经济学人258:社会性蜘蛛 欢迎来做客

 　　Science and technology

　　科学技术

　　Sociable¹ spiders

　　社会性蜘蛛

　　Come into my parlour

　　欢迎来做客

　　A strange example of co-operative behaviour in arachnids

　　一种懂得合作的不寻常的蜘蛛

　　SPIDERS are known for many things.

　　蜘蛛为人熟知的特点很多，

　　Sociability² is not one of them.

　　但社会性不在其列。

　　Most spiders are more likely to try to eat their neighbours than befriend them.

　　多数蜘蛛更有可能想吃掉自己的邻居，而非跟它们做朋友。

　　Given that there are at least 43,678 species of the critters, though, it is not too surprising that a few have overcome their natural grumpiness and teamed up to form societies.

　　不过考虑到这种生物至少有43678种，有那么几种能克服天生乖戾的性情结群而居也就不足为奇了。

　　So far, about two dozen such social spiders have been identified.

　　目前已知的社会性蜘蛛约有24种。

　　And among them, something really strange has just been found.

　　其中还发现了一些奇特之处。

　　For one type of spider society turns out to involve two different but closely related species.

　　在一种包含蜘蛛的群落中，有两种亲缘关系很近的蜘蛛。

　　It is as though anthropologists had discovered villages populated both by human beings and chimpanzees.

　　这就像是人类学家发现村落中既住着人类也住着黑猩猩。

　　This was discovered by a team led by Lena Grinsted of Aarhus University in Denmark.

　　这一现象由丹麦奥尔胡斯大学莉娜·格林斯蒂德带领的团队发现。

　　They were studying a social species of spider called Chikunia nigra, living near Beratan Lake in Bali.

　　当时他们在研究一种生活在巴厘岛贝拉坦湖畔、名为Chikunia nigra的社会性蜘蛛。

　　Later, as they looked in more detail at their specimens³, they realised its genes⁴ and genitalia revealed that it was actually two species, according to their findings just published in Naturwissenschaften.

　　后来随着对标本研究的日益深入，他们发现基因和生殖器都表明标本分属两个物种。其研究结果新近见刊于《自然科学》。

　　Exactly what the spiders get out of being social is not clear.

　　社会性对蜘蛛有何益处目前尚不清楚。

　　They do not hunt together.

　　它们并不共同捕食。

　　One explanation may be that the colony is acting⁵ like a giant creche.

　　一种可能的解释是，这一群体像是大型托儿所。

　　Ms Grinsted discovered this possibility by experiment.

　　格林斯蒂德女士通过实验得出了这种可能性。

　　First, she identified 19 females who were looking after recently hatched young, and another 20 who had eggs.

　　首先，她找到19只照料新孵化幼虫的雌蜘蛛以及20只刚产过卵的雌蜘蛛。

　　In each case she introduced an intruder, in the form of a spider from the same colony.

　　然后，她将来自同一群体的一只蜘蛛作为入侵者分别引入上述两组个体。

　　Both mothers and mothers-to-be were surprisingly tolerant of what would, in most spider species, be a serious threat.

　　这些蜘蛛妈妈及准妈妈出人意料地表现出容忍性，而不像多数种类的蜘蛛那样将之视为严重威胁。

　　Only 40% of the time did they attempt to chase the intruder away, or bite it.

　　它们只在40%的时间中试图赶走或咬噬入侵者。

　　Ms Grinsted then took another 40 spiders and swapped⁶ some of their broods.

　　随后格林斯蒂德女士又取了40只蜘蛛并互换其部分幼虫。

　　The upshot, she found, was that a female was as likely to look after and guard another's brood as she was her own.

　　她发现雌蜘蛛会将之视为己出，照料、保护幼虫。

　　Which is intriguing⁷, but not all that extraordinary in social groups which are composed of closely related individuals.

　　这一现象虽有趣，但在个体亲缘关系相近的群体中也不算罕见。

　　Except that Ms Grinsted now knows that this cannot always be the case for her spiders, since two different species are involved.

　　只是格林斯蒂德女士现在已知道她的蜘蛛并非如此，因为其中包含两个物种。

　　The species in question are pretty similar, which would seem to rule out another common cause of collaboration⁸: that different creatures bring different adaptations to the party, thus dividing the labour of staying alive into specialisms.

