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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
This week on Why? Tell Me Why! We are answering a viewer question as to why lightning bugs2 light up.
Lightning bugs light up basically to find a mate. It’s a way that lightning bugs communicate with each other, to call each other together, because someone’s looking for a mate. They have these features in the abdomen3 of the body: they light up and they can control when they light up, when they blink and how long they blink. And they use that blinking signal to attract each other.
Do both males and females have the lights?
They both have the lights, but the females have brighter lights and bigger lights because they are the ones who are trying to attract males to them. Each different species of lightning bug1 has a different pattern of flashing to only attract its own species. In this way, if there are five different species of lightning bugs all in the same field, they can tell who is their same species and who is not. So, they know who to be attracted to. There is an enzyme4 in these insects called luciferase. And it uses something that insects make from the food they eat to bind5 together and generate light with very little heat. So, one of the interesting things about fireflies is they generate this light without making heat.
The only time we see lightning bugs lighting6 up is when they are on a quest to find a mate? That’s a, that’s one time they'll use their lights?
There is one other time when lightning bugs will use their lights and that is there is one species of lightning bugs that uses the light to attract other lightning bugs which she will aim to eat.
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1 bug | |
n.虫子;故障;窃听器;vt.纠缠;装窃听器 | |
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2 bugs | |
adj.疯狂的,发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 );病菌;虫子;[计算机](制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的)错误 | |
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3 abdomen | |
n.腹,下腹(胸部到腿部的部分) | |
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4 enzyme | |
n.酵素,酶 | |
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5 bind | |
vt.捆,包扎;装订;约束;使凝固;vi.变硬 | |
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6 lighting | |
n.照明,光线的明暗,舞台灯光 | |
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