看得到这只虫子吗
Can you see the bug?
看不到 对吧
Probably can’t, can you?
它藏得很好
Doing its job.
大家好 我是来自 NPR 和 Joe’s Big Idea 的Maddie Sofia
Hey everybody, it’s Maddie Sofia from NPR and Joe’s Big Idea,
我现在位于史密森尼自然历史博物馆玩虫子
and I’m here at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History hanging out with some bugs.
这些小动物是自然界的伪装大师
These critters are truly nature’s mastersof disguise.
我们今天请到了Hannah Wood
Hannah Wood has joined us.
Hannah是史密森尼博物馆的蜘蛛学家
Hannah is an arachnologist here at the Smithsonian,
Hannah现在要给我们
and Hannah’s going to take us backstage
看看后台的标本
to see some of the collections.
你们到底有多少昆虫
How many insects do you guys have?
我们有3500万个昆虫和蜘蛛的样本
We have about 35 million specimens of insects and arachnids.
3500万！
35 million!
好多昆虫
That’s a lot of bugs.
哦 好吧 还有蜘蛛
OK and arachnids, sure.
蜘蛛女士 请问
Spider lady.
为什么一只虫子会模仿别的生物呢
Why would an insect want to mimic something else?
有很多原因
Could be several reasons why.
最主要的原因是
Some of the more common reasons would be
它们模仿的是一些有毒液或者很危险的生物
because they’re mimicking something that has venom or is potentially dangerous
所以模仿它们对自己更有利
and so they get the benefit by looking the same way.
比如说
For example, in spiders,
有些蜘蛛会伪装成蚂蚁
you have ant-mimic spiders where they look like other ants, they
所以可以混进蚂蚁群 捕食到其他类型的蚂蚁
live amongst them and this allows them to prey on other ant species.
但虫子不是自己想去模仿的
But insects don’t choose to become mimics,
而且这是一个漫长的过程
and it doesn’t happen overnight.
我们看看前面的竹节虫
Let’s look at our walking leaf buddy fromearlier.
随机的DNA变异会产生不同的特征
Random differences in DNA lead to unique traits.
有时候这些特征没什么用
And sometimes, these traits do not work out so well. But,
但某个特征有时会帮助它们存活
occasionally a trait might help them survive.
活下来的就会繁殖 并延续自己独特的DNA
The ones that survive make babies, passing down their unique DNA.
这些特征会遗传下去
And the trait sticks around in the population.
这是只虫子 不是叶子
That’s a bug, not a leaf.
是个虫子！
That’s a bug!
这是一只澳大利亚竹节虫
And here we have an Australian walking stick,
它们看起来有点像树皮
and these insects look a little bit like tree bark.
看这个
Look at this!
它看上去像树的一部分
That looks like part of a tree.
我们要看看一个巨型马来西亚竹节虫
We’re going to look at a giant Malaysian walking stick.
这里有只亚洲枯叶螳螂
And here we have an Asian dead leaf mantis.
这些昆虫像枯叶
And these insects, they look like dead leaves.
好 嗯
All right. Well,
好的 可以
OK. Sure,
对 别急 去哪里都行
yeah, no take your time, wherever you want.
它伸出了触角要击掌
He’s putting out his little feelers fora little high-five.
啪
boop!
蜘蛛学家
Arachnologist.
你一直都喜欢蜘蛛吗
Have you always liked spiders?
我一直都不讨厌它
I have always not disliked them, yeah.
每个人开始是都只是不讨厌它而已
Just to be clear, everybody starts off with just not hating spiders.
我对它们着迷了
I was fascinated with them.
我上昆虫分类学课
I took this insect taxonomy course,
在我透过显微镜观察虫子的那一刻
and from the moment I saw an insect under a microscope,
我就知道那就是我的理想了
I just knew, “Wow this is what I want to do.”
这个在模仿什么
What is this mimicking?
这只美丽的小飞蛾正在模仿鸟粪
So this beautiful little moth here is mimicking bird poop.
仿粪虫！
It’s a poop mimic! So,
我要冒个险
I’m going to go out on a limb,
猜这些是伪装成树叶的虫子
and say that these are leaf mimics?
你猜对了
Yes.
昆虫现在还在演化吗
Are insects, bugs still evolving?
我是说 人类会影响到这个过程吗
I mean are humans playing a role in that?
任何物种都在继续演化
I mean everything’s still evolving.
人类当然改变了环境
Humans have certainly altered the environment
导致其他生物也改变了它们的样子或行为
in a way that other organisms have changed the way they look or their behavior.
比如这些工业革命时期的飞蛾
Such as those moths during the industrialrevolution.
Hannah说的是胡椒蛾
Hannah is talking about the peppered moth.
它们的斑点有的是白色的 有的是黑色的
They can be speckled white or black.
工业革命时期
During the Industrial Revolution,
污染很严重 煤烟把树熏黑了
there was so much pollution that soot covered the trees.
突然 白飞蛾变得很容易被发现
Suddenly, the white moths were pretty easy to spot.
在该世纪末
By the end of the century,
城里剩下的几乎百分之百的胡椒蛾都是黑色的了
almost 100 percent of the peppered moths left in the city were black.
但在20世纪50年代环境改善之后
But, after we cleaned up the environment in the 1950s,
白飞蛾卷土重来了
the white moths made a comeback.
我们的世界和数以百万计
Our world and the millions
居住在这个世界里的昆虫物种都仍在演化
of species of insects that call it home are still evolving.
谁知道它们接下来会模仿什么呢！
Who knows what they’ll mimic next.
大家好 我是Adam Cole 这是“浣熊”
Hi I’m Adam Cole and this is Skunk Bear,
欢迎来到NPR科学栏目
NPR’s Science show.
– 我跟你一样是模仿者- 哦
I’m a mimic, like you, yeah. Oh,
行吧
OK.
我们很高兴为你带来这个新系列
And we’re excited to share this new series.
Maddie About Science是Joe’s Big Idea的一部分
Maddie About Science is a part of Joe’s Big Idea,
我们讲述的故事
and we tell the stories about the
是关于人类和科学过程的
people and the process of science.
如果你想看看我们在做什么 就点这里
If you want to check out what we’re doing,click here.
请点这里订阅我们的YouTube频道
And please subscribe to our YouTube channel right here.
我知道你不是片叶子 你骗不了任何人
I know you’re not a leaf, you’re not trickinganybody.
不要背对我 不要……行不行？
Don’t turn away from me, don’t… canyou just, OK?