u/VCardBGone

The newly identified species, named Taczanowskia waska, is the first known spider ever documented to mimic a fungus that infects spiders. The discovery, made by an international team of researchers including scientists from the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB), has been published in the journal Zootaxa.

The spider was discovered in the Llanganates-Sangay Corridor in the Ecuadorian Amazon, a region recognised as one of the most biologically rich places on Earth. During a nighttime field expedition, researchers initially believed they were looking at a mushroom growing beneath a leaf before realising it was a living spider.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taczanowskia\_waska

https://mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.5760.5.4

https://gizmodo.com/last-of-us-spider-pretends-to-be-a-zombie-fungus-and-its-bizarrely-brilliant-2000736362

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/science/spider-cordyceps-fungus-zombies.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taczanowskia

It began with video games, a paintball experiment and a bold bet that few understood. Today, Nvidia has become a company every tech giant depends on to build the future of artificial intelligence.

A banyan tree in Bihar's Munger, estimated to be around 700 years old, has been identified as the oldest accurately dated banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) using radiocarbon dating - a method based entirely on scientific evidence rather than oral histories or historical accounts, according to a PIB press release.

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2280710&amp%3breg=48&amp%3blang=2&reg=48&lang=2

https://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/art-culture/lovely-dark-and-deep-the-lessons-ancient-trees-can-teach-us-101772267941089.html?\_gl=1\*1kj4lw7\*\_ga\*UEFSRlhsNUtiQ2MwS1BTbWRWLVhVVFhIak9GRGw1OVhpNXZxRXlTLS0wSk9nOVB2RFZFc05ueklTQXVxbEhvVA..\*\_ga\_9CYSK4EP0B\*MTc4MzIwMzM4OC4xNS4xLjE3ODMyMDMzOTYuMC4wLjA.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/rooted-sentinels-these-trees-have-tales-to-tell-101648413239758.html?\_gl=1\*1kj4lw7\*\_ga\*UEFSRlhsNUtiQ2MwS1BTbWRWLVhVVFhIak9GRGw1OVhpNXZxRXlTLS0wSk9nOVB2RFZFc05ueklTQXVxbEhvVA..\*\_ga\_9CYSK4EP0B\*MTc4MzIwMzM4OC4xNS4xLjE3ODMyMDMzOTYuMC4wLjA.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/quaternary-research/article/abs/radiocarbon-dating-identifies-the-indian-banyan-tree-in-munger-as-the-oldest-accurately-dated-ficus-benghalensis-in-the-world/078B28FC9EAFCEB9D33204791C2D91B0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banyan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus\_benghalensis

Deep inside the cloud forests of Mexico, certain patches of bark and rotting wood begin to glow a faint, ghostly green once darkness sets in. The source is not the trees themselves but tiny mushrooms growing on them, fungi capable of producing their own light through a chemical reaction inside their cells. For years, very few of these glowing species had ever been formally documented in Mexico, even though bioluminescent fungi have fascinated naturalists since the time of Aristotle, who once described the eerie light coming from rotting wood as a kind of cold fire. Recent research has now confirmed several bioluminescent fungi living in Mexican forests, including brand new species never recorded anywhere in the world before, offering a clearer picture of just how widespread this strange, glowing phenomenon really is.

The green glow produced by these mushrooms comes from a chemical reaction between a light producing compound called luciferin and an enzyme called luciferase, the same basic chemistry that gives fireflies their spark. Inside the fungus, this reaction releases energy in the form of visible light rather than heat, a process scientists call cold light. Around eighty species of mushroom forming fungi are currently known to glow this way, most of them belonging to a handful of related groups, and the light is usually strongest in the actively growing mycelium or in young, freshly formed mushroom caps rather than in older, drying ones. Because the glow is so faint, it is essentially invisible in daylight and only becomes noticeable once the forest grows properly dark after dusk.

