A new species of mite discovered by Professor Shimano of Hosei University via Twitter has been selected by the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) as one of the "Top 10 New Marine Species to Watch in 2021

~"The Japanese Twitter Mite": The butterfly spider mite Ameronothrus twitter, with a scientific name derived from twitter, described as a new species through social media, has been selected~.

Key Points of the Announcement
(1) The world's first new species of animal found by chance on Twitter has been selected as one of the "Top 10 New Marine Species to Watch in 2021" by the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), which has more than 220,000 species registered as "Japanese twitter mite.
(2) March 19 is "Thank a Taxonomist Day," and to commemorate the day, the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) annually selects its Top 10 New Species to Watch for 2021.
(3) The scientific name of the mite chosen as the "Japanese Twitter mite" is A. twitter, derived from twitter.
(4) The use of social media (SNS) suggests that anyone can participate in the discovery of new species and the elucidation of biodiversity, and since only a handful of species have been discovered using IT, many applications can be expected in the future from the perspective of citizen science.

March 19 is "Appreciation Day for Taxonomists," and to commemorate the occasion, each year the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) selects its "Top 10 New Marine Species to Watch." This year's "Top 10 New Marine Species to Watch in 2021" includes the "Japanese Twitter Mite," a new species announced last year by Professor Tomoyuki Shimano (Taxonomy of Animals) of Hosei University's Center for Natural Sciences and Faculty of Intercultural Communication and Dr. Tobias Pfingstill (University of Graz, Austria) and his colleagues as a "new species" in Japan. The species is A. ameronothrus. The scientific name of this species, A. twitter, is derived from the social media twitter.

　Other species in the "Top 10 New Marine Species to Watch" list include
The Dumbo octopus (a pair of fins resembling the oversized ears of an elephant from a Disney cartoon) was discovered at a depth of 4,000 meters.
The common name Ramalih whale and scientific name Mesoplodon eueu, a whale that became a new species when it washed up on the coast of New Zealand, were chosen from indigenous languages in consultation with the indigenous communities of South Africa and New Zealand, where the specimens were collected. ("eueu" means "big fish" in the Kossian language of South Africa, and "mahali" means "rare event" in the local language of New Zealand).
The balloon backpack crab (a distinctive crab with a backpack-shaped structure attached to its antennae like a shield).

This small, inconspicuous mite, less than 1 mm long, was included in the top 10 new marine species to watch, along with a new species of whale and a fascinating deep-sea species. From the standpoint of biodiversity, Professor Shimano said, this is a wonderful event for Taxonomists' Day, which continues to elucidate biodiversity, because it shows that there is no creature that is not necessary in an ecosystem.

Summary of the species: Professor Shimano noticed a photo posted on Twitter by company employee (and amateur photographer) Takamasa Nemoto (a resident of Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture), and thought that the tick in the image belonged to the genus Hamabedani, but was a new species of tick because it differed slightly in morphology from known species. Based on the tweeted photo, we collected a specimen in the field and studied it with Dr. Tobias-Pfingstill, a lecturer at the University of Graz (Austria), Institute of Zoology and Research and a member of our joint research team, and confirmed that it was a new species. This Sarasaradani species has no effect on the human body and feeds on organic matter such as fallen leaves and lichens.

■ Announcement on the Internet site: World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) World Register of Marine Species on Saturday, March 19, 2022
Title: Ten remarkable new marine species from 2021 "Top 10 remarkable new marine species in 2021".
https://marinespecies.org/news.php?p=show&id=8993
https://lifewatch.be/en/worms-top10-2021#Grimpoteuthis_imperato

Inquiries regarding this matter should be directed to
　Professor Tomoyuki Shimano, Hosei University, Center for Natural Sciences and Faculty of Intercultural Communication Studies
　　E-Mail: sim@hosei.ac.jp