A ruined evening

I had a whole productive evening planned, but it all went to hell when the Varanus I was trying to photograph decided the crawlspace under the kitchen cabinets was a better home than his cage. Luckily the crawlspaces under the cabinets are compartmentalized, so I had him pinned but couldn't get in there to reach him. This event resulted in me spending the evening building a Monitor-proof containment device to trap the wayward squamate:


Unfortunately, monitors are relentless in their escape efforts, and I'm sure he'll find a crack in the defenses. They show extraordinary intelligence, even problem-solving intelligence. They run at cheetah speed - fifty, sixty miles an hour if they ever got out into the open. They're lethal at eight months, and I do mean lethal...

... wait, that's raptors. I got sidetracked.

Anyways, if the beast is not back in his cage by this time tomorrow, I'll be a raving lunatic.

Here is the offender moments before making his break at freedom:

Catching up

Man, it's been a while since I've devoted much time to the blog. The past two months have been a never-ending whirlwind of activity. First, there was the end-of-the-semester crush of finals, essays, and finishing my thesis. Then, when it became clear that I did manage to pass all my classes, I graduated!

I was expecting to then be able to relax for a week afterwards and go herping with my friends for one of the last times on another epic trip to Allegany SP. Unfortunately, I was stuck doing field work on Northern Rough-winged Swallows that were delayed and nesting late due to the unusually cool spring. My friends went on without me, beating last year's count of 25 species with a whopping 30 herp species in a weekend, an incredible total for NY. I would've gotten one lifer - Four-toed Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum) - if I had been free to join them.

Instead, I spent 50 hours over the course of the week observing a single pair of Rough-wings nesting in a drainpipe in a dirty creek in downtown Ithaca. I'll post more about that soon - I did actually manage to see some interesting things by forcing myself to stay in one spot day after day. My fish list during my week of fieldwork far exceeded my herp list!

When that week of torment was over, I entered the workforce full-time, continuing the job I held most of my time as a student - a video archivist in Macaulay Library. Getting paid to watch bird videos sounds like a fantastic opportunity, and it is indeed great. But let's be honest, sitting in a windowless room with no natural light at a computer for eight hours a day? Not my dream job.

On top of eight hour days in Macaulay, my time since graduation in May has also been spent whipping my thesis into shape for publication - it's almost there. As soon as that paper's off to be reviewed, I will be writing a shorter manuscript on the Rough-wings and submitting that as well. I have also gotten back into the lab ploughing into more molecular work, with intent on churning out enough data this summer to write one or more papers before I leave Ithaca in late August.

These two jobs add up to a lot of time indoors at the Lab of Ornithology - I've already spent several 12 to 14 hour days at the Lab, having to walk several miles home after dark. I really wish I could spend more time outside herping and birding (and I have done some, see upcoming posts) but spending 100% of the time during the week at the Lab prevents me from attending things at home, meaning I have to spend the weekend cleaning and running errands. Life kinda sucks right now for a die-hard naturalist longing to be outside more (and he thinks to himself, why am I not outside right now? hmm...). But, I know it will turn out to be worth it, especially when I can manage to get multiple publications out this summer.

So that's my story up to the present, and why I've hardly posted anything lately. Change is coming though - I will be switching jobs and freeing up some time in the evenings. On the other hand, now that the crush may finally be lessoning, my friends have all gone their separate ways. My housemate and friend Taylor, whom I met on Day 1 freshman year, has moved on to a job in New England. My herper extraordinare amigo Eric has also moved on - to Papua New Guinea. He's there with two other Cornell Herpetological Society undergrads surveying changes in the herpetofauna along an elevational gradient in an unsampled region of PNG. He was supposed to write about the expedition, conceived and organized by three Cornell undergrads who attracted enough grant money to fund it, before he left but he didn't (slacker!). I'll make him write about his trip when he returns in August. My third housemate Shawn is off birding in Kenya with our advisor's Tropical Field Ecology summer class. Follow their exploits through several student blogs - Eric the entomologist, fellow labmates Ben and Jess, as well as Jess W and Regi. I'll make Shawn post here when he returns, of course, but don't let that stop you from reading these great students' blogs. All of my housemates' and friends' departures leave me here in the apartment staring at the blank walls denuded of all the posters Taylor took with him. I keep telling myself it'll be worth it in the end...

So, since I will have more free time soon and nothing much to do with it, I can finally work through the backlog of posts I've been hoping to get to. I have a lot stacked up - field posts from the last two months, ornithology class posts going back to February, and even finishing my Costa Rica trip report from January *gasp* which some thought would never happen. I also have a couple longer-running projects I'd like to write up for the blog. One was the New Species post, which I may update over the long run. Another is a summary of all of the recent molecular advances in avian taxonomy, emphasizing order and family level relations

As for right now, I'm heading down to Ithacafest to listen to some good tunes by the Sim Redmond Band. It ain't birding, but it is outside in the sun, and that will do.

Smithsonian Field Guide Review

Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America - Ted Floyd

Before going into the big picture of my overall impression of this new photographic guide, here are some of the basic mechanics:

The introduction section I find very well written and engaging. On the fascination with birds, the simple statements "Every bird has its own story" and "Birds do things. Their behaviors are sophisticated, their populations are dynamic" had me nodding my head in agreement, thinking 'I really do like birds' (as if there was any doubt!). There are sections on habitat and behavior with more detail than I was expecting. The 'parts of a bird' section is the best - comparing specific pictures of birds with individually-specific diagrams of the different plumage terminology is very effective. Including information on molt strategies was another particularly noteworthy detail. Overall, I find the introduction to be one of the most novel parts of the book.

The very best part of the Smithsonian Guide is the detailed accounts for each family, and the topic essays spread throughout. The amount of family-level information in these accounts is unlike any other field guide out there... from taxonomy to family-level behavior and morphology traits to conservation concerns.

As an example, take this excellent tract on the taxonomy of vireos:

Not long ago, the vireos appeared immediately before the wood-warblers in North American field guides. It made sense: the vireos are small, arboreal, migratory, insectivorous passerines that are just a little duller and slower than most wood-warblers. The vireos were a perfectly logical "warm-up" to the hyperactive and gaily colored wood-warblers. We have since learned that, taxonomically, the vireos do not belong anywhere near the wood-warblers; rather, they are part of a large Australasian lineage that is also represented in North America by the shrikes and corvids. The delineation of this group of 1000+ species was one of the biggest shakeups ever in avian taxonomy, and it represents one of the crown jewels of the molecular approach to understanding evolutionary relationships among birds.