According to a study published in the Journal of Fungi, researchers working in a protected cloud forest area in western Mexico identified new bioluminescent species belonging to the genus Mycena, a group already well known for containing many of the world's glow in the dark mushrooms. The fungi were found growing on decaying wood in a forest dominated by oak and sweetgum trees at an elevation of over fifteen hundred metres, a cool, consistently damp environment that suits this kind of fungus particularly well. Researchers combined traditional microscope based study of the mushrooms with genetic analysis to confirm that these specimens represented species that had never been formally described anywhere before, adding meaningfully to the small global list of known bioluminescent fungi.

https://www.mdpi.com/2309-608X/9/9/902

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/395395?\_\_cf\_chl\_f\_tk=wpNTGeBeEiHf8dZgU3ZQFati2nGb4VPa7VqZV7r9X08-1783203073-1.0.1.1-oDHPg1TjeXsnx51jD9TFIiYigWdgVaCKDTC3wkX5tHc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_bioluminescent\_fungi

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39852438/

https://www.currentconservation.org/the-secret-lives-of-bioluminescent-fungi/

https://india.mongabay.com/2020/11/mysterious-new-bioluminescent-mushroom-glows-in-the-forests-of-meghalaya/amp/

Honeybee queens facing ongoing pesticide exposure quietly unload that contamination into the eggs they lay, according to a study published this week in the journal Current Biology, led by researchers at UC Davis using radioactive tracing to follow the chemicals at the atomic level.

The behavior, which researchers are calling maternal offloading, had never been documented in honeybees before. Sascha Nicklisch, the study's senior author and an associate professor in UC Davis's Department of Environmental Toxicology, said that no one had shown this happening in bees until now.

Researchers also found a kind of dilution effect. Queens who laid more eggs spread their chemical burden across a bigger batch, which meant each individual egg carried less contamination. Queens laying fewer eggs concentrated more of the pesticide into each one. Nicklisch pointed out that the queen is the only bee in the colony capable of producing the next generation of workers, which is exactly why her exposure levels, and what she passes down, matter so much for the hive's survival.

The research pulled together expertise from the USDA, which brought decades of honeybee biology knowledge, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which supplied a technique called biological accelerator mass spectrometry, or BioAMS. That method let the team trace radioactively tagged pesticide molecules at extremely low concentrations, low enough to reflect real-world exposure levels rather than a lab-only worst-case dose. Bruce Buchholz, an LLNL scientist and co-author on the paper, noted that the doses used weren't lethal and were meant to mirror what bees actually encounter outside a lab.

The study looked beyond the standard focus on individual worker bees and instead mapped where chemicals ended up across the whole colony, tracking the queen's body, her ovaries, developing eggs and even the wax.

https://www.ucdavis.edu/food/news/honeybee-queens-push-pesticides-eggs-protect-themselves-over-their-offspring

A new study reveals that removing invasive rodents from Lord Howe Island has coincided with a striking rebound in invertebrate life, particularly among larger species once vulnerable to predation.

The biggest winners from Lord Howe Island’s ambitious rodent eradication program may be some of its smallest residents. A new study has revealed a surge in insects and other invertebrates after invasive rats and mice were removed from the island, offering a rare glimpse into how ecosystems respond when a long-standing predator is eliminated.

The research, led jointly by the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and University of Sydney PhD candidate Maxim Adams, investigated changes in invertebrate communities following the eradication of black rats and house mice in 2019.

Researchers found that overall invertebrate abundance increased significantly, with the strongest gains occurring among larger-bodied species. Groups such as bush cockroaches and woodlice expanded rapidly, while the broader makeup of the island’s invertebrate fauna also changed.

https://www.lhib.nsw.gov.au/environment/rodent-eradication-project

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10530-026-03832-4

Early screen exposure in children under 2 years of age can severely disrupt rapid brain development, speech, and physical health. The World Health Organisation, health experts and other global health bodies strictly recommend zero intentional screen time for infants and toddlers under 18 to 24 months. At this critical stage, a child's brain is growing at an unprecedented rate, and early screen exposure can pose several dangers that extend beyond potential vision issues. A systematic review conducted by the iADDICT team and the 1001 Critical Days foundation reveals that digital screen exposure in under-2s can lead to developmental, psychological, and physical impacts on children.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/68230d36099adb5f88e3536f/t/6a3d5230859005198ef50f68/1782403632946/Released+ISTMTU+-+1001CD+-+Systematic+Review+-+iADDICT\_final.pdf

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12488278/

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, on Tuesday, said the sighting of a juvenile gharial in the Kekaidong River in West Karbi Anglong is a significant indicator of the state's improving ecological health, describing it as evidence of the steady revival of Assam's natural ecosystems.

The sighting assumes added significance as it comes less than two months after another gharial, a critically endangered crocodilian species once believed to have disappeared from Assam, was spotted in the Burapahar range of Kaziranga National Park.

"Healthy rivers tell their own story. The sighting of a juvenile Gharial in the Kekaidong River, West Karbi Anglong, reflects the steady revival of Assam's natural ecosystems," Sarma said in a social media post.

"It encourages us to remain steadfast in protecting the rich biodiversity that defines our state," he added.