The recently identified species are part of the rare subgenus Bee Austrothil (genus) Megachil. These bees construct cells from skin within clusters of resin or tree bark, which are meticulously packed into twigs. Consequently, the author suggests “Pot Bee of Resin” as the common name for the bees in this subgenus.
Resin pot bee species Megachil (Austrothil) Tartoni. Image credit: David Pike.
Pot bees of resin are native to Australia, found across all states and territories except for Tasmania.
Dr. Remcoleis, a researcher at the Museum of South Australia, stated, “This group was previously believed to include seven species, with an additional 18 named in 1992.”
“Throughout the years, 23 more species were uncovered during field studies, including newly identified invertebrates and plant species found during various bushblitz investigations,” he added.
“Bush Blitz is a collaboration between the Australian Government, BHP Billiton, and Earthwatch Australia, aimed at recording the fauna and flora of select national reserves.”
“It also supports the identification of new species, allowing us to correlate newly collected specimens with existing species in Australia’s entomological collections.”
“This effort unveiled 20 more unidentified species residing in the collection, highlighting the significance of entomological collections as a source of discoveries.”
Dr. Katja Hogendoorn, a researcher at the University of Adelaide, remarked, “There is still much to learn about Australia’s critical role in honey production and pollination.”
“Despite the environmental and economic significance of native plants and crops as pollinators, the Australian bee fauna remains poorly understood.”
“An estimated one-third of bee species are yet to be documented scientifically, and insufficient funding for taxonomic research hinders the ability to assess conservation issues and take protective measures for native honeybees.”
“We may still lose a species we are unaware of.”
Currently, about 1,700 native bee species are recognized in Australia.
The research team discovered that there are 78 known species of resin pot bees, with almost half identified from a solitary location.
Dr. James Doley, a researcher at the University of Wollongong, stated, “We are diligently working to better our understanding of these species.”
“While the distribution of these species may be confined, there is a lack of sufficient information regarding their prevalence or population size.”
The findings appear in a new paper published in Australian Taxonomy.
____
R. Rays et al. 2025. Australian resin pot honeybees, Megachil (Austrothil) (Megachilidae), description of a new species of 71. Australian Taxonomy 90:1-119; doi:10.54102/ajt.ek0f9
One significant distinction between certain members of the dispersed spider hacking community and their ransomware counterparts is their accent.
The scattered spiders are connected to the cyberattacks on the British retailer Marks & Spencer. Unlike typical ransomware attackers, the individuals involved seem to be native English speakers, rather than hailing from Russia or former Soviet nations.
This linguistic advantage supports one of their techniques, which Russian hackers may find difficult to emulate. They can infiltrate systems by calling company desks and impersonating employees or by contacting employees while posing as someone from their company desk.
“Being a native English speaker can foster immediate trust. Even internal staff and IT teams may let their guard down slightly due to perceived familiarity,”
Last November, the U.S. Department of Justice shed light on some suspected spider members by charging five individuals for targeting an unidentified American firm through a phishing text message.
The DOJ alleged that the accused sent fraudulent texts to employees, tricking them into divulging sensitive information, including company logins. This breach resulted in the theft of sensitive data, including intellectual property, and significant sums of cryptocurrency from digital wallets.
All the accused were in their 20s at the time of the allegations, with four of them aged between 20 and 25, and Tyler Buchanan, 23, from Scotland, who was extradited from Spain to the U.S. last week. He is set to appear in court in Los Angeles on May 12th.
The U.S. Cybersecurity Agency detailed the scattered spider IT desk strategy in an advisory released in 2023.
Notable ransomware victims of scattered spider attacks include casino operators MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, which were targeted in 2023. Following the attacks, the West Midlands police arrested a 17-year-old in Walsall last year. They have been contacted for further updates on this incident.
The scattered spider was identified as responsible for the M&S breach by BleepingComputer, a high-tech news platform. The report indicated that the attackers employed malicious software known as Dragonforce to compromise parts of the retailer’s IT network.
