In honour of World Wildlife Day 2025, the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) has unveiled several newly discovered species from across the region, highlighting the richness of ASEAN’s biodiversity.
With this year’s theme ‘Wildlife Conservation Finance: Investing in People and Planet’ the ACB aims to raise awareness and inspire action, underscoring the shared responsibility of protecting wildlife.
“While we are in awe of these newly discovered species in the region, this should move us to work together to conserve and protect this natural wealth,” said ACB Acting Executive Director Clarissa C Arida in a statement.
She also used the occasion to urge reflection on the urgent need for conservation efforts, noting that nearly a million species worldwide are estimated to be at risk of extinction.
Then with a call to action, she emphasised the role of individuals and communities in safeguarding wildlife.
“We each have a role in achieving our goal of living in harmony with nature,” she said, encouraging meaningful steps towards protecting natural habitats and promoting the sustainable use of resources.
By spotlighting these newly discovered species, the ACB hopes to inspire greater investment in conservation efforts – ensuring that the ASEAN region’s extraordinary biodiversity continues to thrive for generations to come.
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
Deep in the lowland forests of Ulu Temburong National Park in Brunei Darussalam, an expedition led by citizen scientists made an unexpected discovery – a previously undescribed species of Microparmarion.
While the semi-slug appeared outwardly similar to others found in the Borneo lowlands, DNA barcoding in the field lab revealed that it belonged to a distinctly different lineage. Further morphological analysis confirmed the find, solidifying its place as a new species.
Semi-slugs – affectionately dubbed “snugs” by mollusk researchers – are the squatters of the snail world. They carry a shell, but it is too small to retreat into, leaving them exposed in ways that their fully-shelled relatives are not.
This particular snug now bears the name of Md Salleh Abdullah Bat, the field centre supervisor who played a crucial role in supporting the expedition.
CAMBODIA
A new species of slender gecko, Hemiphyllodactylus khpoh, was discovered this year in Phnom Khpoh, a karstic hill in Battambang province, Cambodia.
It has a dusky brown body and mustard-hued tail, short but robust forelimbs, and toe pads covered with thin hairs called setae, which help the animal grip surfaces.
The gecko, named after the hill it was discovered in, was found during a collaborative study between Fauna and Flora’s Cambodia team, the Ministry of Environment and herpetologists from La Sierra University.
INDONESIA
Named in honour of Peter O’Byrne, an Indonesian orchid observer who played an important role in the development of orchid taxonomy in Southeast Asia, the Aerides obyrneana is endemic to the northern part of Sulawesi Island in Indonesia, a country known to be one of the most important orchid diversity hotspots in the world and a centre of diversity for many orchid genera, including the Aerides species.
LAOS
A new species of flowering plant, Phanera roseoalba, has been discovered in seasonal dry evergreen forests and secondary broad-leaved evergreen forests in southern Lao PDR.
Locally called Siew Boua (a reference to Bauhinia or “orchid tree” and the Phanera genus), this plant is easily distinguished because of its light pink petals.
MALAYSIA
Discovered to reside in only two areas in the tropical rainforest of Malaysia, Thismia malayana is a small plant that yields golden, star-shaped flowers. It grows on forest floors amid rotting leaves, wood, and other forest litter and is a mycoheterotrophic plant- it gets its nutrients from fungi.
According to the categories and criteria of the IUCN Red List, it is provisionally classified as vulnerable.
MYANMAR
A newly discovered green pit viper, Trimeresurus uetzi or Uetz’s pit viper, has been found in central and southern Myanmar.
Although it shares similarities with the white-lipped pit viper (Trimeresurus albolabris) and the Nepal pit viper (Trimeresurus septentrionalis), the new species can be distinguished by several morphological characteristics such as white pre- and post-ocular streaks in males, copper irises in males or green-gold irises in females, a greater number of ventral plates, and a notably shorter hemipenis.
The snake was named to honour Dr Peter Uetz, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor and creator of the Reptile Database, “the most important site in herpetology” for researchers of reptiles.
THE PHILIPPINES
A new species of fanged frog called Limnonectes cassiopeia has been discovered in Luzon Island, Philippines.
Mistakenly thought to be the juvenile version of the well-known and nearly identical Luzon Giant Fanged Frog for the past two decades, it has been determined that the two species are not closely related.
The males of some species have large, bony protuberances, like fangs, in their lower jaw, assumed to be used for male-to-male combat. The males’ fangs are also much larger than that of females. The males also have huge heads, some as large as chickens in other parts of Southeast Asia.
SINGAPORE
Macrodactyla fautinae, or the Tiger Anemone, was first described as a new species in 2023.
It is commonly sighted in the coastal waters of the Straits of Johor near Singapore, particularly Changi, and has not been sighted anywhere else. Local residents refer to it as the purple-lip sand anemone.
It is defined by a smooth cylindrical body with 96 tentacles with a striped brown-white pattern. These tentacles are arranged in five cycles. Its body is cream-coloured, with pink structures that are capable of expelling water when the anemone contracts
THAILAND
Researchers discovered this new gecko species in Khao Ebid, a limestone hill in Phetchaburi Province southwest of Bangkok, Thailand. The Khao Ebid leaf-toed gecko (Dixonius chotjuckdikuli) has a golden tail, slender body, elongated head, and short limbs. It has leaf-like toes, robust claws, and a pinkish-cream body with a brown-blotched pattern.
It was named after Natthaphat Chotjuckdikul, a Thai petroleum engineer, naturalist, and birdwatcher who helped in its discovery.
VIETNAM
In early 2025, a new species of lizard called Scincella truongi, or Truong’s Smooth Skink was discovered in a forest in Son La Province, northwestern Vietnam.
The bronze-coloured, medium-sized lizard has a brownish-black stripe on both sides of its body, “windows” in its eyelids, and an obtuse snout.
Researchers have named it after Dr Truong Quang Nguyen, a herpetologist, conservation scientist, and principal researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. – Features Desk
