【英语时差8,16】吃蜘蛛的苍蝇

Come into my parlor¹, said the spider to the fly.

  

At least that's usually the way it goes. In most showdowns between spiders and flies, the odds² weigh heavily in the spider's favor. Today, however, we'll look at a few species of fly that manage to turn the tables on their eight legged foes³.

 

When many spiders capture a fly, they don't eat it right away. Instead, they poison the fly and wrap it in silk. They leave this silk-wrapped package for later consumption, just the way you store food in your pantry instead of eating it all right there at the supermarket.

 

Imagine yourself as a fly passing a web full of these wrapped-up dead flies. You might imagine you'd be frightened by the spectacle of your comrades, wrapped up like so many Hostess Twinkies. Not so for the Microphorus crassipes. This fly species sees a spider's larder⁴ as a golden opportunity. Indeed, it gets most of its food by stealing these silk-wrapped packages--very carefully of course--from spiders.

 

Another type of fly found worldwide, called Robber Flies, take this thieving concept one step further. Instead of just stealing the spider's food, certain robber flies go after the spider itself. Robber flies have been seen snatching a spider off of the ground, carrying it away, and eating it.

 

Even worse news for spiders: There's a whole family of flies--the Small Headed flies--whose larvae⁵ actually develop inside a spider's body. These fly larvae burrow⁶ into a passing spider, then proceed to eat the spider from the inside out. Spider or fly, fly or spider. Betting on the spider isn't always a sure thing.   

 

1 parlor   

n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅

参考例句：

• She was lying on a small settee in the parlor.她躺在客厅的一张小长椅上。
• Is there a pizza parlor in the neighborhood?附近有没有比萨店？

2 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

3 foes   

敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They steadily pushed their foes before them. 他们不停地追击敌人。
• She had fought many battles, vanquished many foes. 她身经百战，挫败过很多对手。

4 larder   

n.食物贮藏室，食品橱

参考例句：

• Please put the food into the larder.请将您地食物放进食物柜内。
• They promised never to raid the larder again.他们答应不再随便开食橱拿东西吃了。

5 larvae   

n.幼虫

参考例句：

• Larvae are parasitic on sheep.幼虫寄生在绵羊的身上。
• The larvae prey upon small aphids.这种幼虫以小蚜虫为食。

6 burrow   

vt.挖掘(洞穴)；钻进；vi.挖洞；翻寻；n.地洞

参考例句：

• Earthworms burrow deep into the subsoil.蚯蚓深深地钻进底土。
• The dog had chased a rabbit into its burrow.狗把兔子追进了洞穴。