A fungal parasite was discovered on a millipede. So why is it named after Twitter?
One day, a biologist in Denmark was scrolling through Twitter when she found a photo of a North American millipede coated with some peculiar-looking dots.
Many hours of research later, Ana Sofia Reboleira and colleagues learned the microscopic spots were actually a previously unknown species of parasitic fungi.
In honor of the platform that unearthed its existence, the fungus has officially been named Troglomyces twitteri.
The discovery highlights the important role social media plays in the sharing of scientific data, even those that are seemingly normal or complete mysteries at first glance.
“As far as we know, this is the first time that a new species has been discovered on Twitter. It highlights the importance of these platforms for sharing research — and thereby being able to achieve new results,” Reboleira, an associate professor of entomology and biology at the University of Copenhagen, said in a press release last week.
“I hope that it will motivate professional and amateur researchers to share more data via social media. This is something that has been increasingly obvious during the coronavirus crisis, a time when so many are prevented from getting into the field or laboratories,” she said.
Derek Hennen, an entomologist at Virginia Tech, first posted the photo on the social media platform, triggering deep digs into the Natural History Museum of Denmark’s collection of 3.5 million specimens.
Turns out, several other American millipedes had the same fungus on their bodies that had never been documented.
But the fungal parasites aren’t just hanging out on the surfaces of millipedes; they are actively sucking nutrition from them by “piercing the host’s outer shell using a special suction structure,” preferably on the prey’s reproductive organs, the researchers said in the press release.
Reboleira studies these types of fungi every day, yet much is still unknown of their biology, she said.
Finding new species of these fungi can help scientists learn more about the relationship between parasites and their hosts, and possibly some insight into the ones that pose risks to people.
There are about 30 different species of the “order of microscopic parasitic fungi known as Laboulbeniales,” of which the new species belongs, that attack arthropods such as millipedes, insects and arachnids, the press release said.
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 4:26 PM with the headline "A fungal parasite was discovered on a millipede. So why is it named after Twitter?."
