Professor Satoshi Shimano of the Faculty of International Culture, Hosei University Center for Natural Sciences discovered a new species of coastal mites, "Oribatid mites", from a photo posted on Twitter that I happened to see.Described as a new species by the Japanese and Austrian research teams, it has led to achievements in the scientific field.

 Professor Shimano happened to see a photo taken at Choshi Outer Port posted on Twitter by Takamasa Nemoto, an office worker living in Chiba Prefecture, and noticed that there were mites of the genus Hamabedani (oribatid mites).

 So far, Professor Shimano's team has listed a new species of the genus Hamabe mite from Hokkaido (at that time, the southern limit) for the first time in Japan in 2019, but this genus was not found from south of Hokkaido in East Asia.Therefore, I thought that the genus Hamabe mite shown in the posted photo might be a new species with a slightly different morphology from the known species.

 Professor Shimano asked Mr. Nemoto where to shoot and collected Hamabedani at Choshi Outer Port.After the collection, we checked with Dr. Tobias-Puffingstil, a collaborative research team at the University of Graz (Austria), a zoological research facility, and a lecturer, and confirmed that it was a new species.Since the discovery was triggered by Twitter, the scientific name was named "Ameronothrus twitter" (Japanese name: Choushihamabedani).

 It is known that oribatid mites do not affect the human body at all, feed on organic substances such as fallen leaves and lichens, and serve as an indicator of a rich natural environment as an environmental indicator species.It is probable that the rich nature of Choshi's coastal environment cultivated undiscovered seeds.Only a handful of species have been discovered using IT in this way, and many applications can be expected in the future from the perspective of citizen science.

Paper information: [Species Diversity] Ameronothrus twitter sp. Nov. (Acari, Oribatida) a New Coastal Species of Oribatid Mite from Japan

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