From a snail-eating snake that pretends to be poisonous to a monkey with a blue bottom and human-like eyes, the new species provide a glimpse of how much scientists have still to learn about life on Earth.
They estimate that there are up to 10 million species still left to be discovered on our planet and are now calling for a major new push to identify them over the next 50 years.
Last year, there were 18,000 new species registered with the International Institute for Species Exploration, based at Arizona State University.
A committee of international scientists has now selected a top ten list of the most unusual and exceptional identified during 2012.
Among those they picked out is the Lesula monkey, a shy monkey discovered in the Lomami Basin of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The monkey has a loud call that can be heard at dawn across the rain forests where it lives and the scientists who discovered it describe the animal as having eyes that are human in appearance.
Adult males also have a distinctive patch of brilliant blue skin on their buttocks.
They also identified a striped snake from the highland rainforests of western Panama that eats snails, slugs and earthworms.
Called Sibon noalamina, it looks identical to the venomous coral snake, which may help protect it from predators.
"I don't know whether to be more astounded by the species discovered each year, or the depths of our ignorance about biodiversity of which we are a part," said Professor Quentin Wheeler, founding director of the International Institute for Species Exploration.
Among the other species highlighted by the scientists is the world’s smallest vertebrate - a tiny species of frog discovered in Papua New Guinea, called Paedophryne amanuensis, that measures just seven millimetres.
A black stain fund growing on the walls of a cave decorated with prehistoric art has also been identified as a new species of fungus.
The fungus, called Ochroconis anomala, was found to be spreading over an area of Palaeolithic rock art in the Lascaux Cave in the Dordogne area of France.
Some of the creatures on the list were found decades ago but have only recently been recognised as new species, such as a large cockroach that glows in the dark called Lucihormetica luckae.
A specimen of this otherwise dark brown insect was collected 70 years ago in the shadow of the Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador, but not recognised as a new species.
By looking at it in the dark, however, scientist found that it has two “lamps” in its head that are luminescent due to bacteria contained within special sacks there. It is thought to be mimicking a toxic species of luminescent beetle.
Unfortunately the cockroach may have already died out as the Tungurahua volcano erupted in 2010, destroying much of the insects’ habitat where it had been found.
The fate of the insect – to have become extinct before it was officially recognised as a new species – is helping to spur biologists into stepping up their hunt for life on our planet.
Scientists have now discovered approximately 1.2 million species but say there are up to 10 million left to be found, without including the countless bacteria and other microbes.
Many species are under threat from pollution, hunting and loss of their habitat.
They have proposed a new mission to send 2,000 taxonomists around the world to search for new species and are calling for funding for 300 biodiversity inventory projects.
Professor Wheeler added: “For decades, we have averaged 18,000 species discoveries per year which seemed reasonable before the biodiversity crisis.
“Now, knowing that millions of species may not survive the 21st century, it is time to pick up the pace.
“Until we know what species already exist, it is folly to expect we will make the right decisions to assure the best possible outcome for the pending biodiversity crisis."
Top 10 New Species of 2013
Lilliputian Violet (Viola lilliputana)
Puna habitat of Viola Lilliputana (CREDIT: Hugh H Iltis and Harvey Ballard)
Known only from a single locality in an Intermontane Plateau of the high Andes of Peru, this is one of the smallest violets in the world. It grows in the dry puna grassland eco-region. Specimens were first collected in the 1960s, but the species was not described as a new until 2012. The entire above ground portion of the plant is barely 1 centimetre tall. Named after the race of little people on the island of Lilliput in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
Lyre Sponge (Chondrocladia lyra)
Lyre sponge Chondrocladia lyra (CREDIT: MBARI 2013)
Country: NE Pacific Ocean; USA: California
A carnivorous, harp-shaped sponge discovered in deep water, more than 11,000 feet deep, of the northeast Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. The harp-shaped structures or vanes number from two to six and each has more than 20 parallel vertical branches, often capped by an expanded, balloon-like ball. This unusual form maximizes the area on which it can capture plankton, which it eats.
