Call it the mite of Twitter: Japanese and Austrian researchers have confirmed that a bug they spotted posted on Twitter is a previously unknown species, now aptly dubbed Ameronothrus twitter.
Satoshi Shimano, a professor at Tokyo’s Hosei University, stumbled upon snaps of the black mites — posted by an amateur photographer — as he was browsing Twitter last year.
The pictures showed a group of the tiny arachnids massing in a crack in a concrete wharf at the fishing port of Choshi, Japan.
“Immediately after I saw them, I thought they were different from others I knew, and thought that they could be a new species,” Shimano told reporters.
He contacted the photographer through Twitter to confirm the location and then visited the port to collect samples, later confirming with his team that the mites represented a previously unknown species.
At just 0.7mm long, the mites are miniscule and harmless to people, Shimano said.
They are a type of coastal mite that eats algae and lichen, and lives in groups.
TRIBUTE
Shimano and his team paid tribute to Twitter’s role in bringing the mite to their attention when naming the mite.
“I suggested the name to link the discovery with modern society,” Shimano said.
“I hope the name will help attract more people to learn about the world of this particular research,” he added.
Shimano is also enthusiastic about the prospect of social media helping uncover more new species, harnessing the force of millions of people around the world for scientific discovery.
The team, including Tobias Pfingstl, a mite specialist at the University of Graz in Austria, published details of the new bug in the journal Species Diversity on March 22.
It is not the first time Twitter has helped reveal previously unknown species — though such discoveries are believed to be rare.
Last year, the University of Copenhagen announced that its experts had discovered a new fungal parasite after spotting some unusual marks on a photo of a millipede shared on Twitter.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
‘KAMPAI’: It is said that people in Japan began brewing rice about 2,000 years ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol. By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are
RSS