Living in the lyrebird’s shadow

How an unusual little snail jumped its way across the globe

The mystery of cave-dwelling opossum shrimp found half a world apart

From bats living paycheck-to-paycheck to elephant seal billionaires — which species can afford to act sick, which cannot, and why?

Stygioides hecate, or the Hecate moth, is a new species of diurnal moth whose females are covered in golden scales.

Paragomphus matroka, the dark hooktail, is known from three specimens: one caught in the wild, one found on the internet, and one unearthed in a museum archive.

Rhinogobius mengyangensis, a new species of goby previously thought to be the “yellow type” of R. szechuanensis.

Mus dumbara, a new species of spiny mouse and micro-endemic from the Dumbara Mountains of central Sri Lanka.

Odorrana nagao, a new species of odorous frog from karst forest in Vietnam.

Thecacera sesama, a new nudibranch species discovered off the coast of Taiwan, measuring less than 3 mm (0.1 in) long — about the size of a single sesame seed.

Alafanahydesmus lavasoa, a new millipede species from vanishing forest fragments in Madagascar.

Pseudodelta melas, a new clearwing moth that mimics Africa’s black mud wasp.

“I was now in hopes that I had made the little orphan quite happy; and so it seemed for some time, until it began to remember its lost parent…” — Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago (1869)

“The change from plants to animals…is gradual… For a person might question to which of these classes some marine objects belong…” — Aristotle, History of Animals (c. 350 BCE)

Should we really care if animal species go extinct?

A tour through time and space of the birds that cannot fly

“At Port St. Julian these great petrels were seen killing and devouring young gulls.” — Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle (1839)

There are more than 250 recognised owl species. Learn who is who.