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How many species of ebolaviruses have been described?

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Ebolavirus and Ebola virus disease — Ebola Numerous filamentous ebolavirus particles (blue) budding from a chronically-infected VERO E6 cell (yellow-green) in this digitally colorized scanning electron micrograph produced by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

There are six species of ebolaviruses that have been described. While some older sources may list only five, current scientific classification recognizes six distinct species:12

Orthoebolavirus zairense (Ebola virus)
O. sudanense (Sudan virus)
O. taiense (Taï Forest virus)
O. restonense (Reston virus)
O. bundibugyoense (Bundibugyo virus)
O. bombaliense (Bombali virus)1

These viruses are named primarily for the locations where they were first identified. While several of these species are known to cause severe disease in humans, others, such as the Bombali virus, have been detected in animals like bats without any reported human cases.1