This detail, combined with a very engaging writing style, is unparalleled among field guides with usually concise, brief summaries. It makes the guide fun to read, rather than just a reference with pictures.

The species accounts are in taxonomic order by family and order, with varying amounts of detail given to each species - some pages feature one species while other pages feature several easy-to-identify species with limited ranges. One annoying quirk of the layout is that very similar, closely-related species get split across different pages, meaning you have to flip back-and-forth to compare Dowitcher, Ptarmigan, Sage-Grouse, and Bluebird species. Simple, inconsequential changes in taxonomic order could have alleviated this.

Taxonomically, there are few complaints, as the book follows the AOU standard. Each section of species is inconsistently broken down by either order or family, this can be confusing until one consults the group account. I'm sure I could find minor things to nit-pick, but I'll only mention one: the guide lists House Sparrow as family Passeridae (correctly) but labels the family as "Weaver-Finches" which makes no sense at all. I've only ever heard that family referred to as Old World Sparrows. Weaver-Finch must refer to a whole complex of families including Ploceidae and Estrildidae. I'm not even sure any species of these goes by weaver-finch, but using this name to refer to a complex of families when you only need to reference one kind of annoyed me.

Each species is illustrated with one to several excellent photographs. While all photos used are excellent, the choice of what to illustrate is very irregular. Some female and immature plumages are pictured, others aren't. Many species don't have flight shots, or if they do it shows only one surface of the wing. I suppose the object was to only show what was needed to get the main field marks, and I suppose there is no necessity to see the underwing patterns of various warblers to be able to identify them. On the other hand, the guide doesn't even have a flight shot of an adult Herring Gull - a key benchmark species to consider when looking for rarer gulls.

Information accounts for each species are brief. The maps are boldly colored and take some getting used to. The guide uses orange for migration and yellow for rare occurance. For someone used to the dotted pattern of vagrancy and pale yellow migration routes in a guide like Sibley, this takes some getting used to. Map coloration is just an aesthetic choice, though, so I can't well complain there.

I have given the included bird song DVD only a cursory run-through. The song cuts seem like fine choices. Including a reference picture with each call for display in iTunes or an mp3 player is a really interesting feature. I only wish, however, that a guide emphasizing the holistic method of bird identification would go the full measure and include the full suite of songs of North American birds. Including the DVD at all was a great first step but they could've taken it so much further.


Now for the big picture - what kind of impression does this guide make on me? I received a review copy of this new photo field guide with some trepidation - I've never met a comprehensive photo field guide I liked, but I didn't want to pass up an opportunity to change my mind. Of course, I can't let my own preconceptions about what a makes a good field guide cloud my judgement. Any review must take into account the field guides' own stated agenda. In the Smithsonian Guide's own words: "The Smithsonian Guide has two special emphases that reflect emerging trends in the field identification of birds. The first is a focus on natural variation within and among species, and the second is a "holistic" view of the bird as a sum of its behavioral, ecological, and morphological parts" ... "The goal of this "holistic" approach is to equip users with the best possible tools to identify birds simply and enjoyably in the field."

On the first focus of the guide - natural variation - I feel the Smithsonian Guide simply fails. Birds are extremely variable at every level - differences across species, gender, age, season, feather wear, and simple individual variation exists. Encapsulating that variation fully in a field guide is impossible, but it can be done better than the Smithsonian Guide. The Smithsonian Guide gets it right in species accounts such as Scarlet and Western Tanagers, Red-tailed Hawk, and others, with many photographs of varying ages and genders. Yet, the guide appears to only pay lip service to variation in most species, with only one or two pictures and simple statements like "strong age-related and sex-related differences". For an advanced birder (which I like to consider myself sometimes), I know what kinds of differences these statements imply, and can use a holistic approach to identify odd plumages by giss, calls, etc. A novice birder, building their knowledge of the holistic approach and variation, cannot simply be expected to build it with such incomplete information. Finally, how can one focus on variation when all one gives is a single measurement of weight and length for each species? These are variable measures that can be critical if one considers similar species that overlap (think Coopers and Sharp-shins, the intermediate individuals can be very difficult).

If you take out the more difficult variation in birds - the immature plumages, the variability, the feather wear - then I do believe the novice can use this guide to build a simple holistic view of birds and their identification. As stated above, the guide is intended to "identify birds simply and enjoyably". The relatively few pictures for any given species in the guide will be sufficient to identify a majority of the easy species out there. When the novice has built a sufficient base of knowledge, they can move on to more detailed guides such as Sibley or especially family guides such as those on gulls or shorebirds to move into the real challenges of bird identification.

This is my problem with photographic field guides in general. Bird identification cannot be encapsulated in one to three photographs per species to the extent expected of intermediate to advanced birders. I do still use them, though. Occasionally at work, where I review video footage of various bird species, I cannot always confidently identify bird species due to the angle or quality of footage, and I consult both photographic field guides such as the Smithsonian Guide (in the future) or the Kaufman guide, to get a better idea of general impression of a living bird. I've been birding since I was a very young kid and am well past the novice stage, but I can still see how a novice would find a general photographic guide useful in this sense. It can be much easier trying when comparing the bird you are observing to compare it directly to pictures of similar species than to try to interpret paintings of other species, when you haven't already built an internal holistic image of various groups of birds. By far the best utility of photographic guides for the advanced birder lies not in these comprehensive guides, but in the overwhelming detail of family books, such as the excellent Shorebird Guide, which use a wealth of photographs to actually illustrate variation in species.

So, after all my rambling, how does the Smithsonian Guide stand up? It is limited in use due to the overall limitations of the general photographic guide, but within its class it is an excellent book. The images are quality, the writing and information is absolutely superb, it includes bird songs, and the overall presentation is quite good. I think it will earn its place on my crowded shelf.

For other reviews of this guide, see The Drinking Bird, A DC Birding Blog, 10,000 Birds, and Birdchaser. I purposely refrained from reading them until I finally got my own review written. Now I have to go read their insightful comments and see what I got wrong...

