New to science:
This month a peer reviewed paper was published that announced the formal discovery of a new species of large frog from north-east Victoria. Known as Philocryphus hoserae Hoser, 2019, the species has for many years been confused with a similar species from near Sydney, New South Wales.
Until now, both had been treated as Heleioporus australiacus Shaw and Nodder, 1795.
Using evidence from several sources, including molecular, morphological and historical, The Snakeman Raymond Hoser was able to show that neither were in the genus Heleioporus, that being confined to south-west Australia and so Hoser resurrected an old name “Philocryphus Fletcher, 1894”.
Hoser was also able to show that what had until now been treated as one species, was in fact two morphologically distinct species.
As a result Hoser was able to name the new species in honour of his wife, hence the name “hoserae”. The “ae” part of the name signifies it is named in honour of a female person and not a male.
It is rare for new species of frog to be discovered in Victoria, this species being the first in some years.
Raymond Hoser notes the species is already under threat from extinction due to several factors including:
1/ A fungus, known as "Chytrid" introduced by humans into Australia that is killing native frogs which seem to lack immunity to it.
2/ Deforestation and similar habitat destruction where the species occurs.
3/ Petty jealousies among government-employed “scientists” who may pretend that the species does not exist, as they refuse to give Raymond Hoser credit for discovering a new species, meaning that there will be no management plan to protect the species, leaving it vulnerable to extinction, as has happened in similar situations.
4/ All the problems above being magnified by the Australian and State government policies meaning a doubling of the human population in Victoria every 30 years and all the environmental damage this inevitably brings.
Raymond Hoser says, “to save this and other threatened species does not include rocket science, but it does involve government facing up to the problems in a rational and scientific manner and dealing with the elephant in the room, which is runaway human population growth.”
Raymond Hoser’s “Bible”, the best-selling book, “Endangered animals of Australia” was published in 1991 and it warned of all the issues affecting this species. The warning was not heeded and several species in Victoria have already become extinct, including the south-eastern Lined Earless Dragon, Tympanocryptis pinguicolla Mitchell, 1948, pronounced probably extinct, in two papers published in early 2019.
Another endemic Victorian dragon Lizard species, Rankinia jameswhybrowi Hoser, 2015 is also under threat of extinction due to State Government scientists recklessly pretending it does not even exist, even though their own scientists obtained DNA evidence to show it is very different to anything else.
That species, known from only one area, is having its habitat logged by State Government-backed enterprises and has also been burnt out as recently as early 2019 with no live specimens reported since then.

The relevant paper is:
Hoser, R. T. 2019. A new species of Philocryphus Fletcher, 1894 (Amphibia: Myobatrachidae) from north-east Victoria and south-east New South Wales. Australasian Journal of Herpetology: 39:6-8.

Papers detailing the likely extinction of two other lizard species in Victoria are:
Hoser, R. T. 2019. 11 new species, 4 new subspecies and a subgenus of Australian Dragon Lizard in the genus Tympanocryptis Peters, 1863, with a warning on the conservation status and long-term survival prospects of some newly named taxa. Australasian Journal of Herpetology: 39:23-52.
and
Hoser, R. T. 2019. Richard Shine et al. (1987), Hinrich Kaiser et al. (2013), Jane Melville et al. (2018 and 2019): Australian Agamids and how rule breakers, liars, thieves, taxonomic vandals and law breaking copyright infringers are causing reptile species to become extinct. Australasian Journal of Herpetology: 39:53-63.

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Raymond Hoser is the Snakeman. Details of his work here.