Image: David Hall

Via the International Institute for Species Exploration, the top ten new species from 2009 include a new species of edible yam from Madagascar (Dioscorea orangeana) that’s considered critically endangered and a new species of tropical pitcher plant—one of the largest known—that was named after naturalist David Attenborough—Nepenthes attenboroughii. New species of animals discovered include the psychedelic or far-out frogfish (Histiophryne psychedelica)—pictured at right and the bug-eating slug (Aiteng ater). You can nominate a species for the top ten list here.

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Blommersia angolafa image via Franco Andreone

Blommersia angolafa, a newly described species of frog from Madagascar, has the unique habit of rearing its eggs and tadpoles in fallen leaf litter. More via the BBC:

After mating, female frogs lay clutches of 2-10 yellowish eggs within a brown jelly onto the insides of dead leaves of three different palm species.

The frogs lay their eggs a few millimetres above the surface of water pooling in the leaf, which then hatch into tadpoles.

During their surveys, the researchers found egg clutches, tadpoles, new metamorphosised froglets and adult males and females within the dead leaves, including males calling out for a mate.

More often than not, males were found alongside the eggs and tadpoles, suggesting that males may guard the eggs and offspring.

No B. angolafa frogs were found living among the crowns of the palm trees or anywhere outside the dead leaves on the forest floor.

Nor did any other frog species inhabit the dead leaves.

Four other frog species are known to reproduce in fallen dry plant matter: three species breed in the fruit capsules of the Brazil nut tree, while another breeds in tree holes, empty nuts and occasionally snail shells.

But B. angolafa is the first known to breed in fallen dead leaves.

Raorchestes resplendens is a new species of frog described from India, and given the species vibrant coloration, it’s certainly reminiscent of the Mantella species that are endemic from Madagascar or the poison dart frogs of Central and South America. Furthermore, this species appears to be restricted to a very tiny area within India. More via AHN:

A new species of frog, bright reddish-orange in color, has been discovered in a national park in southern India’s Western Ghats mountain range.

Named Raorchestes resplendens, the frogs are physically unlike any known member of the frog family. They are distinguishable not only by their bright-colored bodies but also their multiple glands and extremely short limbs.

This new species of frog is restricted to less than 3 square kilometers of the highest mountain peak of the Western Ghats, Anaimudi, in Eravikulam National Park. The team of scientists that discovered this species called for “immediate conservation” of the Raorchestes frogs.

Paper: A ground-dwelling rhacophorid frog from the highest mountain peak of the Western Ghats of India

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Described in 2008, the Chan’s megastick (Phobaeticus chani) is currently the longest known insect in the world. More via National Geographic.

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Image by Joseph Brown

Image by Joseph Brown

Nowadays, discovering large vertebrates is a rare event. However, researchers recently described a new species of large monitor lizard from the Philippines that’s a fruit eater. More from the Christian Science Monitor:

The new species was discovered last summer on the main island of Luzon, when US researchers on a field trip purchased a unique-looking lizard carcass from a Philippine hunter for a few pesos.

“The hunter had caught it accidentally in a snare for wild pigs. We saw he had it and we were able to bargain with him for it,” says Luke Welton, one of the authors of an article published today in the peer-reviewed Royal Society journal Biology Letters announcing the finding.

Welton says he and fellow researchers from the University of Kansas and the Philippine government immediately knew this lizard was unique. It had longer nostrils, a golden coloration, and an uncommonly large size. The 22-pound, 6.5-foot-long Northern Sierra Madre Forest monitor lizard (Varanus bitatawa) feasts on fruits and snails and not meat, as do most species of monitor lizard and the close related Komodo dragon.

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A new species of gecko (Cnemaspis neangthyi) has been described from Cambodia.

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Dr Andrew Marshall, from the Environment Department at the University of York, discovered an undescribed chameleon species—Kinyongia magomberae—when he disturbed a twig snake feeding on a specimen, which was subsequently “spat out.” He took a picture of the unfortunate creature, and a local specialist did not recognize the species. More from the York Press:

The tiny lizard came out of the mouth of a twig snake disturbed by Dr Andrew Marshall in Tanzania’s Magombera forest.

Dr Marshall, from the University of York, was in the threatened forest surveying monkeys.

He said: “I was out there doing conservation research when I came across this snake. It saw me and fled, and as it did so it spat out a chameleon.

