Top 10 new species for 2015 (pictures)

Phyllodesmium acanthorhinum

Terrestrial slugs aren't attractive creatures, but once youdive beneath the waves, slugs get gorgeous, with vivid colours and wavingfronds. Phyllodesmium acanthorhinum [PDF], found in the waters around Okinawa, Japan, isn't just apretty face: it's a sea slug "missing link", falling between seaslugs that feed on hydroidsand those that feed on coral.

The slug, which typically measures between 17and 25 millimetres, also helped scientists gain a greater understanding of the evolutionof symbiosis.

Phyllodesmium acanthorhinum feed on coral. The slug becomes the new host for zooxanthellae, a kind of plankton that lives on the coral, which provides the slugs with additional nutrients through photosynthesis.

Cebrennus rechenbergi

This Moroccan spider hightails away from danger usingacrobatics. Rather than scampering on its eight skittery legs, it cartwheels like a tumbleweed. First, it acts tough, rearing up and raising its forelegs inthe air in a typical spider threat pose. If that fails, the spider cheeses it.

Around half the time, its flight turns into a tumbling cartwheel that doublesits speed, regardless of terrain.

Cebrennus rechenbergi was discovered by abionics professor, Ingo Rechenberg at the Technical University Berlin, whomodelled a rolling, rumbling robot, called the Tabbot, after thespider's crazy gait. You can see the spider rolling in a video here.

Anzu wyliei

The discovery of this egg-thief -- affectionately knownaround the CNET traps as the Hellchook -- marked a great day for the study ofCaenagnathidae, a species of oviraptorosaur (aka egg-eating dinosaur).

Until the discovery of three 66-million-year-oldpartial skeletons found in North Dakota and South Dakota, not much was known about it, because most of the remains found were scraps and fragments too small to gleanmuch information.

Thanks to the finds, the Hellchook, or Anzu wyliei, was discovered to measure 3.5 metres (over 10 feet) from nose totail-tip and weigh around 225 kilograms (496 pounds). It had a feathered body,bone-crested head and wicked-sharp claws.

Balanophoracoralliformis

Newly discovered and just as newly endangered, Balanophoracoralliformis is a parasitic plant found in the Philippines. Deceptive in itsappearance, it looks, with its tuberous appendages, like a coral -- the onlyknown member of the Balanophoraceaefamily that does.

Like other members of its family, it grows ontree roots. Unable to produce its own chlorophyll, it needs to draw itsnutrients from another plant. It flowers directly from its stems.

Balanophora coralliformis is known to be found on fewer than 50plants found in the misty forest areas around Mt. Mingan.

Dendrogramma enigmatica

These peculiar little beasts are found on the seafloor at adepth of 1,000 metres (3,200 feet) off the coast of Victoria, Australia.

They looklike fungus, but it's not actually known what they are. The best guess is somesort of relation to jellyfish, either the phylum Cnidaria or the phylumCtenophora.

However, it has none of the evolutionary quirks or characteristics of either. It could be an entirely new phylum.

Interestingly, they resemble fossils from the Precambrian time, around541 million years ago, a time when the land seemed empty of plants and animals.The "enigmatic" creature, which measures just 11 millimetres acrossat its flat end, could be a living fossil.

Deuteragenia ossarium

This China-based wasp, also known as the "Bone-housewasp," builds a home for her larvae in a unique way. She finds a hollowstem and puts a single egg in each chamber, adding a dead spider in each cellso that the hatching larva will have something to munch on. The final chambercontains no egg, but a pile of dead ants.

The smell of these ants, researchers believe, could be usedto hide the eggs from predators that hunt by scent. Compared to wasps thatbuild similar nests, but with no ant-chamber, the theory seems sound.

You can see an example of the wasp's nest at thebottom of the image to the left.

Limnonectes larvaepartus

Most frogs and toads lay spawn -- a protective jelly encasingthe eggs in which tadpoles develop. The female lays the eggs, after which the male will fertilise them.

Not so the Limnonectes larvaepartus, a species of fangedfrog found in Indonesia. These frogs give birthto live tadpoles in pools of water, with fertilisation taking place internally.It is just one of about a dozen frog species of the 6,455 known frog species tofertilise internally, and the only one to give birth to tadpoles -- the otherseither lay fertilised eggs or give birth to tiny frogs.

This image shows the male on the left and the female on theright.

Phryganistria tamdaoensis

This stick insect is pretty big. It's not the longest everdiscovered; that honour belongs to a specimen at the Museum of Natural History in the UK, measuring 567 millimetres (22inches).

Phryganistria tamdaoensis is considerably smaller at 228 millimetres(nine inches), but still big enough to be classified as a giant stick insect.

What makes it so unusual isn't just its size. What is truly unusual about Phryganistriatamdaoensis is that it is very common in its natural habitat, the town of TamDao in Vietnam (a popular haunt for entomologists) and yet no one officially found ituntil 2014.

Tillandsia religiosa

If you ask the locals of Sierra de Tepoztlan, Tlayacapan,San Jose de los Laureles and Tepoztlan in Mexico about Tillandsia religiosa,they know precisely what it is -- although maybe not by that name.

The gorgeousbromeliad grows on cliffs at altitudes between 1,800 and 2,100 metres (6,000and 7,000 feet) and is frequently incorporated into nativity displays, or nacimientos,at Christmas time.

The 1.5-metre tall plant flowers from December to March, forming long red petals from a central rosette.

Although it has been known to the locals for a long time, the plant was not known to science until last year, when it was namedand classified.

Torquigener albomaculosus

Some species build elaborate nests for their young,and this pretty pattern on the sea floor is one of them. It's the nest of anewly discovered pufferfish off the coast of Amami-Oshima Island, Japan. He buildsthis elaborate creation in the sand by wriggling his body in and under it toattract a mate.

It's not just for show: The double edges, troughsand grooves in the two-metre-wide nest minimise the ocean current at the nest'scentre, protecting the eggs from turbulence.

For 20 years, divers had not known the origin of thesemysterious, underwater "crop circles." The discovery of Torquigeneralbomaculosus put that mystery to bed once and for all.