Top 10 new species
Species explorers at ASU have announced this year's top 10 list of new species. The list features species from around the world and includes a minnow with fangs, a carnivorous sponge and sea slug that eats insects.
Attenborough's Pitcher
Nepenthes attenboroughii
This plant produces one of the largest pitchers known, each the size of an American football. It also is carnivorous, feeding on insects trapped by the fluid contained in the pitchers.
Bombardier Worm
Swima bombiviridis
Common name: Green bomber
The worm, discovered off the central coast of California, releases “bombs” that illuminate for several seconds with green bioluminescence when threatened.
Udderly Weird Yam
Dioscorea orangeana
Common name: Angona (Also used for other yam species of northern Madagascar.)
The tuber morphology of this yam species is uncharacteristic of edible Malagasy yams, exhibiting several digitate lobes instead of just one.
Bug-eating Slug
Aiteng ater
Common name: Aiteng
From Pak Phanang Bay in the Gulf of Thailand, this sea slug eats bugs, which is unusual since nearly all sacoglossans eat algae and a few specialize in gastropod eggs.
Far-out Frogfish
Histiophryne psychedelic
Common name: Psychedelic frogfish
This fish displays an unusual psychedelic pattern and is unique among frogfishes for its flat face.
Uber Orb-Weaver
Nephila komaci
Common name: Komac's golden orb spider
The golden orb spider is the first species of Nephila to be described since 1879 and the largest to date. Nephila has the distinction of spinning the largest webs known, often greater than a meter in diameter.
Small Favor
Phallus drewesii
This two-inch mushroom was named, with permission, in honor of Robert C. Drewes at the California Academy of Sciences. Drewes, who initiated extensive multi-organism biodiversity studies on the island of São Tomé, Africa, where this news species of stinkhorn fungus was found, dedicated more than 30 years of his life to research in Africa, according to the scientists who made the discovery.
Fanged Fish
Danionella dracula
Common name: Dracula minnow
This minnow with fangs is found in a stream at Sha Du Zup between Mogaung and Tanai in Kachin State, Myanmar. The males of the species have canine-like fangs for sparring with other males. This is the first record of oral teeth-like structures being found in the Cyprinidae, the largest family of freshwater fishes.
Short-circuited Electric Fish
Gymnotus omarorum
Common name: Omars' banded knifefish
This electric fish species was named to honor Omar Macadar and Omar Trujillo-Cenoz, pioneers in the anatomical and physiological study of electrogenesis in Gymnotus.
Killer Sponge
Chondrocladia (Meliiderma) turbiformis
This carnivorous deep-sea sponge displays a special type of spicule for which the new term “trochirhabd” has been coined.