My thanks go to Anne at the Book Report Network for providing a review copy of the Smithsonian Guide (a first for this blog!). Thanks Anne!

Yippee, I've got a Science Degree

On May 25th, I received the fruit of my four years of effort at surviving Cornell - a piece of paper, a particularly special one that says "Bachelor of Science with Distinction in Research".


I simply can't effectively say how much I owe my success this far to the support of my family...


... the great times with my friends...


... and the mentorship of my wonderful advisors Wink, Charlie, and others.


It was a time of great celebration at Cornell. In fact, it was the only time I've seen the stadium so full, packed with 40,000 guests:


Four years gone, and a wide-open future awaits. I'll let you know when I figure out what to do with it.

New species in 2008

The biodiversity of this planet is immense, and we are a long, long way from having all of the species out there discovered and described. Systematists, taxonomists, and museum collections have a major, vitally important role in biology (despite this, they are facing major problems). To illustrate this point, I have compiled a list of the new species described in the scientific literature so far in 2008. I have restricted myself to vertebrates, and I have included only species that are newly discovered taxa - no splitting of previously known taxa was considered. So, take your guesses as to how many brand new species of fish, amphibian, mammal, reptile, and bird have been described in the first five months of 2008? Go ahead and guess...

...

After surveying 157+ issues of 60+ journals, I have compiled a list of 130 fish, amphibians, mammals, reptiles, and birds described so far this year! By the time you read this, that number will already be out of date, because new descriptions continue to be published even as I was working on this compilation! In addition, there are many obscure journals out there that I know I missed. So, at least 130 species have been described in 152 days. Amazing!

First, lets review some stats on these totals, then I'll step through each group in turn and highlight a few interesting species. I should mention that certain journals (Zootaxa, Russian Journal of Herpetology, Amphibia-Reptilia) were not available as full text to me via my library's resources, so some of these data are partial.

Journals

As I mentioned, I surveyed over 157 issues of 60+ journals. Only 19 of them contained new species descriptions, however. They were, with number of new species contained:

Amphibia-Reptilia - 2
Copeia - 9
Herpetologica - 6
Ichthyological Research - 8
Journal of Fish Biology - 3
Journal of Ichthyology - 1
Journal of Herpetology - 5
Journal of Ichthyology - 3
Journal of Mammology - 1
Journal of Zoology - 1
Mammalian Biology - 2
Neotropical Ichthyology - 8
Pacific Science - 1
Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington - 3
Russian Journal of Herpetology - 2
Wilson Journal of Ornithology - 1
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society - 2
Zoological Science - 1
Zootaxa - 71

While certain jounals such as Copeia and Neotropical Ichthyology publish a large number of species descriptions, by far the biggest and best resource for taxonomy is the journal Zootaxa. Zootaxa accounted for over 50% of the new species described, and publishes so frequently that I had to go back and update my list twice since I started it several weeks ago (my cutoff date was 30-May). Unfortunately, my university's library doesn't subscribe to Zootaxa, so a large chunk of my list is missing data. In some cases I couldn't even get the species name (only genus) of the new taxa being described, as the authors didn't put it in the abstract. Access problems aside, check out Zootaxa for their frequent updates across all range of animal taxa.

Species names

Another bit of information that interests me is the naming of species. For those papers that I could access, I read the etymology of their given species names and categorized them four ways - description, if the species is named for some intrinsic character that describes it; person, if the species is named for a person or organization; habitat, if the species is named for its unique habitat; and region, if the species is named for its geographic region. The results:

Person - 28 (41.8%)
Description - 23 (34.3%)
Region - 13 (19.4%)
Habitat - 3 (4.5%)

So, if you get buddy-buddy with a taxonomist, you stand a pretty good chance of getting a species named after you! A couple of names caught my eye. Leptodactylus coca, a South American frog, was named because it was collected solely in coca plantations. Chrysichthys acsiorum, an African catfish, was named after ACSI, the All Catfish Species Inventory, a colloborative effort to describe the world's substantial catfish fauna. ACSI contributed many species to this new species list, and will continue to do so in the future.

Location

One key analysis I wanted from this data was the distribution of new species discoveries across the globe - what areas are producing more new species?

For 54 land taxa, here is the range breakdown:

Argentina 2
Bolivia 1
Brazil 5
Chile 1
China 3
Congo 2
Cuba 1
Ghana 1
India 1
Indonesia - Sulawesi 2
Madagascar 2
Malaysia 5
Mexico 1
New Caledonia 1
Panama 2
Peru 11
Sri Lanka 1
Taiwan 2
Tanzania 1
Thailand 1
USA 1
Vietnam 6
Yemen 1

Peru is the big winner here, with fully 20% of the new land taxa described.

For the fish, 72 taxa broke down into 38 freshwater species and 34 marine species. The freshwater species were distributed as follows:

Argentina 1
Belize 1
Borneo 1
Brazil 11
Central America 1
China 7
Guyana 1
India 1
Lake Tanganyika 2
Mexico 1
Montenegro 1
Nicaragua 3
Sumatra 2
Suriname 1
USA 1
Venezuela 3

Here, Brazil has the largest number of new descriptions, with 29% of the new freshwater fish species described, including many catfish species from ACSI.

The marine species break down as:

Antarctica 1
Australia 5
Baffin Bay 1
China 1
Indian Ocean 1
Indonesia 1
Indo-Pacific 14
Japan 2
New Caledonia 1
North Atlantic 1
Philippines 1
Red Sea 1
Sao Tome 1
Suriname 1
Thailand 1
Vietnam 1

Many of the new marine species seem concentrated in the tropical regions of the Pacific.

Overall, three big countries - Brazil, China, and Peru, account for 30% of the new species descriptions! These are countries of exceptional diversity, and we can expect many more species to be described from there in the future.

I also lumped the data into continents (excluding the marine taxa):

Europe - 1
North America - 2
Australia - 7
Africa - 9
Asia - 41
Neotropics - 49

It's remarkable that new vertebrates are still found at all in North America and Europe, but they are. In North America, a new species of darter of the genus Crystallaria was discovered in West Virginia. A frog of the genus Pseudacris was described from the Southeast US. This taxa barely made the list, and probably qualifies as a split rather than a whole new taxa. However, it got its own new species description in Zootaxa, which I can't access, so here it remains for now. In Europe, a goby in the genus Pomatoschistus was described from the Balkans. The authors also indicate more species are likely to be described from this area.

