Thanks to a photo posted on Twitter, a team of researchers discovered a new species of fungus. Their discovery highlights the growing role that social media plays in research, the group says.
The new species is now part of the Laboulbeniales order of fungi. It was called Troglomyces twitteri by the researchers after the social media site where it was first observed.
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How it turned up
The researchers' discovery started when biologists and associate professor Ana Sofia Reboleira from the University of Copenhagen's Natural History Museum of Denmark found something unusual about a photograph on Twitter, posted on October 31, 2018.
Entomologist Derek Hennen posted the image of the species in 2018, now a Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech. He sent the millipede (from Ohio) pictures to people who tweeted at him that they had voted in the mid-term polls in the United States. The entomology student Kendal Davis had tweeted this particular photo.
To everyone (including me!), it was as normal of a millipede photo as you can get. But if you're @SReboleira, you have AMAZING vision and a preternatural talent for spying tiny fungi. She saw something no one else did! — Derek Hennen, Ph.D. (@derekhennen) May 14, 2020
In a news release, Reboleira said she saw something looking like fungi on the millipede's surface. Until then, she mentioned these fungi had never been found on American millipedes.
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Search & discovery
Reboleira showed her fellow-member Henrik Enghoff the picture. Then, both of them tracked down to the museum collections and started digging. The museum has an extensive selection of insects and millipedes.
"So, I went to my colleague and showed him the image; that's when we ran down to the museum's collections and began digging," he said. Reboleira and her colleagues found other American millipedes with the same unidentified fungus while scouring the museum's collections, verifying that the one on the illustration was a previously unknown species.
Hi @Twitter you have a new species named after you: https://t.co/jB4zUqUb2o — Ana Sofia Reboleira (@SReboleira) May 14, 2020
Those were fungi which had never been previously reported. Millipede specimens from Paris' Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle helped validate the new species' discovery.
Troglomyces twitteri: What it's like
Troglomyces twitteri is part of an order called Laboulbeniales - small fungal parasites attacking insects and millipedes. It seems like tiny larvae. These fungi live outside of host organisms; in this case, on millipedes reproductive organs.
The first discovered laboulbeniales were in the mid-19th century. Their taxonomic status was established in comprehensive studies at Harvard University conducted by Roland Thaxter, starting in 1890. Thaxter described 1,260 species of these fungi (College of Environmental Science and Forestry of the State of New York).
Of these, approximately 30 species strike millipedes (University of Copenhagen). Many of these species have been described recently; Reboleira claims that many more are yet to be found.
Thanks, social media!
The finding has shown the growing contributions of social media to science, according to the researchers.
"There is an increasing interplay between research and social media platforms, and many scientists use Twitter to promote and share research, a phenomenon also promoted by scientific publisher companies," the researchers wrote in their study.
According to researchers, it is the first time that a new species for science has been discovered on Twitter. As a result of the casual observation of a colleague's photo, the study said such platforms for sharing research and making new discoveries are important.
