In biological taxonomy, a species nova (plural: species novae; abbreviation: sp. nov. plural abbreviation: spp. nov.) is a new species. The phrase is Latin, and is used after a binomial name that is being published for the first time.
An example is the species of dink frog, Diasporus ventrimaculatus, originally described as Diasporus ventrimaculatus sp. nov. in Zootaxa in 2009.
The term should not to be confused with combinatio nova, used when a previously named taxon is moved to a different genus or species, or its rank is changed.
References
Species nova Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA