New Species

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 mainly working on the taxonomy of this group, but she found a way to engage her community of Maranhão by naming her species after two cultural icons, Catirina from the Festa de São Joã, and the incredible local artist and performer Dona Teté. Ananda believes that giving people this direct connection to the fish will help them be better conserved, appreciated, and understood.
Ananda Serejo’s paper “Integrative taxonomy reveals two new species of whiptail catfishes Loricaria (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from northeastern Brazil” is in the April 8th 2026 edition of the Journal of Fish Biology. 
It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.70395
A transcript of this episode can be found here: Ananda Serejo - Transcript
 
New Species: Loricaria catirina, Loricaria teteae
Episode image credit: Anada Serejo
Read more about Ananda’s work with catfishes: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4915.3.10
Follow Ananda’s adventures on instagram: @anandaserejo
Read about Ananda’s other new Loricaria species: http://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4915.3.10
Learn more about Dona Teté: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dona_Tet%C3%A9
Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) 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 and enjoy bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod
If you would like to make a one-time contribution to this podcast, you can do so at https://buymeacoffee.com/newspeciespod

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 neighborhood park, a brewery, at an entomology conference, and right outside her office. “You just kind of had to look somewhere just a little bit outside of the box.”
Lily’s fascination with scale insects is apparent as she shares their amazing biology, including some unexpected genetics, and lots more about these tiny creatures. And of course she introduces us to her new species “Acanthococcus orzo,” named after the pasta. 
Lily Deeter’s paper “A new species of grass-infesting felt scale (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha:
Eriococcidae), with descriptions of all life stages and a key to the adult female
Acanthococcus Signoret of Florida, U.S.A.” is in volume 5717 of Zootaxa.
It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5717.2.3
A transcript of this episode can be found here: Lily Deeter - Transcript
 
New Species: Acanthococcus orzo
Episode image credit: Erin Powell
Browse ScaleNet: https://scalenet.info/
Scale insects and gecko conservation: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26198719
Beneficial scale insects: https://doi.org/10.1079/9781800620643.0001
Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) 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 and enjoy bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod
If you would like to make a one-time contribution to this podcast, you can do so at https://buymeacoffee.com/newspeciespod

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 Baraan is a nature-based art educator. All three have unique perspectives on the shared practice of art and science, and our discussion reveals how important art is to telling scientific stories.

See more of Aissa’s work on her website: https://aissadomingo.com/wp/
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aissa_domingo/

And more of Nicole’s work on hers: https://www.soundoftheforest.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_soundoftheforest_/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/soundoftheforest.bsky.social
Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soundoftheforest

And follow Kathleen’s work on her website: https://beacons.ai/deartoourhearts
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deartoourhearts/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deartoourhearts/

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Aissa Domingo, Kathleen Baraan, and Nicole Parish - Transcript

Other resources and people mentioned in this episode:
Leonard Co: https://www.philippineplants.org/General/AboutLeonard.html
Baba Dioum: https://biographycentral.com/biography/baba_dioum
Wild Wonder Foundation’s prompts for nature journaling: https://www.wildwonder.org/store/p/nj-zine
The Philippine Taxonomic Initiative: https://phtaxa.org/

Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) 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 and enjoy free bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod
If you would like to make a one-time contribution to this podcast, you can do so at https://buymeacoffee.com/newspeciespod

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 matter? Zack says, “I think at a basic level, humans are just generally curious about what's going on out in nature. And that's what really fuels a lot of my work, just trying to understand what has happened in the past, what's going to happen in the future to these animals that have been living on earth for over 300 million years. They've been here for a very long time. So I think, you know, they kind of have a right to be here and to be protected and to be studied and understood.”

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Zack Graham - Transcript
Episode image credit: Zack Graham
Learn more about Zack’s lab: https://crayfish.westliberty.edu/
You can also follow them on facebook: www.facebook.com/wlucrayfish
And on Instagram: @wlucrayfishlab
You can order Zack’s book here: https://uncpress.org/9781469685731/crayfish-crawfish-crawdad/
Learn more about the International Association of Astacology: https://www.astacology.org/default.asp?uid=Guest
Peruse the American Crayfish Atlas: https://americancrayfishatlas.web.illinois.edu/
And check out some beautiful crayfish photos from Zack’s adventures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/196391561@N03/
Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) 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 and enjoy bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

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 organisms. 

Alex Bently’s paper “The Cordyceps spider”: Taczanowskia waska sp. nov. (Araneae: Araneidae), a new spider species and a novel case of mimicry of an araneopathogenic fungus (Cordycipitaceae: Gibellula)” is in volume 5760 of Zootaxa.
It can be found here: www.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5760.5.4
Photo Credit: David Ricardo Díaz Guevara
Listen to an interview with Alex’s coauthor David in spanish on New Species Español - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1YZuyGcLva6hK752ueXOtZ?si=6qj-Ru2hTwSpMnVLsTpGwA
A transcript of this episode can be found here: Alex Bently - Transcript
New Species: Taczanowskia waska
Follow Waska Amazonia on instagram: @ waska.amazonia
And on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaskaAmazonia
Some neat press coverage of this new species:
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/spider-mimicing-cordyceps-9.7141687
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/science/spider-cordyceps-fungus-zombies.html

Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) 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 and enjoy bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod
If you would like to make a one-time contribution to this podcast, you can do so at https://buymeacoffee.com/newspeciespod