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Despite hundreds of years of exploration, about 15,000 new species are still discovered every year. Most are quiet, unassuming and, frankly, boring. But a handful remind us of the amazing diversity of life on Earth. Next week, a crack team of zoologists at the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University will reveal its top 10 newly discovered species from the class of 2008. In the meantime, here is our own list of the latest weird and wonderful creatures to walk, squirm, fly or swim their way into the scientific spotlight

2 The world’s smallest snake

Discovered: Barbados

Documented: 2008

If you shuddered at the discovery of a fossilised 13-metre, 1-tonne boa constrictor earlier this year, perhaps Leptotyphlops carlae is more up your street. At only 100 millimetres long and no thicker than a strand of spaghetti, it is the world’s smallest snake, able to curl up on a British 10 pence coin or an American quarter.

Blair Hedges of Pennsylvania State University, University Park, found the diminutive snake under a rock in Barbados last year. Also known as the Barbados threadsnake, it belongs to a group of snakes that burrow into the ground in pursuit of ants and termites, which they suck dry before spitting out the husk.

Threadsnakes tend to be small – the previous record holder was the Lesser Antillean threadsnake, at 110 millimetres. But Hedges believes L. carlae is as small as it gets. Thanks to their tiny body cavity, females only manage to lay a single, very elongated egg. Any smaller and a snake would be unable to reproduce at all, he says. Graham Lawton

7 ghost slug

Flesh-eating

Discovered: Wales

Documented: 2008

Proving that the gardens of suburban Wales are just as mysterious as the rainforests of Borneo, the “alien, flesh-eating ghost slug” first appeared in a domestic garden in 2006, but was only officially named Selenochlamys ysbryda last year. According to Bill Symondson, an invertebrate ecologist at Cardiff University in the UK, who described the slug along with Ben Rowson of the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, the ghost slug is “such a brilliant white it almost glows”.

It lives underground and hunts earthworms or other slugs by stretching itself into a long, worm-like shape and sneaking down earthworm burrows. Then it uses sensitive receptors on its antennae to sniff out its prey. When it finds a worm or slug it stabs its victim with its many sharp, spiny mouthparts (in close-up, below, with a single tooth inset) before sucking the rest of it – alive – into its mouth.

Since its closest relatives are found in the Caucasus region in south-west Asia, Symondson speculates that the species evolved in a cave system there, and was perhaps brought to the UK in bat guano that was exported as fertiliser.

Luckily, the species doesn’t seem to be taking its ghoulish title too seriously. “They are at quite low densities, so we don’t think they are a threat to earthworm populations,” says Symondson. Caroline Williams

Old species, new insights

It’s not only new species that can amaze scientists. These creatures, discovered decades ago, are only now giving up their secrets

The fish with a cockpit head