International press reports revealed that a group of scientists made a new discovery that proved the existence of the so-called “Twitter mite”.
Agence France-Presse reported that the term “weevils” or “moths” was given by Japanese and Austrian researchers to a strange species unknown to them of insects that they recorded on the Twitter platform.
Satoshi Shimano, a professor at Hosai University in Tokyo, found footage of the black mite – posted by an amateur photographer – while browsing Twitter last year.
The pictures showed a group of small spiders gathering in the crack of a concrete pier at the fishing port in Choshi, southeast of the capital.
Shimano said, “After I saw it directly, I thought it was different from others that I know, and I thought it could be a new type.”
The researcher contacted the photographer via Twitter to confirm the location, then visited the port to collect samples, and later confirmed with his team that the mites represent a previously unknown species.
Shimano said that the mites are only 0.7 millimeters long, and they are small in size and harmless to humans. It is a type of coastal moth that eats mosses and lichens and lives in groups
Shimano and his team decided to praise the role of “Twitter” in drawing their attention to the moths by calling them “Twitter mites” or “Twitter mites”.
“I suggested the name to link the discovery to modern society,” Shimano told AFP.
He continued, “I hope that the name helps in attracting more people to know the world of this particular research.”
Shimano is also excited about the possibility that social media can help uncover more new species, and harness the power of millions of users around the world for scientific discovery.
The team, including Tobias Pfingstel, a mothologist at the University of Graz in Austria, published details of the new scientific discovery in the journal “Species Diversity” on March 22.
It is not the first time that Twitter has helped uncover previously unknown species – though it is believed that such discoveries are rare.
In 2020, the University of Copenhagen announced that its experts had discovered a new fungal parasite after discovering some unusual signs on a picture of a millipede that was shared on Twitter.