时差N小时 绅士的蝴蝶

One thinks of nature as “red in tooth and claw,” as the oldsaying goes.

有人认为正如一句古话，自然界充斥着腥牙血爪。

Species compete with each other for resources,and members of the same species compete with each other formates.

同类相互争夺以求配偶；异类为了资源而剑拔弩张。

There's a lot of scratching and biting going on.

不断上演着厮杀，

Unless you're a butterfly.

除非，你是蝴蝶。

People love butterflies for their gentleness.

人们喜欢蝴蝶的彬彬有礼。

And according tonew studies, that soft, fluttery quality persists all the way downto butterfly battles.

据新研究表示，正是温顺悸动的特性让蝴蝶们远离争斗。

Yes, male butterflies compete for the attentions of female butterflies.

的确，雄性蝴蝶为了吸引雌性同类会互相竞争。

In fact,some males compete by fluttering.

但是，竞争的方式仅仅是抖动翅膀。

Researcher Darrel Kemp, who is now at Arizona State University in Tempe, worked on an Australianbutterfly called Hypolimnas bolina.

研究人员达雷尔克姆普在坦佩亚利桑那州立大学研究澳大利亚蝴蝶幻紫斑蛱蝶。

As is the case with many species, the male Hypolimnas bolinas seek to mate with as many femalesas possible, but the females only mate once.

幻紫斑蛱蝶很有代表性，雄性蝶可以任意和雌性蝶交配，但是，雌性蝶一生仅一次。

That means at any given time the vast majority offemales aren't in a sexually accommodating state, and the males have to duke it out for the few who are.

这意味着雌性蝴蝶不得不通过争斗来求得配偶权。

How do they battle? Locking horns? Beating their chests?

他们如何争斗呢？斗角？捶胸？

No. They flutter around in a circle.

都不对，他们只是在一个圈内拍打翅膀。

The two competing males never even come in contact, but at a certain point one of them acceptsdefeat and sails away; while to the victor belongs to the spoiler's.

两只雄性蝴蝶居然没有任何身体触碰，但是在某个时间已经决出胜负，而败者就自动离开。

What decides winner and loser in a butterfly battle?

决定输赢的因素还不是很清楚，

It isn't clear yet. Kemp has studied all kind of parameters¹, from body size to wing spread.

克姆普参考了各项参数，从蝴蝶体型到翼展。

The only consistent factor he found was age.

一个共同的因素在于年龄。

Older butterflies-by old we mean almost threemonths-win out over younger ones.

年老的蝴蝶（超过三个月）通常会取胜，

Maybe the kids just don't have what it takes for a hard-core flutter-off.

也许姜还是老的辣吧！

1 parameters   

因素，特征； 界限； （限定性的）因素( parameter的名词复数 )； 参量； 参项； 决定因素

参考例句：

• We have to work within the parameters of time. 我们的工作受时间所限。
• See parameters.cpp for a compilable example. This is part of the Spirit distribution. 可编译例子见parameters.cpp.这是Spirit分发包的组成部分。