These incidents are categorized as ransomware attacks because the attackers typically demand substantial payments in cryptocurrency to restore access to compromised systems. Leveraging ransomware from other gangs is a common occurrence, known as the model of ransomware-as-a-service.
Analysts from cybersecurity firm Recorded Future remarked that “scattered spiders” is more of an “umbrella term” rather than a specific group of financially motivated cybercriminals. They noted it stemmed from “The Com” rather than “monolithic entities,” and is engaged in various criminal activities, including sextortion, cyberstalking, and payment card fraud.
“We operate within a channel and affiliate marketing framework, primarily on platforms like Discord and Telegram, mostly in exclusive invitation-only channels and groups,” stated the analyst.
Ciaran Martin, former head of the UK’s National Cybersecurity Centre, remarked that scattered spiders are “unusual” given their non-Russian origins.
“The vast majority of ransomware groups originate from Russia. [Scattered Spider] seems to have utilized Russian code for this attack with Dragonforce, but notably, they appear to be based here and in the U.S., which may facilitate their arrest.” Martin, now a professor at Brabatnik Government School at Oxford University, added:
Martin further emphasized that the youthful infamy of scattered spiders should not diminish the threat they pose. “They are indeed a rare but quietly menacing group,” he noted.
genus mouse pseudosyndrome It is one of the few terrestrial placental mammals to have established itself in Australia without human intervention.
The delicate rat of the Pilbara (Pseudomys pyruvalensis). Image credit: Ian Boole.
of Native little mouse (Pseudomys delicaturus)The mouse, also known as the delicate mouse, was previously thought to be a single species that spread across a vast country, from the Pilbara in Western Australia, across parts of the Northern Territory, through Queensland to the New South Wales border. It was getting worse.
“Thanks to new genetic technology, we now identify not one but three species of these delicate mice.”
“Identifying undescribed species and giving them official names will go a long way in ensuring they are properly managed.”
“Although it may be difficult for amateurs to tell the species apart, this discovery is important for the future of this small mouse.”
“The two new species did not receive conservation or research attention because we did not know they were there.”
“For example, we don't know whether population declines were not detected as a result of all three species being assessed as a single unit.”
“This delicate rat was not a priority for conservation, but that's because the distribution of the rat was thought to be three times larger than it actually is. That would allow for a reassessment.”
“Sensitive mice differ from the mice you encounter in your home or backyard in several important ways.”
“Mus musculus, black rats and brown rats are non-native species that have been introduced to Australia since European colonization.”
“Evolutionarily and ecologically, they are very different from native rodents. They compete with our native species for resources.”
“Delicate mice are part of a group of native rodents that have evolved in Australia over the past five million years. They are an important part of Australia's natural environment and ecosystem.”
“The delicate mouse is Australia's smallest rodent. Weighing only 6 grams, it's really small.”
Researchers also discovered that the delicate mice were able to adapt well to their environment, whether it was an arid desert or a forest.
“These three species will now be referred to by common names that reflect their habitat: Western or Pilbara delicate mouse, Eastern delicate mouse and Northern delicate mouse,” they said. Stated.
Merlin Chain, native Bitcoin Layer2, announced Funding round from 24 investors including OKX Ventures, ABCDE, Foresight Ventures and Arcstream Capital.
Merlin Chain provides a native scaling solution that integrates the ZK-Rollup network, a decentralized oracle network, and an on-chain BTC anti-fraud module. We are committed to enhancing Bitcoin's native assets, protocols, and products at Layer 1 and making Bitcoin fun again.
Merlin Chain is built by Bitmap Tech, a top-notch OG team with a collective market capitalization of over $500 million. BRC-420”blue boxBitmap Tech's collection has become one of Ordinals' most popular assets, rising from a registration cost of $0.15 to an ATH floor of $34,000, reaching the third-largest market capitalization behind BAYC and CryptoPunks.
Bitmap Tech, the team behind Merlin Chain, has been a strong believer in Bitcoin for many years and is very passionate about developing the Bitcoin ecosystem, rather than servicing other ecosystems. Through its work, it aims to bring more users and assets to Bitcoin. Bitcoin name.
