英语听力文摘 English Digest 344、另类“女尊社会”

Males Rule in Costa Rican Wasp Species

哥斯达黎加父系制度的黄蜂

In most species of social insects, such as wasps, bees, and ants, the females rule. The females are the workers. They are the ones to go out and get the food, and they are also the ones to care for the queen, the larvae, and the nest in general. The males of these species of insects are typically lazy, and they bear the brunt of much abuse. They’re sometimes bitten, fed scraps¹, and chased out of the home for good by their sisters not long after they’re born.

Not only that, but among paper wasps in the United States the females practice what scientists call “male stuffing.” When a worker brings food home to the nest, her sisters shove their brothers headfirst into empty nest cells to prevent them from consuming any of the food.

Behavior like this, however, is reversed in a Costa Rican wasp species. The males in this species not only attack their sisters, who curl into submissive positions or flee, but they steal food from the queen herself, their very own mother.

These wasps live in a cloud forest in Costa Rica. Whereas wasp colonies in temperatezones can only reproduce for a brief period in the summer, these colonies can mate year round. Thus, a scientist studying these wasps proposes that it’s in the females’ interest to put up with the abuse of their brothers and to let them hang around longer because it increases the males chances of mating with queens from other nests, which makes the colony more biologically fit.

群居昆虫中大多奉行母系制度，比如黄蜂、蜜蜂、蚂蚁。群体里的工蜂是负责外出寻觅食物、照顾蜂王及幼虫并守卫蜂巢。而雄蜂通常都游手好闲，因此招来骂声一片。雄蜂有时候会被欺负，食不果腹，出生后不久被雌蜂赶出蜂巢觅食。

科学家发现美国胡蜂群体里的雌蜂盛行的是“包夹雄蜂”。当工蜂运送食物回蜂巢，雌蜂就把雄蜂头挡在空蜂房里，不让雄蜂享受劳动果实。

但是，在哥斯达黎加黄蜂却恰好相反。雄蜂不但围攻雌蜂，还从蜂王那里偷食物，蜂王可是他们的亲生母亲啊！雌蜂只得缩成一团或逃跑。

这类黄蜂居住在哥斯达黎加的雾林中。温带黄蜂只在夏天很短的一段时间繁衍后代，而这种黄蜂终年交配。研究这类黄蜂的科学家推断，雌蜂对雄蜂的放任自流是忍辱负重，为其它蜂巢的蜂王制造更多交配机会，顺应物种繁衍。

 shove:推，挤

 

1 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。