Holotypes

I was interested in the distribution of holotype ages. Holotypes are the defined type specimen - they represent the original specimen that represents a species and is used to make the description. Almost every paper also includes paratypes - a series of specimens described along with the holotype - but the holotype is the specimen a new species name is attached to. I thought it was also generally the first specimen of a new species collected, but my readings on these papers indicated that was not always the case. Sometimes a newer specimen was described but older museum specimens were later attached to that species. In any case, the year the holotype was collected gives you some indication of the delay between the physical discovery of a new species and its recognition as such with publication in the literature. My results follow:

(You'll have to click to view large, blogger does horrible things to small photos)

Most of 2008's new species descriptions come from holotypes collected in the last six years or so. No holotypes from 2008 are yet described, due to the length of time it takes to describe a new species thoroughly, and review and publication delays in the journals. In fact, I'm surprised there are as many 2007 holotypes as there are, given these delays. Also interesting are the outliers - the earliest holotype described was collected in 1912. Both the 1912 holotype and the 1946 holotype come from a paper describing several new species in the catfish genus Cathorops. Obviously it didn't take these authors 96 years to publish - these holotypes were designated by re-examination of previously collected specimens in museum collections. As you'll see later, some species are discovered solely by examination of museum specimens!

Collection method

I was very interested to get the stories of how each new species was discovered, but many papers do not go into any detail at all about how the species was located. Many often say simply 'the object of this paper is to describe a new species from...' with no mention of whether it was collected as part of an expedition, it was collected specifically because it was previously recognized to be new, etc. I was able to parse out a few distinctions.

Six of the newly described species were collected after observations of the species in the wild and recognition that it was new. These include the only bird to make the list, the Togian White-eye (Zosterops somadikartai), and a new species of elephant-shrew that was observed on trail cameras.

At least 23 of the new species appear to have been collected as part of various organized collecting trips, and were not recognized or targeted specifically beforehand. Around 29 of the species were collected for or were accompanied by systematic revisions of the genera they belong to, and were recognized upon examination of those groups.

Most interesting of all, ten of the new species were not collected by the authors at all, but were found by re-examination of museum specimens previously collected. These include the examples mentioned above. There couldn't be a better example of the utility and necessity of maintaining and adding to museum collections.

Breakdown by Class

So now on to the goods... what are the new species described? Here is the breakdown by class. For simplicity's sake, I lumped everything into these five 'classic' classes. Don't berate me about paraphyletic taxa, please...

Fish - 74 (56.9%)
Amphibian - 20 (15.4%)
Mammal - 6 (4.6%)
Reptile - 29 (22.3 %)
Bird - 1 (0.8%)

Its obvious there is some disparity in distribution of new species descriptions, with fish winning hands down. One may wonder (as I did, of course) if these disparities are simply due to the relative diversity of these different groups. So, how do these numbers compare with the overall number of already described species? These numbers are difficult to come by, as there is no one accurate count and the numbers are increasing all the time (I haven't distributed 2008's 130 new ones amongst these totals). I took the largest and most precise estimates I could find in a few quick online searches. If anyone knows better results, let me know.

Fish - 30200 (49.0%) [Source - Fishbase]
Amphibian - 6184 (10.0%) [Source -AMNH]
Mammal - 5500 (8.9%) [Source - Learn Animals]
Reptile - 8730 (14.2%) [Source - Reptile Database]
Bird - 10980 (17.8%) [Source - Birdlife International Checklist]

So, side by side, new versus known, we get:

Fish - 56.9 vs 49.0 %
Amphibian - 15.4 vs 10.0 %
Mammal - 4.6 vs 8.9 %
Reptile - 22.3 vs 14.2 %
Bird - 0.8 vs 17.8 %

Here we can crude estimate of how well 'known' the various vertebrate classes are. My favorite group, birds, are severely underrepresented as new species discoveries. Only one bird has been described so far this year and I'm sure any bird people reading this have already heard about it - the Togian White-Eye. Birds are bright, noisy, mobile, and are by far the easiest among these classes to observe and identify. I think it is a pretty accurate statement to say then that the bird fauna of the world is probably the most completely described of any of the five main classes of vertebrates. There are still new species out there, and descriptions of newly discovered species will continue into the future, but birds will continue to have the lowest discovery rate among vertebrates.

Mammals are underrepresented as new species discoveries as well, although not to the degree that birds are. Mammals also have the lowest overall diversity of the five main vertebrate classes. Despite this, I expected a little better showing among mammals, mainly from rodents and bats, diverse groups with lots of extremely cryptic species. As you'll see later, these two groups do account for most of the few new mammal descriptions. Of all of the five groups of vertebrates, I know least about mammals, but I do believe the mammalian fauna of the world to be pretty well described and studied for species much bigger than large rodents. I'm sure there still remains many cryptic species out their to be described, and perhaps bigger species hiding in the tropical jungles of the world.

Reptiles, amphibians, and fish are all overrepresented as new species discoveries. These speciose groups are where the most work remains to be done. Certain regions of the world still see new discoveries every time someone goes in to survey, and I know professors with lists of undescribed species waiting attention. I'd predict that fish have the farthest to go - underwater areas being the most difficult to survey, but we can expect many more finds out of all of these groups.

I'll step through each group in turn:

Fish

The new species of 'fish' include one new species of hagfish (Myxini). Hagfish are not fish at all but a lineage basal to vertebrates. Lacking jaws and a vertebral column, hagfish don't even qualify as Vertebrata, but are including here because they are at least Craniata. Eptatretus lopheliae (Myxinidae) is described from specimens collected by submersible off the coast of North Carolina. Thus it holds perhaps a rare distinction among the new fish species described here as having observations and descriptions of in situ behavior and natural history. All too often we know so little about newly described species except where they were collected. Check out the following figure to see some of the images captured:

Eptatretus lopheliae (Myxini: Myxinidae)

(click to view large)

Of the remaining fish, 10 are Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fishes - sharks, rays, and chimaeras) and 63 are Osteichthyes (bony fishes). The new Chondrichthyes species include two species of wobbegong sharks (Orectolobiformes: Orectolobidae) from waters off Australia, three species of angel shark (Squatiniformes: Squatinidae) from waters off Australia and Indonesia, four species of skate (Rajiformes) from Pacific waters and one freshwater stingray (Myliobatiformes: Potamotrygonidae) from Suriname. I'm a fan of both angel sharks and wobbegongs, but unfortunately those were described in Zootaxa so no pictures to present here. Instead, you get a specimen picture of Potamotrygon boesemani (Myliobatiformes: Potamotrygonidae), the new species from Suriname. If only they had included a live picture, freshwater stingrays can be quite beautiful and this one like it could be as well.