This raise will allow the team to continue to strengthen its ecosystem and increase overall liquidity. So far, Merlin Chain has built a strong DApp ecosystem and plans further expansion.
Merlin Chain plans to launch its mainnet this week. After launch, Marlin Chain plans to host numerous staking events and distribute governance tokens through a “fair launch” with the aim of rewarding real users and builders.
About Marlin Chain
Merlin Chain is a Bitcoin Layer2 that integrates the ZK-Rollup network, decentralized oracle network, and on-chain. BTC Anti-fraud module. Merlin Chain is committed to powering Bitcoin's native assets, protocols, and products on Layer 1 through the Layer 2 network to make Bitcoin fun again. Merlin Chainis is a subsidiary product line of his OG team, Bitmap Tech, whose collective market capitalization exceeds $500 million. The BRC-420 “Blue Box” collection under Bitmap Tech has become one of Ordinals’ most popular assets.
Users can start following Merlin Chain twitter For further updates.
This week, the long-awaited Bitcoin L2 solution Merlin Chain went live on testnet, with mainnet expected to launch within a month.
Bitcoin network congestion dilemma and scaling solutions
The evolution of Ordinals over the past year has brought renewed attention to the Bitcoin ecosystem after a long period of time. While increasing the excitement in the Bitcoin ecosystem, it is also increasing the depletion of network resources. Increasingly high transaction costs, combined with the rising price of Bitcoin itself, are further congesting the network and discouraging new users from getting interested in Bitcoin.
(Bitcoin daily average transaction fee $: YCharts)
The idea of developing an EVM-compatible L2 network has been recognized as the first to yield results because the implementation path is simple.
Merlin Chain is also one of the EVM-compatible L2 chains and is developed by Bitmap Tech (formerly Recursiverse), the team that built the BRC-420 protocol and Bitmap.game, and is highly sought after by the community due to the team's past success. It is highly rated.
BRC-420
The BRC-420 protocol supports arbitrary file format combinations/recursion to form more complex inscriptions. Character images, game scripts, virtual machines, AI models, and more can all become Bitcoin assets.
Its core asset, Blue Box, has risen from a registration cost of $0.15 to an ATH floor price of $26,000, while other assets such as Minerals and Dis Song About NFT are the most actively traded on the OKX market. It's one of our assets. Today, we have over 1000 developers and 600+ collections, and our prices are only going up, not down, and we've been performing great even in bear markets.
bitmap games
Bitmap.Game is a fully on-chain, fully decentralized, and fair-launched Metaverse project. It is based on the digital matter theory underlying Bitcoin and is open sourced to be run or verified by any client, reflecting the concept of “client agnosticism” in a fully on-chain game.
During this time, Bitmap's market cap rose from $3 million to an ATH of $290 million. With over 30,000 owners, Bitmap has surpassed Sandbox as the metaverse asset with the most owners across all blockchains.
Unleash Bitcoin's potential with innovative magic
Merlin Chain believes that L2 for Bitcoin means more than just cheap transfers or the availability of DApps, it also means further innovation that unlocks Bitcoin's potential through native assets, users, and protocols. I think it should be something.
For example, how to create games based on bitmaps so that bitmap users can participate in different metauniverses at low cost, since bitmaps are fully decentralized assets. Or for DeFi protocols based on BRC-420, how to authorize NFTs and FTs in both directions. For Inscription Minting, we will discuss how to mint his L1 assets on L2 in a more cost-effective and flexible manner. Rather than replicating how Ethereum works, only these “Bitcoin-native” innovations can continue to power the ecosystem.
So far, Merlin Chain has built a strong DApp ecosystem, effectively addressed liquidity concerns, and plans further expansion.
Efficient and secure scaling with ZK-Rollup
Diverse ecosystems and assets also mean higher throughput requirements and some safety risks. To solve this problem, Merlin Chain adopted ZK-Rollup. This allows you to compress large numbers of transaction proofs into simple checksums, improving transaction efficiency and scalability.
Merlin Chain's sequencer nodes are responsible for collecting and batching transactions, generating compressed transaction data, ZK state roots, and proofs via zkEVM. Compressed transaction data and ZK proofs are uploaded to Bitcoin L1’s Taproot via the decentralized Oracle network and made available across the network, ensuring transparency and security.
