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How Many Ants Become World Travelers?
多少螞蟻成為世界旅行者？
On a visit to the Tampa area way back when, I enjoyed a stinging reminder that not all little red ants are benign. Introduced fire ants in the U.S. South are just one example of how ants from one region can set up colonies in another. South American so-called "crazy" ants now damage electrical equipment in the U.S. And super-colonies of Argentine ants are all over Europe.
在參觀了坦帕區(qū)回來的時(shí)候，我被叮了，但是好消息是我知道了不是所有的小紅螞蟻都是溫和的。美國南部的外來物種火蟻就是螞蟻可以在其他區(qū)域建立殖民地的例子。美國南部所稱為瘋狂螞蟻的物種現(xiàn)在大肆破壞電力設(shè)備。阿根廷螞蟻在歐洲大范圍蔓延。
To gauge such expansions, scientists, including Scientific American contributor Rob Dunn, tried to track introduced ant species in the Netherlands, New Zealand and the U.S.
為了衡量這種擴(kuò)張，科學(xué)家們，包括科學(xué)美國人的撰稿人羅伯·鄧恩試圖跟蹤介紹荷蘭、新西蘭和美國的螞蟻。
They found that some 252 ant species have infiltrated the three places, mostly accidentally, for example, in shipping containers full of fruit or wood. The researchers think their official count is low—they estimate the true number at nearly a thousand species. And most can make a permanent home on new shores, thanks to coming from nearby, climatically similar regions.
他們發(fā)現(xiàn)這三個(gè)地方已經(jīng)潛入有252種螞蟻，大多數(shù)是屬于意外，比如在裝滿水果或木頭的集裝箱里。研究人員認(rèn)為他們的官方統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)少了，估計(jì)真實(shí)數(shù)字接近一千種。由于來自于附近和氣候想像的地區(qū)，大多數(shù)能在新地方建立永久的棲息地。
The research appeared in the journal Biology Letters.
這項(xiàng)研究發(fā)表在《生物學(xué)快報(bào)》上。
Expanding their empires may be good news for ants. But maybe not for humans, as I learned all too painfully.
對螞蟻來說，擴(kuò)大他們的帝國是好消息。但是對人類來說則太痛苦了。
—David Biello