Lesula Monkey (Cercopithecus lomamiensis)
Adult male Lesula Monkey (CREDIT: Maurice Emetshu)
Country: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Discovered in the Lomami Basin of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the lesula is an Old World monkey well known to locals but newly known to science. This is only the second species of monkey discovered in Africa in the past 28 years. Researchers describe the shy lesula as having human-like eyes. More easily heard than seen, the monkeys perform a booming dawn chorus. Adult males have a large, bare patch of skin on the buttocks, testicles and perineum that is coloured a brilliant blue. Although the forests where the monkeys live are remote, the species is hunted for bush meat and its status is vulnerable.
The No to the Mine Snake (Sibon noalamina)
(CREDIT: Sevastian Lotzkat)
Discovered in the highland rainforests of western Panama, the snake is nocturnal and hunts soft-bodied prey including earthworms and amphibian eggs, in addition to snails and slugs. This harmless snake defends itself by mimicking the alternating dark and light rings of venomous coral snakes. The species is found in the Serranía de Tabasará mountain range where ore mining is degrading and diminishing its habitat. The species name is derived from the Spanish phrase "No a la mina" or "No to the mine."
Ochroconis anomala - Cave art fungi
Black smudges on cave paintings at Lascaux, France (CREDIT: Prof saxx)
In 2001, black stains began to appear on the walls of Lascaux Cave in France. By 2007, the stains were so prevalent they became a major concern for the conservation of precious rock art at the site that dates back to the Upper Palaeolithic. Relatives of this fungi occur in the soil and are associated with the decomposition of plant matter. As far as scientists know, this fungus, one of two new species of the genus from Lascaux, is harmless.
Paedophryne amanuensis - World's Smallest Frog
(CREDIT: Christopher C Austin)
Country: New Guinea
This tiny new species of frog was discovered near Amau village in Papua, New Guinea. The adult frog size is only 7.7 millimetres. With few exceptions, this and other ultra-small frogs are associated with moist leaf litter in tropical wet forests.
Eugenia petrikensis - endangered forest shrub
(CREDIT: David Rabehevitra)
Eugenia is a large, worldwide genus of woody evergreen trees and shrubs of the myrtle family that is particularly diverse in South America, New Caledonia and Madagascar. The new species E. petrikensis is a shrub growing to two meters with emerald green, slightly glossy foliage and beautiful, dense clusters of small magenta flowers. It is one of seven new species described from the littoral forest of eastern Madagascar and is considered to be an endangered species. Once forming a continuous band 1,600 kilometres long, the littoral forest has been reduced to isolated, vestigial fragments under pressure from human populations.
Lucihormetica luckae - glow-in-the-dark cockroach
CREDIT: Peter Vrsansky
This cockroach is known from a single specimen collected 70 years ago from an area heavily impacted by the eruption of the Tungurahua volcano. The species may be most remarkable because the size and placement of its lamps suggest that it is using light to mimic toxic luminescent click beetles.
Semachrysa jade - a green lacewing butterfly
CREDIT: Guek Hock Ping
A beautiful green lacewing with dark markings at the base of its wings found in a park near Kuala Lumpur. It was idenfited after a photograph of it was shared on the social media site Flickr and Shaun Winterton, an entomologist with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, recognized the insect as unusual. Stephen Brooks at London's Natural History Museum confirmed its new species status. The lacewing is not named for its colour — rather for Winterton's daughter, Jade.
Juracimbrophlebia ginkgofolia - Hangingfly fossil
(CREDIT: Wang, Labandeira, Shih and Ren)
A new fossil species of hangfly, Juracimbrophlebia ginkgofolia, has been found along with preserved leaves of a gingko-like tree, Yimaia capituliformis, in Middle Jurassic deposits in the Jiulongshan Formation in China's Inner Mongolia. Hangingflies are found hanging beneath foliage where they capture other insects as food. In this case the hangingfly and fossilised leaves look so similar that they are easily confused.