What did you learn about nature this week? I was tickled to realize I had learned to recognize Euphorbia dioeca ! Such a small plant but it feels like a tremendous accomplishment since there are four different native species of Euphorbia in my new garden. Immense thanks to @nathantaylor . (Also somet…

You haven’t met my dog Maggie.

What does the Brooklyn Bridge, the Christopher Columbus expiditions, and a possible highly sustainable seafood resource have in common? It’s not a worm, but often mistaken for one. https://nautil.us/naked-clams-and-sunken-ships-1243689/

I learned that Ship-timber Beetle larvae don’t eat the wood but instead cultivate a yeast-like fungus that eats wood then eat that fungus. The females lay their eggs along with spores of the fungus ready for the newly hatched larvae to farm. The females take the fungus with them in specialised pouch…

I also learned that Uloboridae the famously venomless spider family may not be venomless. Basically we’ve only looked for venom sacs in one species. Who knows if it’s an oddity?

Leafcutter ants do that too. They take the blades of grass or other stuff into their nests and farm the fungus that grows on it.

Gut biomes prove that a vast swath of species (including us, of course) rely heavily on partner species for survival.

Leafcutter bees use the leaves as construction material – they make little “pots” that they fill with pollen for the larva. Other species in the family use mud or resin or plant wool or chewed-up leaf mortar instead of leaf sections for the same purpose.

Well now I know from reading your post that they exist. The ant thing was just something I saw in David Attenborough’s Planet Earth series.

They are amazing – here’s a sequence of one at work !

Lifelong learning: what did you learn this week?

Nature Talk

ItsMeLucy January 29, 2026, 6:31pm 113

Really! What about leafcutter bees, do you know?

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Lifelong learning: what did you learn this week?

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