New Species

“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 writing this paper, but also being taxonomists in a field that wasn’t built with everyone in mind. They tell me the stories of two marginalized taxonomists who made outsized impacts on their field, and how they hope their research lays the foundation for a more equitable and just arachnology in the future.

Katherine Montana and Cláudia Xavier’s paper “If history is written by the victors, who describes the spiders? Species author trends reflect gender and geopolitical disparities in biodiversity science” is in volume 146, issue 1 of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 
It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blaf067
A transcript of this episode can be found here:
Cláudia and Katherine
A spanish transcript of this episode can be found here:
Cláudia and Katherine en español
Follow Cláudia on Bluesky: @claudiaxavier.bsky.social 
And learn from her on Instagram: @geaaoficial
Check out more from the Esposito lab:
https://www.arachnerds.info/
And follow them on Instagram: @arachnerds
Dr. Esposito is also the founder of the 500 Queer Scientists project:
https://500queerscientists.com/
World Spider Catalog: https://wsc.nmbe.ch/
Untold Stories from the Academy:
https://www.calacademy.org/scientists/library/untold-stories
Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Millerhttps://pushkinpress.com/book/why-fish-dont-exist/
Additional reading:
Developing scientific equity for biodiversity research: a thematic analysis of ecological change impacts on ranchers in Baja California Sur, Mexico: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742170525100100
Science in Indigenous homelands: addressing power and justice in sustainability science from/with/in the Penobscot River
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-00904-3
Promoting equity between the Global North and Global South in entomological research
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2025.101357
Anti-racist interventions to transform ecology, evolution and conservation biology departments
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01522-z

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 [email protected]
If you would like to support this podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

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.

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 “Host specific camouflage in a holothurian-ectoparasitic scale worm: testing the host-race hypothesis using COI and genome-wide SNP data” is in volume 173 of Marine Biology 
It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-025-04744-y
Episode image credit: Takahiro Sugiyama and Ryutaro Goto
A New Species episode with Chloé on Polychaete worms: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0aH2bPNb4u3wOrONIYfZkp?si=7i0lzzSlSjWfsXce436-3g

Follow Chloé on instagram and Bluesky: @chaoticchloeia
Follow the MISE lab on instagram: @mise_lab
Read Takahiro’s recent paper about the scale worms that live on sea stars: doi.org/10.3800/pbr.15.289
Original description of G. clavigera: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/50342#page/8/mode/1up
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 [email protected]
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

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 wants to encourage even more scientists to study the amazing quantity of life found in the Balkans. 
Donard Geci’s paper “Trapdoor spiders of the family Nemesiidae Simon, 1889 (Araneae: Mygalomorphae) from Kosovo” is in volume 20, issue 2 of Arachnology. 
It can be found here: www.doi.org/10.13156/arac.2025.20.2.281
A transcript of this episode can be found here: Donard Geci - Transcript
 
New Species: Brachythele kosovarica, Nemesia dukagjinica
Episode image credit: Donard Geci
A New Trapdoor Spider with Christian Pertegal: available in english and in spanish
An episode with Alireza Zamani: https://www.newspeciespodcast.net/all-episodes/e28-a-new-species-named-because-of-this-podcast-and-another-after-the-father-of-modern-medicine
First DNA Barcoding of Dysderidae: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5653.4.2
New Eratigena from the Balkans based on an integrative approach: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5636.1.6
Find Donard on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donardgecii
And on X: https://x.com/donard_geci

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 [email protected]
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

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 variation between time and between space as well. It's like infinite knowledge.”

Rodrigo Dios’ paper “Taxonomic update on Cordyligasterini, new generic synonyms and new species of Neosophia Guimarães” is in volume 29 of Entomological Science. 
It can be found here: www.doi.org/10.1111/ens.70003

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Rodrigo Dios - English Transcript
This transcript translated into portuguese: Rodrigo Dios - Portuguese Transcript
 
New Species: Neosophia argentifasciata, Neosophia pakitza
Episode image credit: Rodrigo Dios
Follow Rodrigo on Instagram: @rodrigodios
Rodrigo’s paper about the fly that lays eggs on plants: www.doi.org/10.6620/ZS.2024.63-54Connect with Rodrigo on iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/people/rodrigodios
Don’t be shy! Contact Rodrigo about flies: [email protected]

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 [email protected]
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