英语听力文摘 English Digest 442、别样的择偶观

Wolf Spider Mating Choices

Well, you know what they say. A woman will marry the man who reminds her of her father, and a man will marry a woman who reminds him of his mother.

Well we’re hardly the only animals to choose mates based on our early social interactions. In fact, though worlds away from us as a species, some female wolf spiders also make their mating choices on the basis of familiarity.

Male wolf spiders run the gamut in physical appearance. They can vary in color and in hairiness. What’s interesting is that there isn’t a general preferred look among females, but instead, females prefer males who look like males they encountered when they were young and sexually immature.

In fact, some female wolf spiders prefer familiarity to the extent that they will often eat a male suitor that doesn’t fit that profile. The wider her range of familiarity with different looking males, the more discriminating¹ a female is, and thus more likely to devour² a male who looks unfamiliar³.

The influence social experience has on the female wolf spider’s mating choice is almost unheard of among invertebrates. This spider challenges what we thought we knew about arachnids and invertebrates.

狼蛛的择偶观

人们常说，女人会嫁给让她想起自己父亲的男人，男人会娶让他想起自己母亲的女人。

当然，人类并不是唯一以早期的社会交往为基础选择配偶的物种。实际上，同看整个世界，除了人类这一物种外，雌性狼蛛也是以熟悉程度来选择配偶的。

从外形上看，雄性狼蛛形形色色。他们的颜色及绒毛都各不相同。有趣的是，雌性狼蛛在选择配偶时根本没有什么偏爱的外形特征。相比而言，雌性狼蛛更喜欢选择那些看起来像是她们在年轻的时候或尚未性成熟时所遇到过的雄性狼蛛作为配偶。

事实上，雌性狼蛛偏爱“熟人”已经到了这样的地步——她们通常会将那些陌生的“追求者”吃掉。雌性狼蛛所碰到的外形不同的雄性狼蛛越多，她的辨识能力越强，她吃掉外形陌生的雄性狼蛛的几率就越高。

在无脊椎动物这一群体中，社会经验对雌性狼蛛择偶的影响可说是闻所未闻的。狼蛛的这一特性也挑战了人类对蛛形纲动物及无脊椎动物的认知。

 

1 discriminating   

a.有辨别能力的

参考例句：

• Due caution should be exercised in discriminating between the two. 在区别这两者时应该相当谨慎。
• Many businesses are accused of discriminating against women. 许多企业被控有歧视妇女的做法。

2 devour   

v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷

参考例句：

• Larger fish devour the smaller ones.大鱼吃小鱼。
• Beauty is but a flower which wrinkle will devour.美只不过是一朵，终会被皱纹所吞噬。

3 unfamiliar   

adj.陌生的，不熟悉的

参考例句：

• I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
• The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。