Potamotrygon boesemani (Myliobatiformes: Potamotrygonidae)

The 63 new species of Osteichthyes come from 10 different orders. Perciformes had the most, with 27 new species described. Perciformes is also the largest fish order (and largest vertebrate order) with over 7000 species, and contains such groups as perch, bass, gobies, salmon, cichlids, and tuna. Siluriformes, the catfish, also had a high number of species, with 16 newly described species, many due to ACSI. Other groups with high numbers of new species include Characiformes and Cypriniformes (minnows).

One new species that I don't think I would want to meet alone in a dark alley would be this toothy beast, Gymnothorax baranesi (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae). This new moray, the only representative in this post from the eel order, was collected in the Red Sea. It measured a little less than a meter in length, so perhaps I don't have to worry about its toothy maw all that much.

Gymnothorax baranesi (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae)

Five new species of Characiformes (four from Brazil) and six new species of Cypriniformes (all from China!) were described. These minnow-like fish aren't too flashy, so I'm not writing much more about them here, except to note that two of the new Cyprinid species hold the distinction of being the only species in this list assigned to a whole new genus! Hongshuia banmo and H. paoli represent this brand-new genus from a river in China. See an article here about them, but the article is another Zootaxa piece so no pictures are available.

Two new species of rivuline killifish (Cyprinodontiformes: Rivulidae) were described. Killifishes make up some of the most colorful freshwater fish out there (see here and here). The two new species, Leptolebias itanhaensis and Rivulus planaltinus, both from Brazil, are unfortunately only depicted in the papers in black-and-white, but their bold patterns are apparent.

Rivulus planaltinus (Cyprinodontiformes: Rivulidae)

Leptolebias itanhaensis (Cyprinodontiformes: Rivulidae)

Moving from the colorful to the bizarre, we find three new species of scorpionfish and relatives, from the order Scorpaeniformes. One, Scorpaena brevispina (Scorpaenidae) is a standard-looking scorpionfish from Japanese waters. This species was discovered when a large fish collection was moved between museums, and was originally collected in the early 1980's. The other two new species from this order are snailfishes from the family Liparidae - Careproctus kidoi and Genioliparis kafanovi. These are truly crazy-looking large-headed, mostly deep-sea fish. Wikipedia describes them as having 'thin, loose gelatinous skin' and their primary means of locomotion is their pectoral, rather than caudal fin. I know nothing about these guys but I can tell you I've designated them for further reading. Check out these new species and also look at other members of the family here.

Scorpaena brevispina (Scorpaeniformes: Scorpaenidae)

Genioliparis kafanovi (Scorpaeniformes: Liparidae)
Careproctus kidoi (Scorpaeniformes: Liparidae)

The majority of the remaining new fish species are split between two orders, Perciformes and Siluriformes. Perciformes had the most of any fish order, 27 new species, of which a few of the more colorful forms are shown here. They include a cichlid from Lake Tanganyika (Cichlidae: Benthochromis), a species of clingfish inhabiting crinoids from the Indo-Pacific (Gobiesocidae: Discotrema), and five new species of damselfish described from the south Pacific (Pomacentridae: Chromis).

Benthochromis horii (Perciformes: Cichlidae)

Discotrema monogrammum (Perciformes: Gobiesocidae)

Chromis species (Perciformes: Pomacentridae)
click to view large

Here's one for the weird. Another new Perciformes species, Chiasmodon lavenbergi (Chiasmodontidae), was described from deep waters of the Western Pacific. The specimen doesn't look like much:

Chiasmodon lavenbergi (Perciformes: Chiasmodontidae)

But, the common name, swallowerfish, prompted me to look up photos of its congeners. Chiasmodon niger, the Great Swallower, opens its jaws...

... to swallow enormous prey. (Source)

Here is another specimen of C. lavenbergi, bloated with prey:

Siluriformes, the catfish, are one of my favorite fish groups, and had the second-largest number of new species at 16. Two catfish papers serve well to illustrate the sheer amount of work and detail that goes into describing species. Just look, they've named every possible pore and measurement:

Rhamdella cainguae (Siluriformes: Heptapteridae)

Siluriformes: Doradidae: Rhinodoras

This painful attention to detail is what allows us to make more than just qualitative judgements between different species. I've always thought that ornithologists have it easy when it comes to new species descriptions. This guy doesn't have a colorful plumage to separate it from its congeners:

(Siluriformes: Doradidae)

One new species is this plain catfish. As you might guess from the name, Nanobagrus, its actually quite small - 29 mm, or just over an inch in length. That qualifies it as one of the smallest new species described (one of the frogs might be smaller).

Nanobagrus immaculatus (Siluriformes: Bagridae)

I'd just like to mention two more new catfish to round out the new fish species. These two species come from the South American family Trichomycteridae, which also contains the infamous Candiru, which should scare everyone out of the water. These two species are not nearly so feared, in fact they are not even parasites. The first, Ituglanis mambai, is a subterranean species coming from a region of Brazil with large numbers of cave-dwelling catfish.

Ituglanis mambai (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae)

The second species is Trichomycterus igobi. The title of the description paper proudly proclaims: "the largest head in Trichomycteridae". I hope T. igobi is proud.

Trichomycterus igobi (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae)

Amphibians

20 new species of amphibian have been described, of which 3 are salamanders (Caudata) and 17 are frogs (Anura). No caecilians (Gymnophiona) are present, at least so far this year.

The salamanders all came from Asia. Two were Hynobiids from Taiwan, the third Salamandrid of the genus Paramesotriton (Warty Newts).

