Every newly described species expands our knowledge of a region’s biodiversity and helps us better understand the ecosystems it inhabits. In Central America, where major gaps remain in the insect inventory, discoveries like this are especially valuable.
A team of researchers described a new spider species of the genus Ixchela, found in a cloud forest in the department of Olancho, Honduras. With this discovery, Honduras becomes the Central American country with the greatest known diversity of this spider genus.
Every few years, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the United Kingdom, publishes a report summarizing the state of global knowledge on plants and fungi: their diversity, the threats they face, and the policies needed to protect them. The most recent edition, State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2026, brings together the work of more than 400 scientists from over 170 institutions in 40 countries.
In December 2025, volume 58, issue 2 of the journal Ceiba was published. The five articles featured highlight Zamorano’s disciplinary diversity and the journal’s efforts to broaden its scope of coverage and integrate knowledge as a strategy to address the complex challenges currently facing agri-food systems.
Dr. Eric van den Berghe, Associate Professor in the Department of Environment and Development Engineering, and his collaborators provided the first complete and annotated list of Tortricidae (leaf-roller moths) of Honduras. The research team documented 109 specimens. Seventy specimens were identified to the species level and 39 to the genus level, reflecting both the advancements and challenges involved in studying such a diverse family. The results were published in the journal Zootaxa.
Dr. Eric van den Berghe, Associate Professor in the Department of Environment and Development Engineering, and his team published a study in the journal Plants, People, Planet highlighting the fundamental role of herbarium collections in the development of effective conservation strategies.
Ing. Erika Tenorio, Full Professor in the Department of Environment and Development Engineering, in collaboration with partners from Colorado State University, published an important study in the journal Earth’s Future that sheds new light on the ecological pressures facing the largest freshwater body in Honduras, Lake Yojoa. The research provides evidence for policymakers, certification bodies, and communities working to balance food production with the health of freshwater ecosystems.
Dr. Jesús Orozco, Curator and Associate Professor of Entomology in the Department of Agricultural Science and Production, and his team presented a pioneering study dedicated to documenting the diversity of flesh flies (family Sarcophagidae) in Honduras. Their research, published in the journal Biota Neotrópica, identified a total of 13 Sarcophagidae species, of which nine represented new records for the fauna of Honduras.
Researchers from Zamorano University documented, for the first time in Honduras, the presence of the Asian lady beetle Cheilomenes sexmaculata. The finding identifies five morphotypes and provides key evidence of the expansion of this invasive species in Central America.
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