé, Marcos, and Juan
    Jul 31 2024

    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 exciting story of their new segmented polychaete worm, and to encourage everyone to pay attention to annelids and the great value they bring to science.

    Just a quick disclaimer for this episode, for some reason my primary recording didn’t save so i’m using the backup. As a result the quality is not great, and for that I really apologize! A reminder that every episode has a transcript (below) so please use that to aid in any hard-to-hear parts.

    Chloé Löis Fourreau, Marcos A.L. Teixeira, and Juan Sempere-Valverde’s paper “Two new records and description of a new Perinereis (Annelida, Nereididae) species for the Saudi Arabian Red Sea region” is in volume 1196 of Zookeys.

    It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1196.115260

    A transcript of this episode can be found here: Chloé Löis Fourreau, Marcos Teixeira, and Juan Sempere-Valverde - Transcript

    New Species: Perinereis kaustiana

    Episode image credit: Juan Sempere-Valverde

    New Species: Perinereis kaustiana

    Episode image credit: Juan Sempere-Valverde

    Follow Chloé on Twitter: ChaoticChloeia

    Follow Juan on Instagram: @bem_lab and @zoologiaus

    Read Marcos’ recent paper: https://doi.org/10.1080/14772000.2022.2116124

    Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

    Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

    If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

    If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod


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    40 mins
  • A New Gall Wasp with Louis Nastasi
    Jul 23 2024

    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? Taxonomic revision of the Antistrophus rufus species complex (Cynipoidea, Aulacideini)” is in volume 97 of the Journal of Hymenoptera Research.

    It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.97.121918

    A transcript of this episode can be found here: Louis Nastasi - Transcript

    New Species: Antistrophus laurenae

    Episode image credit: Antoine Guiguet


    Send Louis a Silphium plant gall! Email him at: LFN5093@psu.edu


    Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

    Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

    If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com


    If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod. Bonus episodes are coming soon!

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    47 mins
  • 10 New Staphylinid Beetles with Adam Haberski
    Jun 24 2024

    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 (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae), with revision and descriptions of new flightless species from the mountains of the southeastern U.S.” is in volume 1198 of Zookeys.

    It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1198.118355

    A transcript of this episode can be found here: Adam Haberski - Transcript

    New Species: Lathrobium balsamense, Lathrobium camplyacra, Lathrobium islae, Lathrobium lividum, Lathrobium smokiense, Lathrobium absconditum, Lathrobium hardeni, Lathrobium lapidum, Lathrobium solum, and Lathrobium thompsonorum


    Episode image credit: Mike Caterino


    Check out Adam’s amazing photography on instagram: @alaskamacro


    Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

    Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

    If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

    If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod


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    30 mins
  • Basics 3: Description with Marc Milne
    Jun 4 2024

    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 three part series on basic components of species description including collecting, preserving, and describing new species. This series focuses on entomological specimens, but has concepts that work across disciplines. Listen in as Evan Waite, Ashleigh Whiffin, and Marc Milne share their guidelines and discuss important concepts in taxonomy, curation, and beyond.


    A transcript of this episode can be found here: Marc Milne - Transcript

    Episode image credit: Marshal Hedin

    Follow Marc on twitter: @forthespiders

    Resources mentioned in this episode include:

    The World Spider Catalog: https://wsc.nmbe.ch/

    Spiders of North America: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691175614/spiders-of-north-america

    Salticidae of the World: https://www.jumping-spiders.com/

    American Arachnological Society Website State-by-State Guide: https://www.americanarachnology.org/about-arachnids/arachnid-orders/

    LinEpig: https://linepig.fieldmuseum.org/

    All Bugs Go to Kevin (Facebook Group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/AllBugsGoToKevin

    iNaturalist: www.iNaturalist.org

    BugGuide: https://bugguide.net/

    Some scientists to learn from online:

    The Bug Chicks: https://www.thebugchicks.com/

    Entomologia Asturias (Christian Pertegal): https://www.twitch.tv/entomologiaasturias

    Entomology Abby: https://www.instagram.com/entomologyabby/?hl=en

    Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

    Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

    If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

    If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod


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    49 mins
  • Basics 2: Curation with Ashleigh Whiffin
    May 14 2024

    In part 2 of Taxonomy Basics, Ashleigh Whiffin of National Museums Scotland brings us into the entomology collection to learn the fundamentals of curation and preservation, including which pins to use, the importance of collection data, and much more.

    Ashleigh is responsible for the care and development of a collection of 2.5 million insect specimens. She is particularly interested in collections care and science communication, and is a coleopterist, specializing in Carrion beetles (Silphidae). In the UK, she works with the Biological Records Centre to co-organise a National Recording Scheme for Carrion Beetles, promoting the importance of the group and encouraging more people to record them. In 2020, she co-authored an atlas on Silphids and Histerids and has featured on national TV, sharing her passion for these beetles.

    Ashleigh recently helped develop a new training resource hosted on the National Museums Scotland website:

    https://www.nms.ac.uk/about-us/our-services/training-and-guidance-for-museums/caring-for-entomology-collections/

    This self-guided resource is an introduction to Caring for Entomology Collections, covering the basics through a combination of videos and text, as well as links for where to go for additional information.


    Taxonomy Basics is a three part series on basic components of species description including collecting, preserving, and describing new species. This series focuses on entomological specimens, but has concepts that work across disciplines. Listen in as Evan Waite, Ashleigh Whiffin, and Marc Milne share their guidelines and discuss important concepts in taxonomy, curation, and beyond.

    A transcript of this episode can be found here: Ashleigh Whiffin - Transcript

    Episode image credit: Molly Wilders

    Connect with Ashleigh on Instagram/Threads: @ash_whiffin

    X: @AshWhiffin

    BlueSky: @ashwhffin.bsky.social

    More info here: https://www.nms.ac.uk/collections-research/collections-departments/natural-sciences/meet-the-team/ashleigh-whiffin/

    Places to be involved in virtual curation and other citizen science projects:

    https://www.zooniverse.org/

    https://scistarter.org/

    https://transcription.si.edu/

    Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

    Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

    If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

    If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod


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    50 mins