Hynobius fuca (Caudata: Hynobiidae)

New frog diversity is centered in the neotropics, with eleven of the seventeen new descriptions, the balance coming from Africa and Asia.

Odontophrynus maisuma (Anura: Leptodactylidae), Brazil

Variation in the new Brazilian Hylid, Hypsiboas caipora (Anura: Hylidae)

***As a post-script, I just discovered the AmphibiaWeb new species list. Of course there are people out there doing this job, and doing it better, so their list is much more complete and lengthier. I won't discuss it now. ***

Mammals

Only six new species of mammals have been described this year. I was expecting a few more, especially given that the diverse and cryptic groups Rodentia and Chiroptera (bats) surely have many more species to give. Four of the six new species were indeed from those two groups, including this new species of goblin:

In fact, this bizarre figure is a detail of the skull from a new species of bat from Madagascar:

Miniopterus petersoni (Chiroptera: Miniopteridae)

Two bats and two nondescript mice are complemented by a new species of possum from Peru, and finally this guy, who actually made headlines. A large new species of sengi, or elephant-shrew, was captured on film by camera traps in Tanzania, and was subsequently tracked down and described. See photos of the expedition here.

Rhynchocyon udzungwensis (Macroscelidae: Macroscelididae)

Reptiles

The 29 new reptile species can be broken down into several major groups:

One new species of Amphisbaenian from Brazil, discovered by following a tractor as it plowed a field. Amphisbaenians are (mostly) limbless and subterranean squamates, and this one is no different.

Four new species of snakes (Serpentes). All were in journals inaccessible to me, but they include a new Colubrid in Malaysia and a new Viperid in Vietnam.

Five new members of Iguania. These include two new species of Liolaemid from Argentina, and three new species of anole (Polychrotidae) from Panama and Peru.

Anolis cuscoensis (Iguania: Polychrotidae)

Four new species in Scincomorpha, including two new skinks (Scincidae) from southeast Asia, a new night lizard (Xantusiidae) from Mexico, and a new microteiid (Gymnophthalmidae) from Peru.

Eutropis tammanna (Scincomorpha: Scincidae)

The biggest chunk of new species, fifteen, comes from the best group of squamates, the Gekkota. These include a new Bavayia from New Caledonia, two new Gekko from Thailand and China, four new Cyrtodactylus from southeast Asia, and two new Phyllodactylus from Peru.

Phyllodactylus thompsoni (Gekkota: Phyllodactylidae)

Phyllodactylus delsolari (Gekkota: Phyllodactylidae)

Cyrtodactylus wallacei (Gekkota: Gekkonidae)

Bavayia goroensis (Gekkota: Diplodactylidae)

Birds

Just one new species of bird has been described so far, the already mentioned Zosterops somadikartai:

Zosterops somadikartai (Passeriformes: Zosteropidae)
(by Agus Prijono)

Do not despair, bird lovers, there will surely be plenty more new species of bird discovered. Indeed, just have a look at this collection of undescribed taxa over on Birdforum. They even hint at more Zosterops being described later this year.

Well, that rounds out the new species described in the first five months of 2008. Except, of course, for all of the species descriptions I missed in obscure journals. I hope you enjoyed this little sampling of biodiversity.

If this post wasn't long enough already, here is the complete new species list in all its glory

"Fish"
Myxini
Myxiniformes
Myxinidae
Eptatretus lopheliae
Chondrichthyes
Elasmobranchii
Myliobatiformes
Potamotrygonidae
Potamotrygon boesemani
Rajiformes
Anacanthobatidae
Sinobatis bulbicauda
Sinobatis filicauda
Sinobatis caerulea
Rajidae
Dipturus wuhanlingi
Orectolobiformes
Orectolobidae
Orectolobus floridus
Orectolobus parvimaculatus
Squatiniformes
Squatinidae
Squatina albipunctata
Squatina pseudocellata
Squatina legnota
Osteichthyes
Albuliformes
Albulidae
Albula oligolepis
Anguilliformes
Muraenidae
Gymnothorax baranesi
Characiformes
Anostomidae
Leporinus venerei
Characidae
Hemigrammus parana
Hyphessobrycon sp.
Hyphessobrycon rutiliflavidus
Crenuchidae
Characidium heirmostigmata
Cypriniformes
Balitoridae
Oreonectes polystigmus
Oreonectes microphthalmus
Triplophysa lixianensis
Cyprinidae
Garra findolabium
Hongshuia banmo
Hongshuia paoli
Cyprinodontiformes
Rivulidae
Leptolebias itanhaensis
Rivulus planaltinus
Myctophiformes
Aulopidae
Aulopus diactithrix
Perciformes
Apogonidae
Nectamia ignitops
Nectamia luxuria
Nectamia similis
Nectamia viria
Chiasmodontidae
Chiasmodon lavenbergi
Kali caribbaea
Kali colubrina
Kali falx
Cichlidae
Amphilophus chancho
Amphilophus flaveolus
Amphilophus astorquii
Benthochromis horii
Gobiesocidae
Discotrema monogrammum
Discotrema zonatum
Gobiidae
Gorogobius stevcici
Pomatoschistus montenegrensis
Stiphodon carisa
Leiognathidae
Nuchequula flavaxilla
Nuchequula glenysae
Nuchequula longicornis
Nandidae
Nandus andrewi
Percidae
Crystallaria cincotta
Pomacentridae
Chromis abyssus
Chromis brevirostris
Chromis circumaurea
Chromis degruyi
Chromis earina
Pleuronectiformes
Samaridae
Samariscus multiradiatus
Scorpaeniformes
Liparidae
Careproctus kidoi
Genioliparis kafanovi
Scorpaenidae
Scorpaena brevispina
Siluriformes
Ariidae
Cathorops belizensis
Cathorops higuchii
Cathorops kailolae
Bagridae
Nanobagrus immaculatus
Pseudobagrus brachyrhabdion
Pseudomystus heokhuii
Claroteidae
Chrysichthys acsiorum
Doradidae
Rhinodoras armbrusteri
Rhinodoras gallagheri
Heptapteridae
Rhamdella cainguae
Loricariidae
Neoplecostomus corumba
Neoplecostomus selenae
Neoplecostomus yapo
Pseudancistrus reus
Trichomycteridae
Ituglanis mambai
Trichomycterus igobi

