During the summer of 2015, a recently described species of tardigrade from southern Argentina, Milnesium beatae Roszkowska, Ostrowska and Kaczmarek, 2015, was discovered in the canopy of trees in Kansas, USA. Seven specimens of the southern hemisphere species were collected from lichen habitat above six meters on red oak tree substrates in a tree island on the edge of the tall grass prairie. Statistical comparison of the characteristics of the specimens of the two populations demonstrates that they are morphologically the same. Two new characters are described: first, small cuticular bars at the base of legs IV and second, thin plates (pseudoplates) in the dorsal and lateral cuticle are exposed by UV fluorescence imagery. Bird nesting habits and migration patterns are explored to explain how the same species of microscopic water bear is known to only occur at disparate locations 9,000 km apart in different hemispheres.