In a recent special issue of Zoological Research, it highlights a new effort by Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute (SEABRI) to promote awareness of the biodiversity and its conservation in Southeast Asia.

The special issue is entitled “SEABRI Reports on Biological Surveys in Southeast Asia”. Because nature conservation is built upon a foundation of knowledge about life’s diversity itself, it focuses on taxonomic discoveries in the first instance and emphasized that taxonomy is the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation.

Seven articles in this issue involve the description of new species from biological surveys in the region. They include a new rainpool frog (Anura: Dicroglossidae) from Thailand, a new species of snake (Serpentes: Colubridae) and a sisorid catfish (Siluriformes, Sisoridae) from southern China, a new species of landhopper (Amphipoda, Talitridae) from Myanmar, new species of spiders (Araneae, Scytodidae) from China and Thailand, and the discovery of cyprinid fishes (Teleostei: Cypriniformes) in Myanmar. Results of ornithological explorations in northern Myanmar and the phylogenetics of leaf muntjac are also reported.

For more information about the new species, please refer to Zoological Research at http://www.zoores.ac.cn/EN/abstract/abstract3846.shtml

ABOUT

The Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute (SEABRI) is an international scientific research and education organization affiliated directly to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and managed by the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG). By harnessing its connections with all CAS institutes, local institutes and international agencies and leveraging on their resources, it seeks to make a significant contribution to biodiversity conservation in Southeast Asia. SEABRI intends to project itself as a crucial networking platform for biodiversity researchers from both China and Southeast Asia, an internationally respected research and conservation institution on Southeast Asian biodiversity, and a model on cooperation on research and education between China and Southeast Asian countries.