“I took photos and showed them to a local herpetologist, who instantly recognised that it was a new species.”

The creature, small enough to sit in the palm of a hand, was named as Kinyongia magomberae by scientists writing in the African Journal of Herpetology.

Shortly after the first discovery, a second Kinyongia chameleon was found by one of Dr Marshall’s colleagues about six miles away.

Unlike the first specimen, this one was very much alive.

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Mycena luxaeterna, a new species of bioluminescent mushroom from Brazil, “glow[s] nonstop in the Brazilian rain forest.” The image is via National Geographic and courtesy of Eiji Nagasawa of the Tottori Mycological Institute.

More biolumescent fungi: M. chlorophos has been known since the 1800s. The image is via National Geographic and Cassius V. Stevani of the Chemistry Institute at the University of Sao Paulo.

Panellus Stipticus displaying bioluminescence (via Wikipedia):

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A World Wildlife Federation report highlights some fascinating new species discoveries from Southeast Asia. In addition to various species of amphibians and reptiles, “a new wild banana and, even rarer, two new types of mammal” were described as well. Researchers also discovered “feathers in the frog’s faeces, proving that it eats small birds.” More from CBS News:

A gecko with leopard-like spots on its body and a fanged frog that eats birds are among 163 new species discovered last year in the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia, an environmental group said Friday.WWF International said that scientists in 2008 discovered 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, two mammals and one bird species in the region. That works out to be about three species a week and is in addition to the 1,000 new species catalogued there from 1997 to 2007, the group said.

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Among the stars in the new list is a fanged frog in eastern Thailand. Given the scientific name Limnonectes megastomias, the frog lies in wait along streams for prey including birds and insects. Scientists believe it uses its fangs during combat with other males.

Another unusual discovery was the Cat Ba leopard gecko found on Cat Ba Island in northern Vietnam. Named Goniurosaurus catbaensis, it has large, orange-brown catlike eyes and leopard spots down the length of its yellowish brown body.

Lee Grismer, of La Sierra University in California, said he found a tiger-stripped pit viper in Vietnam described in the report while he was attempting to capture a second gecko species.

“We were engrossed in trying to catch a new species of gecko when my son pointed out that my hand was on a rock mere inches away from the head of a pit viper,” Grismer said in a statement. “We caught the snake and the gecko and they both proved to be new species.”

More at WWF

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These new species of frog, discovered in Peru, are found in high altitudinal forests, and they lay terrestrial eggs from which froglets—not tadpoles—hatch. More images and information on these new discoveries can be found at Wildlife Extra:

The three new species are small frogs, up to 24 mm long in females and 19 mm in males. In contrast to most amphibian species, eggs of these frogs are laid in moist, terrestrial microhabitats, such as under mosses or the leaf litter, and embryos do not develop into aquatic tadpoles. Instead, minute froglets hatch from the eggs to lead a fully terrestrial life. The mother remain near the eggs to protect them from insect predators and dessication. Clutches contain 18-25 eggs that measure approximately 4-5 mm in diameter. Recently hatched froglets measure approximately 5 mm in snout-vent length.

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Image: The Bosavi woolly rat is but one of many new species discovered in Papua New Guinea. More about these new species from Papua New Guinea can be found at Nature.com and the Daily Mail.

Video: Via the BBC and courtesy of Lost Land of the Volcano – BBC/ Discovery Channel.

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A new species of Nepenthes pitcher plant has been discovered in a remote region of the Philippines. After being rescued, they described the mammoth carnivorous plant. Apparently, some missionaries who became lost in the wilderness originally discovered it. Consequently, a research expedition of pitcher plant specialists returned and found it.

The new species of tropical pitcher plant has been named after David Attenborough—Nepenthes attenboroughii (pictured). Furthermore, the newly discovered species is also described as being “the largest of all pitchers and is so big that it can catch rats as well as insects in its leafy trap.” Additionally, according to a thread on Terraforums.com, “It seems unfortunately this species is critically endangered and present as less than a few hundred individuals in just one location.” From the BBC News:

Word that this new species of pitcher plant existed initially came from two Christian missionaries who in 2000 attempted to scale Mount Victoria, a rarely visited peak in central Palawan in the Philippines.
With little preparation, the missionaries attempted to climb the mountain but became lost for 13 days before being rescued from the slopes.

