It's easy to think that by now we've pretty well discovered all the animals there are to discover on Earth.

Key points: Three fish, Three plants, 206 insects identified

Three fish, Three plants, 206 insects identified Many specimens were part of the CSIRO's natural history collection

Many specimens were part of the CSIRO's natural history collection One discovery is of a shrub species with only 20 known plants left in the wild

So it might be surprising to hear that the CSIRO has identified more than 200 new species of animals and plants in the past year.

And there is estimated to be more than one million other species in Australia alone that we don't know about, according to Bryan Lessard — aka "Bry the Fly Guy" — from the CSIRO's Australian National Insect Collection.

Weevils that belong on the set of Star Wars, flies that resemble bees, and a deepwater catshark are among the latest haul that consists of three fish, 206 insects, and three plants.

"There are still 75 per cent of species out there that we don't know about in Australia and the world," Dr Lessard said.

Of the 212 new species discovered, the majority of them — including two butterfly orchids and numerous insects — are from Australia, with others coming from Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Myanmar, China, Hawaii, New Zealand, South Africa and Mexico.

One new species identified by the CSIRO was the weevil Kuschelorhynchus macadamiae, which hangs around macadamia trees — it was named in honour of late weevil expert Guillermo "Willy" Kuschel.

Another species was a shrubby daisy with small white flowers from Western Australia, which is only known from one population with fewer than 20 plants.

Some of the new discoveries were actually found more than a century ago, but it has taken this long for them to be identified, according to Dr Lessard.

"A lot of these new species were actually found in our natural history collection," he said.

"Not many people realise [the CSIRO] actually has Australia's largest natural history collection — over 15 million specimens."

When new or unusual-looking animals and plants are collected by researchers, they are routinely added to a natural history collection like the one at the CSIRO, until they can be identified.

It takes a very specific skill set to identify new animals down to a species level, and this sometimes involves sending Australian collections to experts around the world.

Often specimens sit in collections for years before they can be delivered to the right expert for classification, and naming.

And by the time some species are identified, they may already be extinct.

Identifying species key to saving them

Another discovery was this longfin-gulper shark from Papua New Guinea. ( Supplied: CSIRO )

The newly identified species take their place among Australia's more than 500 thousand animals and plants, which include about 800 birds and 5,000 fish.

About three quarters of Australia's native species do not occur anywhere else in the world, but we have a poor track record when it comes to conserving them.

We rank fourth in the world for the most extinctions on a country basis, according to the IUCN Red List.

Plant taxonomist Kevin Thiele is part of a group pushing to urgently increase investment in taxonomy in Australia, in order to identify as many of our species as possible before they are lost forever.

"Every single time a new species goes extinct, and even worse if it goes extinct before it is known, it is a lost opportunity," he said.

"The majority of drugs in human health came from living organisms."

Dr Thiele led the production of the Australian Academy of Science's 10-year plan for Australia's taxonomy, which among other things outlines the importance of knowing what species exist in our environment.

"Imagine if you were trying to run the world's largest corporation, but you had no idea what sort of stock you had or how the company actually works," he said.

"That's the situation we face in trying to manage the planet when we have these unknowns in biodiversity."

If we maintain a business-as-usual approach, it will take us another 400 years to identify all of Australia's species, by which time many of them will be lost, according to Dr Thiele.

But given new technologies like machine learning and genome sequencing, he believes Australia can discover all its species within a generation.

More than 200 insects, including the bee-fly, were discovered. ( Supplied: CSIRO )

"Australia has one of the most extraordinary biota in the world. There are many more reasons why investment [in taxonomy] stands to benefit Australia and the world," he said.

Just in the CSIRO collection alone, there are likely to be thousands of new species waiting to be identified, according to Dr Lessard.

"A lot of these species have already been collected," he said.

Dr Lessard discovered a new species of soldier-fly from Cape York that looks like a bee, and was fittingly named "bee fly".

Identifying new species is "the most fun a taxonomist can have", he said.