Amphibia
Anura
Arthroleptidae
Arthroleptis krokosua
Bufonidae
Bufo eichwaldi
Dendrobatidae
Ameerega altamazonica
Hylidae
Hypsiboas caipora
Pseudacris fouquettei
Leptodactylidae
Alsodes norae
Leptodactylus coca
Odontophrynus maisuma
Pristimantis leucorrhinus
Mantellidae
Boophis ulftunni
Pipidae
Xenopus sp.
Rhacophoridae
Rhacophorus sp.
Strabomantidae
Phrynopus miroslawae
Phrynopus nicoleae
Phrynopus sp. 1
Phrynopus sp. 2
Strabomantis aramunha
Caudata
Hynobiidae
Hynobius glacialis
Hynobius fuca
Salamandridae
Paramesotriton zhijinensis

Aves
Passeriformes
"Zosteropidae"
Zosterops somadikartai

Mammalia
Chiroptera
Miniopteridae
Miniopterus petersoni
Vespertilionidae
Tylonycteris pygmaeus
Didelphimorpha
Didelphidae
Philander olrogi
Macroscelidea
Macroscelididae
Rhynchocyon udzungwensis
Rodentia
Cricetidae
Eligmodontia typus
Muridae
Hylomyscus walterverheyeni

"Reptilia"
Amphisbaenia
Amphisbaenidae
Amphisbaena uroxena
Gekkota
Diplodactylidae
Bavayia goroensis
Eublepharidae
Goniurosaurus catbaensis
Gekkonidae
Cnemaspis perhentianensis
Cyrtodactylus wallacei
Cyrtodactylus stresemanni
Cyrtodactylus takouensis
Cyrtodactylus huynhi
Gekko nutaphandi
Gekko wenxianensis
Hemidactylus sp.
Luperosaurus sp.
Pristurus sp.
Tarentola crombiei
Phyllodactylidae
Phyllodactylus thompsoni
Phyllodactylus delsolari
Iguania
Liolaemidae
Liolaemus tandiliensis
Liolaemus scrocchii
Polychrotidae
Anolis apletophallus
Anolis cryptolimifrons
Anolis cuscoensis
Scincomorpha
Gymnophthalmidae
Petracola waka
Scincidae
Eutropis tammanna
Sphenomorphus langkawiensis
Xantusiidae
Lepidophyma cuicateca
Serpentes
Colubridae
Dendrelaphis haasi
Viperidae
Cryptelytrops honsonensis
Xenodermatidae
Fimbrios smithi
Xenodontidae
Pseudoboa martinsi


References

The complete reference list for all of the new species is far too long for me to want to post here, but here are the references mentioned above. If you want any reference, just leave me a message.

Leptodactylus coca
Angulo, A, and S Reichle. 2008. Acoustic signals, species diagnosis, and species concepts: the case of a new cryptic species of Leptodactylus (Amphibia, Anura, Leptodactylidae) from the Chapare region, Bolivia. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 152(1): 59-77.

Hypsiboas
Antunes AP, Faivovich J, Haddad CF. 2008. A New Species of Hypsiboas from The Atlantic Forest of Southeastern Brazil (Amphibia: Anura: Hylidae). Copeia: Vol. 2008, No. 1 pp. 179–190

Genioliparis
Balushkin, AV, and OS Voskoboinikova. 2008. Revision of the genus Genioliparis Andriashev et Neelov (Liparidae, Scorpaeniformes) with description of a new species G. kafanovi sp.n. from the Ross Sea (Antarctica). Journal of Ichthyology. 48(3): 201-208.

Bavayia
Bauer, A.M., Jackman, T.R., Sadlier, R.A., Shea, G., Whitaker, A.H. (2008). A New Small-Bodied Species of Bavayia (Reptilia: Squamata: Diplodactylidae) from Southeastern New Caledonia1. Pacific Science, 62(2), 247. DOI: 10.2984/1534-6188(2008)62[247:ANSSOB]2.0.CO;2

Ituglanis
Bichuette, ME, and E Trajano. 2008. Ituglanis mambai, a new subterranean catfish from a karst area of central Brazil, rio Tocantins basin (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae). Neotropical Ichthyology. 6(1): 9-15.

Rhamdella
Bockmann, FA, and AM Miquelarena. 2008. Anatomy and phylogenetic relationships of a new catfish species from northeastern Argentina with comments on the phylogenetic relationships of the genus Rhamdella Eigenmann and Eigenmann 1888 (Siluriformes: Heptapteridae). Zootaxa. 1780: 1-54.

Rivulids
Costa, WJEM. 2008. Monophyly and taxonomy of the Neotropical seasonal killifish genus Leptolebias (Teleostei: Aplocheiloidei: Rivulidae) with the description of a new genus. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 153(1): 147-160.

Costa WJ, Brasil GC (2008) A New Pelvicless Killifish Species of the Genus Rivulus, Subgenus Melanorivulus (Cyprinodontiformes: Rivulidae), from the Upper Tocantins River Basin, Central Brazil. Copeia: Vol. 2008, No. 1 pp. 82–85

Discotremma
Craig MT, Randall JE (2008) Two New Species of the Indo-Pacific Clingfish Genus Discotrema (Gobiesocidae). Copeia: Vol. 2008, No. 1 pp. 68–74

Eutropis
Das, I, A de Silva, and CC Austin. 2008. A new species of Eutropis (Squamata: Scincidae) from Sri Lanka. Zootaxa. 1700: 35-52.

Eptatretus
Fernholm B, Quattrini AM (2008) A New Species of Hagfish (Myxinidae: Eptatretus) Associated with Deep-Sea Coral Habitat in the Western North Atlantic. Copeia: Vol. 2008, No. 1 pp. 126–132

Miniopterus
Goodman, SM, HM Bradman, CP Maminirina, KE Ryan, LL Christidis, B Appleton. 2008. A new species of Miniopterus (Chiroptera: Miniopteridae) from lowland southeastern Madagascar. Mammalian Biology. 73(3): 199-213.

