National Research Collections Australia, which is part of the federal scientific agency, released a list of 206 new insects, three fish and three plants on Wednesday.

Most of the new discoveries were from Australia, but a deepwater catshark was discovered in Papua New Guinea and some of the insects came from Malaysia, Myanmar, China, Hawaii, New Zealand, South Africa and Mexico.

Dr Bryan Lessard said one of the most significant discoveries was the Kuschelorhynchus macadamiae, a native weevil that had become a pest in macadamia plantations, which were native to Australia.

He said naming and describing a new species was a critical starting point in protecting our biosecurity.

“In order to manage a pest, we first need to know exactly what it is and what it can be confused with," Dr Lessard said.

“Our insect discoveries far outweigh discoveries in other animal groups, because insects include some of the most diverse and abundant lifeforms on Earth."

The newly discovered insects included 73 ants, 38 beetles and 21 flies, including a soldier fly named in honour of journalist Chris Bath, who hosts Dr Lessard's segment "Bry the Fly Guy's Top 5" on ABC radio.

Several extinct species preserved in 100 million-year-old Burmese amber were also named, and will now be used to help map the evolution of Australian insects.

“We described three entirely new tribes," Dr Lessard said of the new flies and beetles.

“One of the best places in Australia to discover a new species is actually our insect collection."

CSIRO holds more than 12 million insect specimens in its collection, which dates back to the early 19th century, and more than 15 million natural history specimens in total.

The agency says Australia is home to about 500,000 species, about half of which are insects and three-quarters of which are native.

Scientists estimate there are about 10 million species on Earth.