# New Publication - Parasites of parasites November 12, 2026 Former HUH Research Fellow Michael Bradshaw and Curatorial Assistant James Mitchell are among the authors of a new article in *Proceedings of the Royal Society B*, published online Nov. 11, 2026. The researchers looked at *Ampelomyces*, fungi that infect the diseases responsible for powdery mildew on plants, using herbarium specimens collected from around the world. They uncovered previously hidden types of these fungi and patterns in which hosts they infect. They also found that about 13% of public DNA records labeled *Ampelomyces* were misidentified, so they created a checked reference system to help future research. Overall, the study shows that museum herbarium collections can reveal ecological relationships that are otherwise hard to see. **Abstract.** Hyperparasitism, the infection of parasites by other parasites, is among the least explored ecological interaction types. *Ampelomyces*, intracellular fungi that infect the plant diseases causing powdery mildews, form a naturally occurring parasite-on-parasite system that is both widespread and poorly understood. This tripartite association among plants, pathogens and hyperparasites provides a powerful model for studying multi-trophic interactions and the evolution of host specialization. Using DNA from herbarium specimens collected across 28 countries over the past 150 years as well as those available in NCBI GenBank, we revealed previously hidden ecological and evolutionary patterns in the *Ampelomyces*–powdery mildew system. Historical collections allowed us to detect hyperparasites that cannot be easily observed, uncovering multiple novel lineages and global patterns of host association. A global reassessment of all publicly available sequences showed that 13% of entries labelled as *Ampelomyces* are misidentified, revealing a major issue with uncurated, public databases. To resolve this, we developed a curated, voucher-linked phylogenetic framework in T-BAS to serve as a reference for future ecological, genomic and biocontrol studies. Together, our results demonstrate that herbaria function as large-scale ecological observatories, capable of revealing cryptic interactions across continents and providing a strengthened framework for future ecological and evolutionary research on hyperparasitism. Jacklyn Thomas, Andrew Paul, Uma Crouch, Uwe Braun, Susumu Takamatsu, Márk Z. Németh, Levente Kiss, Ignazio Carbone, **James Mitchell**, Henry Van T. Cotter, **Michael Bradshaw**; Parasites of parasites: Herbaria as archives of hidden ecological interactions. *Proc. R. Soc. B* 1 November 2026; 293 (2082): 20261772. Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)