Chrysichthys acsiorum
Hardman M (2008) A New Species of Catfish Genus Chrysichthys from Lake Tanganyika (Siluriformes: Claroteidae). Copeia: Vol. 2008, No. 1 pp. 43–56

Cyrtodactylus
Hayden CJ, Brown RM, Gillespie G, Iqbal Setiadi M, Linkem CW, et al. (2008) A NEW SPECIES OF BENT-TOED GECKO CYRTODACTYLUS GRAY, 1827, (SQUAMATA: GEKKONIDAE) FROM THE ISLAND OF SULAWESI, INDONESIA. Herpetologica: Vol. 64, No. 1 pp. 109–120.

Nanobagrus
Hee Ng H (2008) A New Species of Nanobagrus (Teleostei: Bagridae) from Southern Borneo. Copeia: Vol. 2008, No. 1 pp. 93–98

Zosterops
Indrawan M, Rasmussen PC, Sunarto (2008) A New White-Eye (Zosterops) from the Togian Islands, Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology: Vol. 120, No. 1 pp. 1–9

Careproctus
Knudsen, SW, PR Moller. 2008. Careproctus kidoi, a new Arctic species of snailfish (Teleostei: Liparidae) from Baffin Bay. Ichthyological Research. 55(2): 175-182.

Hynobius
Lai JS, Lue KY (2008) TWO NEW HYNOBIUS (CAUDATA: HYNOBIIDAE) SALAMANDERS FROM TAIWAN. Herpetologica: Vol. 64, No. 1 pp. 63–80

Pseudacris
Lemmon, EM, AR Lemmon, JT Collins, and DC Cannatella. 2008. A new North American chorus frog species (Amphibia: Hylidae: Pseudacris) from the south-central United States. Zootaxa. 1675: 1-30.

Cathorops
Marceniuk, AP, and R Betancur-R. 2008. Revision of the species of the genus Cathorops (Siluriformes: Ariidae) from Mesoamerica and the Central American Caribbean, with description of three new species. Neotropical Ichthyology. 6(1): 25-44.

Pomatoschistus
Miller, PJ, and R Sanda. 2008. A new West Balkanian sand-goby (Teleostei: Gobiidae). Journal of Fish Biology. 72(1): 259-270.

Scorpaena
Motomura, H, and H Senou. 2008. A new species of the scorpionfish genus Scorpaena (Scorpaenidae) from Izu Peninsula, Pacific coast of Japan. Journal of Fish Biology. 72(7): 1761-1772.

Amphisbaena
Mott T, Rodrigues MT, de Freitas MA, Silva TF (2008) New Species of Amphisbaena with a Nonautotomic and Dorsally Tuberculate Blunt Tail From State of Bahia, Brazil (Squamata, Amphisbaenidae). Journal of Herpetology: Vol. 42, No. 1 pp. 172–175

Anolis
Poe S, Yañez-Miranda C, Lehr E (2008) Notes on Variation in Anolis boettgeri Boulenger 1911, Assessment of the Status of Anolis albimaculatus Henle and Ehrl 1991, and Description of a New Species of Anolis (Squamata: Iguania) Similar to Anolis boettgeri. Journal of Herpetology: Vol. 42, No. 2 pp. 251–259

Chiasmodon
Prokofiev, AM. 2008. Two new species of swallowerfishes of the genera Chiasmodon and Kali (Chiasmodontidae). Journal of Ichthyology. 48(3): 158-165.

Chromis
Pyle, RL, JL Earle, and BD Greene. 2008. Five new species of the damselfish genus Chromis (Perciformes: Labroidei: Pomacentridae) from deep coral reefs in the tropical western Pacific. Zootaxa. 1671: 3-31.

Potamotrygon
Rosa, RS, MR de Carvalho, and C de Almeida Wanderly. 2008. Potamotrygon boesemani (Chondrichthys: Myliobatiformes: Potamotrygonidae), a new species of neotropical freshwater stingray from Surinam. Neotropical Ichthyology. 6(1): 1-8.

Odontophrynus
Rosset SD (2008) New Species of Odontophrynus Reinhardt and Lütken 1862 (Anura: Neobatrachia) from Brazil and Uruguay. Journal of Herpetology: Vol. 42, No. 1 pp. 134–144

Rhynchocyon
F. Rovero, G. B. Rathbun, A. Perkin, T. Jones, D. O. Ribble, C. Leonard, R. R. Mwakisoma, N. Doggart. 2008. A new species of giant sengi or elephant-shrew (genus Rhynchocyon) highlights the exceptional biodiversity of the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania. Journal of Zoology 2008 274:2 126

Rhinodoras
Sabaj MH, Taphorn DC, Castillo G. OE (2008) Two New Species of Thicklip Thornycats, Genus Rhinodoras (Teleostei: Siluriformes: Doradidae). Copeia: Vol. 2008, No. 1 pp. 209–226

Gymnothorax
Smith, DG, E Brokovich, and S Einbinder. 2008. Gymnothorax cincotta, a new moray eel (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae) from the Red Sea. Zootaxa. 1678: 63-68.

Benthochromis
Takahashi, T. 2008. Description of a new cichlid fish species of the genus Benthochromis (Perciformes: Cichlidae) from Lake Tanganyika. Journal of Fish Biology. 72(3): 603-613.

Phyllodactylus
Venegas PJ, Townsend JH, Koch C, Böhme W (2008) Two New Sympatric Species of Leaf-Toed Geckos (Gekkonidae: Phyllodactylus) from the Balsas Region of the Upper Marañon Valley, Peru. Journal of Herpetology: Vol. 42, No. 2 pp. 386–396

Crystallaria
Welsh, SA, and RM Wood. 2008. Crystallaria cincotta, a new species of darter (Teleostei: Percidae) from the Elk River of the Ohio River drainage, West Virginia. Zootaxa. 1680: 62-68.

Trichomycterus
Wosiaki, WB, and M de Pinna. 2008. Trichomycterus igobi, a new catfish species from the rio Iguacu drainage: the largest head in Trichomycteridae (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae). Neotropical Ichthyology. 6(1): 17-23.

Hongshuia
Zhang, E, X Qiang, and J Lan. 2008. Description of a new genus and two new species of labeonine fishes from South China (Teleostei: Cyprinidae). Zootaxa. 1682: 33-44.