科学美国人60秒 SSS Cave Dwellers Battled Bed Bug Bites, Too（在线收听）

Cave Dwellers Battled Bed Bug Bites, Too 古人也挨臭虫叮

Picture a prehistoric human encampment, in a cave. What do you see? Maybe some animal hides, bones from last night's dinner, a small fire? But what you might not picture are the other cave dwellers. Like bats. And the bugs that suck their blood.

想象洞穴里石器时代人类的野营地.你会看到什么呢?可能有昨天晚餐剩下的动物的毛皮、骨头，还有一小堆的篝火?但是，你可能不会想到另外一种洞穴中的“居民”。例如蝙蝠。还有吸食蝙蝠血的虫子

"The bed bugs we all know and love from hotel rooms and apartments and all that, were originally bat parasites." Martin Adams is an archaeoentomologist with Paleo Insect Research, a private business in Portland, Oregon.

我们知道喜欢酒店客房和公寓的臭虫，最初是来自蝙蝠体内的寄生虫。马丁?亚当斯是一位史前昆虫学家。他来自Paleo Insect Research，这是俄勒冈州，波特兰市的一家私营研究机构。

Adams and his colleague Dennis Jenkins analyzed the remains of bed bug cousins, recovered from one of those prehistoric camps, the Paisley Caves in eastern Oregon. And they pinned the insects to three different species within the Cimex genus--the same genus as bed bugs.

亚当斯和同事丹尼斯?詹金斯分析了臭虫表兄弟的残骸，这些残骸在在俄勒冈州的东部佩斯利洞穴的一个史前的营地中发现的。他们将这些昆虫归属于臭虫属中三个不同的物种——但同属臭虫属。

These bugs are bat parasites--not the species that commonly bite humans. But they ranged from 5100 to 11,000 years old. Making them the oldest example of bloodsucking bed bug relatives co-habitating with humans. The study is in the Journal of Medical Entomology.

这些虫子是蝙蝠的寄生虫——但是它们一般不会叮咬人类。它们存在的时间从5100年到11,000年不等。这使得它们成为与人类共同生活的时间最长的吸血臭虫的亲属。这项研究发表在《医学昆虫学杂志》上。

As to whether the cave dwelling humans were as paranoid as modern humans about infestation: "The humans living in Paisley Caves probably knew there were bats in the caves, I sincerely doubt they knew there were bat bugs infesting the bats."

但是，洞穴人对于疾病是否和现代人一样偏执，“生活在佩斯利洞穴的人类可能知道洞穴里存在蝙蝠，但是，我真心怀疑他们是否知道侵袭蝙蝠的臭虫(蝠蝽)的存在。”

But make no mistake. Bat bugs will still suck human blood if need be. Which may in fact be the origin of the modern hotel pests. So don't let the bed bugs bite. Or the bat bugs, either

但是毫无疑问。如果需要，这种虫子还会吸食人血。这实际上可能就是现代酒店害虫的起源。所以，防止臭虫叮咬。还有也得防蝠蝽。