VOA科学技术2024--Research Suggests Bright Lights Confuse Insects

Research Suggests Bright Lights Confuse Insects

　　Many people have long believed that bright lights draw, or attract, flying insects.

　　But that is not exactly what is going on, a new study suggests.

　　Researchers believe that artificial lights at night may cause problems with flying insects' natural navigation systems. As a result, the creatures fly in confusion around porch lamps, street lights and other artificial lights.

　　"Insects have a navigational problem," said Tyson Hedrick of the University of North Carolina, Chapel¹ Hill. Hedrick was not involved in the research. He added, "They're accustomed to using light as a cue to know which way is up."

　　Insects do not fly directly toward a light source, but actually "tilt² their backs toward the light," said Sam Fabian of Imperial College London. Fabian was a co-writer of the study that appeared recently in Nature Communications.

　　This tilting³ action would make sense if the strongest light source was in the sky. But in the presence of artificial lights, the result is midair confusion.

　　For the study, researchers attached very small sensors⁴ to moths⁵ and dragonflies in a laboratory. They then filmed "motion-capture" video of flight — similar to how filmmakers attach sensors to actors to follow their movements.

　　Researchers also used high-resolution cameras to film insects flying around lights at a field in Costa Rica.

　　Such films permitted researchers to study in detail how dragonflies circle endlessly around light sources, positioning themselves with their backs facing the light. Researchers also documented that some insects fly upside down — and often crash land — in the presence of lights that shine straight upward like search lights.

　　Insect flight was least disrupted by bright lights that shine straight downward, the researchers found.

　　"For millions of years, insects oriented themselves by sensing that the sky is light, the ground is dark" — until people invented artificial lights, said Avalon Owens of Harvard University. Owens was not involved in the research.

　　Words in This Story

　　accustomed to – expression familiar with something so that it seems normal or usual

　　cue – n. something that indicates the nature of what you are seeing, hearing, etc.

　　tilt – v. to lift or move (something) so that one side is higher than another side

1 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

2 tilt   

v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜

参考例句：

• She wore her hat at a tilt over her left eye.她歪戴着帽子遮住左眼。
• The table is at a slight tilt.这张桌子没放平，有点儿歪.

3 tilting   

倾斜，倾卸

参考例句：

• For some reason he thinks everyone is out to get him, but he's really just tilting at windmills. 不知为什么他觉得每个人都想害他，但其实他不过是在庸人自扰。
• So let us stop bickering within our ranks.Stop tilting at windmills. 所以，让我们结束内部间的争吵吧！再也不要去做同风车作战的蠢事了。

4 sensors   

n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were more than 2000 sensors here. 这里装有两千多个灵敏元件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Significant changes have been noted where sensors were exposed to trichloride. 当传感器暴露在三氯化物中时，有很大变化。 来自辞典例句

5 moths   

n.蛾( moth的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The moths have eaten holes in my wool coat. 蛀虫将我的羊毛衫蛀蚀了几个小洞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The moths tapped and blurred at the window screen. 飞蛾在窗帘上跳来跳去，弄上了许多污点。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》