The 21,080 species logged thus far include 10,441 that had never been found in the park before. Of those, 1,028 are new to science, discovered in the Smokies as part of the ATBI. 

This year’s discoveries include a Staphylocollus bacteria species isolated from healthy black bears, a fungal parasite of millipedes that was discovered through Twitter, two thread-legged assassin bugs, native bees and more.

“Despite COVID-related setbacks, we safely hosted three biology summer interns,” reads a newsletter from Discover Life In America, the nonprofit tasked with executing the ATBI project. “They enjoyed backpacking and day hiking around the Smokies to document under-studied groups of organisms, and they made a few discoveries of their own including a millipede species that sets a rare family-level record for the park.”

The pandemic has also given DLIA the time to catch up on inventorying backlogged collections, with volunteers organizing and inventorying more than 2.4 million arthropod specimens for identification. 

DLIA has also been working to analyze existing data to better estimate how many more species remain to be discovered. 

“This groundbreaking work will guide our long-term ATBI efforts, and the methodology will no doubt prove useful for other biological inventories around the world,” the newsletter states.

Help DLIA continue its work by donating at www.dlia.org.