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Who were the first farmers on Earth? You might think it was the Babylonians or another group in the Middle East. But humans are newcomers when it comes to the fine art of raising food. Leafcutter ants of arid and tropical regions of South, Central and North America have been farming for fifty million years, long before modern humans existed.
誰是地球上的第一代農(nóng)民？你可能會(huì)想到古巴比倫人或是中東的另一族群。但是談到種植作物的藝術(shù)，人類還只是菜鳥而已。切葉蟻在美洲南部，中部和北部干旱的熱帶地區(qū)發(fā)展農(nóng)業(yè)已有五千萬年的歷史，比人類的進(jìn)化的歷史還長。
Leafcutter ants have large jaws to cut through plant and tree leaves, but they do not eat leaves. Instead, they carry leaf pieces back to their five million or so nest mates. Here is where the farming begins. Foraging ants hand their leaves over to smaller ants who rush them off to one of many football sized chambers. The leaves are then chewed into smaller and smaller fragments until they can be added to a fungus culture garden.
切葉蟻用大下巴切碎植物和樹葉，但它們并不吃樹葉。相反，它們把碎樹葉拖回容納著500萬同胞的巢穴。這就是農(nóng)業(yè)的起源。外出覓食的螞蟻將樹葉交接給更小的螞蟻，它們則將樹葉碾到足球般大小的隔間里。然后將樹葉咀嚼成更細(xì)的碎片，直到可以將其添灑到真菌花園里。
Fungi feed off the leaves and grow bodies called gongylidia which are then distributed around the colony, especially to growing larvae. Fungus may not sound too appetizing, but the white fluffy growths are much more nutritious than leaves. We use a similar process with cows. They are fed grasses which we can't digest to create milk and meat. The leafcutters not only grow crops, they also protect them. While we use man-made pesticides, leafcutters use antibiotics made by their skin bacteria to ward off invasive mold. They also physically remove foreign fungi growing in their gardens. Their system of agriculture is one to be admired. It certainly has passed the test of time.
真菌以樹葉為食，長出軀干來（叫做結(jié)節(jié)絲），隨后四處蔓延，分散在茁壯成長的幼蟲的“殖民地”里。也許菌類聽起來并不讓人垂涎三尺，但是那白絨絨的幼蟲比樹葉營養(yǎng)價(jià)值高得多。我們養(yǎng)牛的過程與此類似。我們喂牛吃草，草不能產(chǎn)奶但牛可以。切葉蟻不僅種植作物，還悉心料理它們。我們用人造殺蟲劑來保護(hù)農(nóng)作物，而切葉蟻則用自身皮膚上的細(xì)菌分泌的抗生素來阻止霉菌入侵。它們也會(huì)除掉長在花園里的異類真菌。它們的農(nóng)業(yè)系統(tǒng)令人驚嘆，當(dāng)然也經(jīng)得起時(shí)間的考驗(yàn)。
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