“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 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

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 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

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 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

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: rodrigodios@gmail.com

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

“The queen especially was not like, like totally not like mad mad, but like mad at him…”

That analysis is from Charleigh (age 8), who I talked to along with her dad Jesse (older than 8) 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 arthropods they might see in their backyard. Stay inquisitive and never stop learning with me as I talk to them in this very silly bonus episode!

Our ratings:

Scientific accuracy 🐜 🐜 🐜

Enjoyability 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜

Bonus episodes are typically reviews of creature-feature horror movies by me and a scientist with expertise relevant to the film. If you enjoyed this episode, you can listen to more of them for free on Patreon.com/newspeciespod

Check out arthropod adventures wherever you get your podcasts

Follow them on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563432847704

And instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arthropod_adventures_podcast/

Check out their merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/jhurlburt33/shop?asc=u

Learn more about the Trevor Project: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/

One-time podcast support: buymeacoffee.com/newspeciespod

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).

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

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/V8G9VSKxfvaxhxdx5

The 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 this little hobby podcast, and your feedback really helps it to grow.

If you have general feedback or have missed the window, you can always email me at newspeciespodcast@gmail.com. Thank you as always for listening!

*Please note there are a few people confused - the New Species Podcast instagram is @newspeciespodcast! There is another account called New Species which is not me.

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 unknown.

Benedikt does this both through his instagram account and in his conversations with hobbyists from around the world, and it makes an impact. This new species is one of many that went undescribed for many years. Now its name is known from Martinique to Germany and beyond. Listen to this episode for a story that celebrates the humble roly poly in all its diversity and mystery.

Benedikt Kästle’s paper “Description of a new genus and species of terrestrial isopod (Oniscidea, Armadillidae) endemic to Martinique” is in volume 47 issue 29 of Zoosystema.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.5252/zoosystema-2025v47a29

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Benedikt Kästle - Transcript

New Species: Caribodillo martinicensis

Follow Benedikt on instagram: @sumerian.demon

Episode image credit: Benedikt Kästle

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