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Accompanied by three guides, the team hiked through lowland forest, finding large stands of a pitcher plant known to science called Nepenthes philippinensis, as well as strange pink ferns and blue mushrooms which they could not identify.

As they closed in on the summit, the forest thinned until eventually they were walking among scrub and large boulders

“At around 1,600 metres above sea level, we suddenly saw one great pitcher plant, then a second, then many more,” McPherson recounts.

“It was immediately apparent that the plant we had found was not a known species.”

David Attenborough in the video below describes the tropical pitcher plant family and N. rajah: “It’s so big that it catches not just insects but even small rodents, and one was recorded that had in it the body of a drowned rat, so if ever there was a carnivore among plants this is it.”

This video shows a mouse falling into a Nepenthes trap:

The first three images are by Alastair Robinson. The last image above was found here.

Similar from The Conservation Report: “NEW SPECIES: Rat-eating plant discovered in Cape York“

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Despite population growth, in addition to habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation, scientists continue to describe and catalogue new species. From The Associated Press:

The WWF is calling on the countries to develop a conservation plan for the region — which also includes parts of Myanmar and Tibet — and for governments to give local communities more authority to manage the forests, grasslands and wetlands.

The group found that almost three-quarters of the discoveries between 1998 and 2008 were plants, including 21 new orchid species. But it also listed 16 amphibians, 16 reptiles, 14 fish, two birds, two mammals and at least 60 new invertebrates. Most of the discoveries have already been reported in peer-reviewed, scientific journals.

Among the most exciting was the miniature muntjac, the world’s smallest deer species — standing just 60-80 centimeters (25-30 inches) tall and weighing about 24 pounds (11 kilograms). Scientists at first believed the animal found in northern Myanmar was a juvenile of another species, but DNA tests confirmed it was distinct.

Image credit: AP Photo/Totul Bortamuli, WWF Nepal

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A new species of bulbul—a type of songbird from Africa and Asia—has been discovered in a remote Laotian forest. As Andrew Revkin notes, “Despite the ever-spreading imprint of humanity on this small planet, scientists keep discovering new species, even among relatively conspicuous classes of vertebrates like mammals and birds.”

Compared to discoveries of invertebrates or smaller vertebrates such as amphibians and reptiles, discoveries of new bird and mammal species are relatively uncommon. The rule of thumb seems to be; new discoveries of large animals are very rare. Likewise, remote and unexplored areas yield more new species.

However, this isn’t always the case. A new species of salamander was recently discovered in northern Georgia, and a new species of ghost slug was described from a Cardiff garden (note these are new discoveries of small animals, so it’s doubtful that new species of large mammals remain undiscovered in the United States).

The largest new animals discovered include various species of primates, muntjac, and a new species of bovine that represents a new genus as well. From CBC.ca:

The bare-faced bulbul is a thrush-sized, olive green bird with a light-coloured breast and a bald, pink face. It lives in the trees of a sparse forest among limestone mountains called karsts in Laos.

It is described in the 2009 issue of Forktail, the journal of the U.K.-based Oriental Bird Club, by the scientists who discovered it, Will Duckworth and Rob Timmins of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society and the Iain Woxvold of the University of Melbourne.

Bulbuls are a family of about 130 species of songbirds found in Asia, and the bare-faced bulbul is the first new one in more than a century, the society reported.

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However, in the recent expedition, similar birds were seen in two limestone karst areas quite far from one another, Clyne said, adding that it’s not clear how common the birds are.

The research observed pairs of birds eating berries and flitting among the trees. They took photographs, recorded the birds’ calls, and captured some and took blood samples, they reported. A couple of specimens were brought back to the Natural History Museum in Tring, U.K., and the Australian National Wildlife Collection in Canberra, Australia, but Clyne did not know if they are on display.

Over the past decade, Timmins had also found a new species of rodent and a striped rabbit in the same area, the release said.

Images credited to Iain Woxvold/University of Melbourne

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There are still things out there to discover. It makes you wonder, what else is out there?

— John Maerz

More about this discovery can be found at National Geographic and the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.

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The spiny-crested katydid below may be a new species or it “may be a Diacanthodis formidabilis, but the only known specimen of that species was lost after it was documented in 1838 in Brazil.”

This walking-leaf katydid appears to be different from “previously known walking-leaf katydid.”

Via National Geographic and Conservation International. More about the expedition to Nangaritza, Ecuador can be found here.

See more animal camouflage

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