Decentralized Oracle network nodes are required to stake $BTC to prevent inappropriate activity. Users can start challenging her ZK rollup based on compressed data, ZK state roots, and ZK proofs. If the challenge is successful, it will be rolled back to the last verified state and the Oracle node will lose its locked $BTC, ensuring the security and reliability of the system.
Through the integration of these technologies, Marlin Chain has demonstrated superior technical capabilities and is on track to build an efficient and secure native Bitcoin L2 solution.
Compared to other Bitcoin L2 attempts currently being attempted, one of the key features of Merlin Chain is that it is “Bitcoin native.”
Merlin Chain, which has been a strong believer in Bitcoin for many years, is very passionate about the development of the Bitcoin ecosystem, and rather than providing services to other ecosystems in the name of Bitcoin, Through my work, I aim to bring more users and assets to Bitcoin. Therefore, Merlin Chain appreciates the native nature of Bitcoin in its ecosystem of projects and users.
Additionally, Merlin Chain supports most of the major Bitcoin L1 protocols, including BRC-20, Bitmap, BRC-420, Atomicals, SRC20, and Pipe. All inscriptions on L1 will be automatically whitelisted by Merlin Chain, allowing users to trade safely and affordably.
In line with its pursuit of “Bitcoin Native”, Merlin Chain plans to adopt BRC-20 as its governance token. This makes much more sense than the other Bitcoin L2, which currently uses the Ethereum standard token as its governance token. Tokens will be released through a fair launch, with a 48-month release period that does not start within two years, with the exception of a portion that will be distributed to VCs and teams, to prove the interests of teams and investors. Trust in Marlin Chain.
Bridging the Gap – Simplifying Bitcoin Adoption and Accelerating Growth
Another tricky issue for Bitcoin ecosystem builders is the lack of new users and new capital. Ordinals continues to do well, but the number of active addresses has not increased significantly. It's the same group of people involved in different projects. The fundamental reason for this is Bitcoin's complexity. Not only does it require downloading a Bitcoin wallet, writing is also not very easy, the user has to spend at least 2 blocks of time writing, while for confirmation he has to spend 3 blocks of time , which is complex and complex. it takes time.
(Daily active Bitcoin address: Glassnode)
Marlin Chain solves this problem. Currently, Marlin Chain is connected to 40 Ethereum chains, so even users who are not familiar with Bitcoin can use familiar wallets such as Metamask and familiar assets such as stablecoins, $ETH, and $BNB. Masu. . Interact with Marlin Chain. A user doesn't need to know the principles behind Bitcoin, or even what BRC-20 or Atomic is, before he can experience Bitcoin the way it was meant to be in a familiar way.
To this end, Merlin Chain plans to integrate the first multi-chain writing DApp. This will allow users to write assets to other layers, including Bitcoin L1 on Merlin Chain. Only one block of time is required to wait. At the same time, the Launchpad is also available on the Marlin chain, with a mechanism that every inscription fired on it is rated at 100,000 FDV, and more users will be able to use the BRC-20/ BRC-420 You will be able to easily purchase assets such as /. Atomic/Runes at a very low price. Additionally, as part of its decentralization efforts, Merlin Chain plans to release most of its governance tokens to the community.
Users should stay tuned for the upcoming mainnet launch. The future of Bitcoin is about to unfold with Merlin Chain at the helm.
About Marlin Chain
Marlin Chain is a Bitcoin Layer2 that integrates the ZK-Rollup network, a decentralized oracle network, and an on-chain BTC anti-fraud module. Marlin Chain is committed to powering Bitcoin's native assets, protocols, and products on Layer 1 through the Layer 2 network to make Bitcoin fun again. Marlin Chain is a subsidiary product line of Bitmap Tech, his OG team of top-notch players with a combined market capitalization of over $500 million. The BRC-420 “Blue Box” collection under Bitmap Tech has become one of Ordinals’ most popular assets.
Users can start following Marlin Chain twitter For further updates.
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