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New mite species in honour of unique way it was discovered

TOKYO: A new mite species that was discovered this year, has been named after how it was found through social media.

Japanese Biologist Satoshi Shimano first saw a post about a new mite species on Twitter, and the repeated resharing of the image later led to the discovery of another mite species.

The newly identified species had been spotted on a reef in Tottori, Japan.

According to a report in the Asahi Shimbun daily, the new mite species has been named "Ameronothrus retweet", to honour the unique way it was discovered.

Ameronothrus retweet, called "iwado hamabedani" in Japanese, is less than 1 mm long and consumes seaweed that grows on rocks.

Shimano, a professor at Tokyo's Hosei University, said that to name a species with just two words was a task which required "exquisite taste".

"I want the name using the phrase 'retweet' to help many people become interested in taxonomy and the registration of new varieties."

The finding, along with the characteristics of the mite, which is from the genus called "hamabedani" in Japan, was reported by Shimano's research team in May in the International Journal of Acarology.

Mite discoveries through Twitter began in March last year when Shimano came across a previously unknown hamabedani mite variety by chance in an image shared on Twitter by a company employee in Chiba Prefecture.

That mite species was given the scientific name Ameronothrus twitter.

"The word 'twitter' was included in the species' name, reflecting our high expectations for the possibility of social networking sites bringing about further advances in science in the future," Shimano said.

The discovery of the new mite species started to draw considerable attention and a Tottori University graduate school student Yuito Obae, 23, came across it on Twitter and realised that the mite's appearance looked familiar to him.

According to the Shimbun report, he thought that it closely resembled a mite he found a year earlier while looking for a different creature along a coast in Tottori Prefecture.

"Is this the same variant as the much talked about hamabedani?" Obae wondered after the publication of the thesis about Ameronothrus twitter.

He then posted the message on Twitter with a photo he snapped of the mite he had found in Tottori Prefecture.

Shimano soon came across Obae's tweet and since no hamabedani mites had ever been located on the Sea of Japan side of the Japanese archipelago during his investigations, he realised that this could be a new species or one that inhabits an unconfirmed region.

The professor then contacted Obae, who is involved in zoology, and they quickly realised the importance of his findings. Obae then collected samples of the mites and sent them to Shimano for further study.

Shimano carried out genetic analysis of the samples and it showed they are different from Ameronothrus twitter.

He then concluded that they are from an unidentified hamabedani variety.

Although the discovery was not technically made through a retweet, it was named Ameronothrus retweet in the spirit of retweets that disseminated the information.

Obae said the speed and breadth in dissemination of information in social media worked simultaneously in an ideal fashion.

"I would be pleased if the speed of discoveries accelerates and more people show an interest in living creatures," he added.

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