The Troglomyces twitteri, a new species of anthropod-associated fungi, was spotted by a biologist while she was going through twitter.
Ana Sofia Reboleira, who is also an associate professor, spotted a few tiny specs on the surface of a North American millipede from a photo shared by Derek Hennen of Virginia Tech, US.
She was able to dig into the museum archives to compare and confirm that they had stumbled on a new species of microscopic parasitic fungi referred to as Laboulbeniales. This order of fungi depends on its arachnid, millipede, and insect host for its survival.
shared on Twitter on 31 Oct 2018 by Derek Hennen.