Summary:

• Iberian harvester ant queens (Messor ibericus) mate with males of a different species (Messor structor), store their sperm, and produce males that are genetic clones of M. structor while retaining M. ibericus mitochondrial DNA.

• Queens produce both M. ibericus males (hairy) and M. structor-like males (nearly hairless); all colony workers are female hybrids of the two species.

• Researchers coined the term “xenoparity” for this phenomenon; it challenges traditional species concepts because two distinct species are required for the M. ibericus colony’s reproductive system.

• The relationship appears mutually beneficial—M. ibericus secures workers and spreads M. structor via cloned males—but cloned males may accumulate harmful mutations over time, risking long-term viability.

Mushrooms I found in a walk in central Florida.

Nearly 23 percent of Collingwood, Ontario, is covered by lawn. In Montreal, 96.5 square kilometres of turf add up to be 43 times bigger than the city’s sprawling Mount Royal Park. Nearby Laval, Quebec, has an additional 35.5 square kilometres. And Toronto has 79.6 square kilometres of lawns, equalling an area 50 times bigger than High Park, one of the city’s largest green spaces.

These grassy lawns are great for cartwheels and picnics, but manicured turf offers no place for butterflies, bees and other pollinators to eat, nest, reproduce and overwinter.

For years now, the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF) has been working to claim back this vital green space with its Butterflyway Project, an initiative that empowers everyday citizens to expand habitat for butterflies and other pollinators in neighbourhoods across Canada.

Volunteer Butterflyway Rangers work within their community to create a Butterflyway. By planting gardens (sometimes even in canoes), sharing seeds and resources, educating residents and spreading the word, little actions by hundreds of volunteers have a big impact for our tiny friends. Between the program’s inception in 2017 and 2024, these rewilders planted more than 100,000 native wildflowers and grasses and more than 3,000 trees and shrubs for a total of 7,400 habitat gardens – and they’re just getting started.

[Image description: a picture of a stroller on the edge of a street with a child in the seat. In the tray of the stroller is a pair of secateurs, while several young beaked hazelnut bushes spill out from the bin on the bottom of the stroller]

Yesterday I took my daughter out to harvest some beaked hazelnut (Corylus cornuta var. cornuta) bushes from a naturally occurring stand on the side of our street. We took ten rooted cuttings from a patch of several dozen established bushes, all from within the range of the town's flail mower. They've since been planted into a hedge on one of the boundaries of our property, never to be mowed down again.

truly thought all bees lived in big hives with queens and workers

I have a work in progress pond with some lovely goldfish in it. So far I've only had smaller visitors to the pond, but I had a big heron land on my neighbors roof and scope things out.

What a pretty bird, but stay out plz!

I harvested my first cabbage head this year! This is my second year growing cabbages - it went way better this year!
Last year between pests and the weather, it was definitely mycabbages.gif

Did my first apple harvest for a tree that was in the backyard of my house. Around a year after we moved in after removing some trees that were growing into our fence and garage and working on building soil health our neighbors pointed out that we had an apple tree. They said that for the entire 10 years they lived here they didn't see an apple but were seeing a few two years ago. After missing my window last year I finally got around to harvest.

For around 1 hr or 2 of work I collected around 27 lbs of apples. I sorted around one third to be aesthitically pleasing enough to be eaten raw with the rest too ugly. I gave half away to the same neighbor and had to find something to do with the rest.

I made half into apple butter which I cooked in a crockpot for hours after dousing them in sugars. I ended up making around 7x 8 oz jars worth.

The rest I soaked and gently simmered in a pot with spices. The next day I mashed all the apples and got the remainig juice from the mashed sauce. I added raw honey to the juice and then dilted with alcohol (half in cognac and half in grain alcohol) to get it around 20% ABV. These cordials will last me all year.

What else should I do with apples next year or when I got back to harvest again?

Woke up this morning to an empty nest. The babies were walking around the deck while both parents were out.

About an hour later both parents came back. The babies were hiding behind a pot so I moved it out of the way and the one parent immediately came down and sat with them for about 10 minutes.

After a bit the parent called out and fed both the kids. Not long after that they all flew off into the big tree in our backyard.

Sad to see them go but I hope they stay safe out there and come back again next year :)

We have a nice cool day today after some really hot days. The babies were all cuddled up and staying warm.

Bonus baby picture

Here's some colour to make up for the sad flowers in the dove planter box.

And a sleepy bee butt

https://photography.mangroveactionproject.org/

Every year there's mourning doves that nest in our planter that hangs on the backyard deck's railing. This morning I was able to get a couple quick pictures of the babies during the morning shift change :)

Here's one parent looking cute and keeping their babies safe.

What's growing in my garden? I didn't plant it. It's just doing it's thing. It's also become one with the mystery tomato plant growing beside/in/on it.

Here's a picture of the flower if that helps

Everything about this plant is comically oversized

I planted a handful of lemon squash seeds in the garden spot just to see what would happen. Well they were quickly taking over and my bamboo sticks wasn't working to keep them contained so I instead came up with this solution of chicken wire and fence posts to make my own arch trellis.

Whelp, looks like it still wasn't tall enough but I do at least have one flower in all that.

Identification source: https://www.takao599museum.jp/treasures/plants/?lang=en

The only ghost pipe I've been able to find so far this year. One of my favorite plants due to its ecology. Ghost pipes lack chlorophyll and are unable to photosynthesize. They parasitize a fungus that grows on tree roots to feed itself.

There are several old avocado trees on my corner, including the one that makes these small (tho not usually this small) green avocados that turn purple and shiny like an eggplant when fully ripe. The taste is pretty typical for a green avocado -- so much less fatty than a Haas -- but with a nice floral note that I haven't come across in other varieties.

Video

https://lone.earth/w/aNDieMBCCPjsZwPrzmoHdu

Does anyone grow stinging nettle (Urtica dioica)? I'm thinking about planting some next year in containers, mostly for fertilizer but I would also like to drink some tea just to see if it helps my allergies at all. Any tips, observations, opinions?

[...] Crossman turned to a third technique—a test for a set of genes called ZFX and ZFY that show up on the X and Y chromosomes. In Eau10b, Crossman found both genes, confirming that the animal had a Y chromosome. But the whale’s DNA also contained a double dose of ZFX, the gene carried on the X chromosome. The result revealed that Eau10b had a Y chromosome and two X chromosomes, meaning the animal was neither male nor female. Eau10b was an intersex whale—the first of its species known to scientists.

This combination of sex chromosomes occurs when a cell receives an extra copy of the X chromosome during cell division. A similar event can lead to female offspring with three X chromosomes, or males with one X chromosome and two Y chromosomes.

Crossman doesn’t know how many southern right whales with XXY sex chromosomes might be out there. Even Eau10b’s fate is unknown, since the researchers didn’t identify the whale when they took the DNA sample in 1989. But southern right whales can live up to 70 years, so Eau10b may be wintering off Valdés Peninsula to this day.

While intersex animals are often infertile and unable to produce offspring to help a population grow, Velocci says that in social species such as whales, intersex animals likely play important nonreproductive roles that benefit the population in other ways.

Studying intersex animals has helped scientists better understand how genes and hormones shape individuals as they develop. Through the process of domesticating livestock, people have known about intersex cows for thousands of years. On Vanuatu, in the South Pacific, islanders nurture a unique strain of intersex pigs prized for their delicate spiraling tusks. More recently, researchers have also documented intersex horses, dogs, moose, sheep, fish, and many different types of invertebrates. Intersex animals are rare across species, Crossman says, but they’re “more common than we historically thought.”