　　而且两种蜘蛛非常相似，这就排除了合作的另一常见原因，即不同生物在适应该群落过程中发生不同变化，从而为生存进行了专门化分工。

　　Because Ms Grinsted did not know at the time of her experiment that two species were involved, she cannot be sure how many of the fosterings she induced were cross-specific.

　　因为做实验时格林斯蒂德女士并不知道涉及两个物种，因此她现在无法确定有多少幼虫交换是在种间进行的。

　　The two species seem more or less equally abundant, so the chances are it was about half of them.

　　这两个物种似乎一样多，因此可能有一半是种间交换。

　　If colony members are acting as foster mothers in the wild, something most odd is going on.

　　如果在自然环境中该群体的成员也乐于做养母，这就是最奇怪之处：

　　Altruism⁹ is not a concept often associated with spiders. Xenophilic altruism is truly bizarre.

　　利他主义这个概念通常与蜘蛛没什么关系；种间利他主义发生在蜘蛛身上，就更让人难以置信了。

　　1.come into 进入；加入，参加

　　I now relax and control my breathing as they come into view.

　　现在，我屏住呼吸，等待它们进入我的视野。

　　That is to say, the whole industry will come into a hard winter.

　　也就是说，整个行业将进入一个艰难的冬季低迷期。

　　2.likely to 可能

　　Other banks are likely to face similar pressure.

　　其他银行很可能面临着类似的压力。

　　He is likely to name a middle east peace envoy¹⁰ soon.

　　他有可能很快命令一名中东和平特使。

　　3.both and 两个都；既…又…

　　Both paths will ultimately lead to defaults, inflation, or both and so to losses for creditors¹¹.

　　这两种方式最终都将导致违约、通胀或两者兼而有之，从而给债权国造成损失。

　　The difference between "jane" and "jane, whom I adore" and the difference between them both and "jane-whom I adore-" marks all the distance between ecstasy¹² and heartache.

　　“简”与“简，我深爱她”两句之间的差别，以及这两句与“简我深爱她”之间的差别，标明了醉心与伤心之间的距离。

　　4.in the form of 用…的形式

　　Liverpool invented financial derivatives¹³, in the form of cotton futures¹⁴.

　　利物浦以棉花期货的形式，发明了金融衍生品。

　　Financial arrangements can also be in the form of ads and free trips.

　　金钱上的回报也可以通过做广告和免费旅行的形式来安排。

1 sociable   

adj.好交际的，友好的，合群的

参考例句：

• Roger is a very sociable person.罗杰是个非常好交际的人。
• Some children have more sociable personalities than others.有些孩子比其他孩子更善于交际。

2 sociability   

n.好交际，社交性，善于交际

参考例句：

• A fire of withered pine boughs added sociability to the gathering. 枯松枝生起的篝火给这次聚合增添了随和、友善的气氛。 来自辞典例句
• A certain sociability degree is a specific character of most plants. 特定的群集度是多数植物特有的特征。 来自辞典例句

3 specimens   

n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人

参考例句：

• Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
• The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

5 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

6 swapped   

交换（工作）( swap的过去式和过去分词 )； 用…替换，把…换成，掉换（过来）

参考例句：

• I liked her coat and she liked mine, so we swapped. 我喜欢她的外套，她喜欢我的外套，于是我们就交换了。
• At half-time the manager swapped some of the players around. 经理在半场时把几名队员换下了场。

7 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

9 altruism   

n.利他主义，不自私

参考例句：

• An important feature of moral behaviour is altruism.道德行为一个重要特点就是利他主义。
• Altruism is crucial for social cohesion.利他主义对社会的凝聚是至关重要的。

10 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

11 creditors   

n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 ecstasy   

n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷

参考例句：

• He listened to the music with ecstasy.他听音乐听得入了神。
• Speechless with ecstasy,the little boys gazed at the toys.小孩注视着那些玩具，高兴得说不出话来。

13 derivatives   

n.衍生性金融商品；派生物，引出物( derivative的名词复数 )；导数

参考例句：

• Many English words are derivatives of Latin words. 许多英语词来自拉丁语。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These compounds are nitrosohydroxylamine derivatives. 这类合成物是亚硝基羟胺衍生物。 来自辞典例句

14 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。