Top Ten Newly discovered species of 2010

Attenboroughs Pitcher

It is a charismatic plant species and produces one of the largest pitchers known at 30x16 cm,

comparable in size to an American football. It is also carnivorous, feeding on insects trapped by

the fluid contained in the pitchers. Endemic to the island of Palawan, Philippines, it is known only

from a single locality and the authors suggest it be Red Listed as Critically Endangered.

Bombardier Worm

This deep-sea annelid is a “bomb”-bearing species. It has modified gills that can be cast off from

an individual. These "bombs" illuminate for several seconds with green bioluminescence. It is

thought that this is a defensive mechanism rather than reproductive, as it is seen in both mature and

juvenile individuals.

Udderly Weird Yam

Dioscorea orangeana is a new species of edible yam found in Madagascar. Its tuber morphology is

uncharacteristic of Malagasy yams exhibiting several digitate lobes instead of just one. Although

Bug-eating Slug

Its discovery has resulted in a new family, Aitengidae. Although it shares nearly all

characteristics with sacoglossans, it exhibits unusual eating habits. This sea slug eats insects,

whereas nearly all sacoglossans eat algae and a few specialize in gastropod eggs. newly described,

the authors suggest that it should be Red Listed as Critically Endangered, since it's heavily

Frog Fish

It has an unusual psychedelic pattern and is unique among frogfishes in being flat-faced.harvested

and growing in unprotected habitat.

Uber Orb-weaver

It is the first species of Nephila to be described since 1879 and it is the largest Nephila to date.

Orb-weaving spiders exhibit extreme sexual size dimorphism: female paratype of this species has a

body length of 39.7mm and a male has a body length of 8.7mm. Nephila has the distinction of spinning

the largest webs known, often greater than 1m in diameter. Although the web of this new species has

not been observed, it is likely to be large.

Small Favor

This two inch mushroom was named in honor of Dr. Robert Drewes and was the subject of the June 20,

2009 segment, "Bluff the Listener," on the NPR quiz Show, "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me." Click here to

listen to the segment.

Fanged Fish

Males of this 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

This species has been locally exploited and used for several decades, "as a model species for

understanding electric organ physiology and electrocommunication" (Richer-de-Forges et al. 2009).

Neurophysiologists at the Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable in Montevideo,

Uruguay have mistakenly referred to this species in literature as Gymnotus carapo or G. cf. carapo.

This and other species (until recently) have been lumped into G. carapo. This highlights how little

we know about biodiversity when, "a model organism" can remain undescribed for 30 years

Killer Sponge

The person who nominated this species stated, "Fifteen years ago, the discovery that a deep-sea

sponge family, the Cladorhizidae, was carnivorous greatly surprised the world of Zoology.

Carnivorous sponges in fact display very high diversity in the deep ocean, especially in the Pacific

where most of the collected specimens appear as undescribed taxa. Among these, Chondrocladia

turbiformis displays a special type of spicule for which the new term “trochirhabd” has been coined.

Similar spicules were known from fossil strata of the Early Jurassic, suggesting that carnivorous

sponges were already present in the Mesozoic. The name turbiformis derives from the spindle or

whirl-shaped form of the characteristic trochirhabds (Latin, turbo, spinning top, disc)."


Information Courtesy of: Arizona State University-
International Institute for Species Exploration[b]