Currently just 1.3 million species have been characterised and named by scientists. Around 18,000 new species are discovered every year.

SUNY-ESF has released a list of the top 10 new discoveries from the natural world every year since 2008. It said it hoped the list would focus people's minds on those species that may be being lost before they can even be discovered.

Also on this year's list is a nine-inch-long stick insect from Vietnam and a colourful blue, red and gold sea slug from off the coast of Japan.

A parasitic plant that grows in the mountains of the Philippines that has an appearance much like coral, was also a surprise discovery.

This image shows the cluster of staminate flowers from the new coral-like plant Balanophora coralliformis found in the Philippines