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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Jason Goldman.
Imagine you're an aphid, a tiny insect that sucks plant sap for a living. You're munching2 away when a cow comes along to munch1 on the same plant you're on. You feel its warm breath. So you drop to the ground to avoid being eaten and run away.
The ground is a scary place for an aphid, but it's better than a cow's mouth. But if you're an especially small, young aphid, also known as a nymph, scampering3 over cracks, stones and twigs4 is really difficult.
Luckily, young aphids have a solution. They climb aboard the back of a larger aphid that's also making an escape and h??itch5 a ride, cowboy style.
"Sometimes there's a pile of nymphs at the beginning that climb on the adult, sometimes even eight or nine nymphs that all climb on the adult."
University of Haifa entomologist Moshe Gish.
Thanks to a series of experiments, Gish learned that the nymphs actively6 s?eek out adults after dropping to the ground. It's not that they just try to climb onto any old thing they find nearby.
For the adults, the nymphs are a bit of a nuisance.
"There is some disadvantage for the adult. It slows it down."
The grownups try to toss off their riders, like a mechanical bull at a college bar. And they'll toss off a relative just the same as they will an unrelated nymph. But somehow, evolution has allowed this piggyback riding behavior to persist.
"Probably the cost that the adult pays for that delay is not high enough to balance the benefit that the colony gets from saving a few nymphs."
In other words, the advantage to the younger bugs7 outweighs8 the cost imposed on the older ones. The entire colony benefits. The results are in the journal Frontiers in Zoology9.
Aphids are some of agriculture's most important pests, but to Gish they are also a part of a fascinating, important ecosystem10.
"Most people think of aphids — if we think of aphids — they think of aphids as tiny dots on their plants that kill off their plants. But there's a whole world there...all the interactions with the host plants and there's a chemical warfare11 between aphids and their host plants. It's coevolution and it's an arms race. There's a lot of action going on between the aphids and the plants, and the aphids and their predators12, and the aphids and the elements. It's a whole world."
Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Jason Goldman.
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1
munch
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v.用力嚼,大声咀嚼 | |
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2
munching
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v.用力咀嚼(某物),大嚼( munch的现在分词 ) | |
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3
scampering
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v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑,惊惶奔跑( scamper的现在分词 ) | |
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4
twigs
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细枝,嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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5
itch
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n.痒,渴望,疥癣;vi.发痒,渴望 | |
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6
actively
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adv.积极地,勤奋地 | |
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bugs
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adj.疯狂的,发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 );病菌;虫子;[计算机](制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的)错误 | |
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8
outweighs
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v.在重量上超过( outweigh的第三人称单数 );在重要性或价值方面超过 | |
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9
zoology
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n.动物学,生态 | |
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ecosystem
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n.生态系统 | |
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warfare
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n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突 | |
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12
predators
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n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 );奴役他人者(尤指在财务或性关系方面) | |
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