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Males Rule in Costa Rican Wasp Species
哥斯達黎加父系制度的黃蜂
In most species of social insects, such as wasps, bees, and ants, the females rule. The females are the workers. They are the ones to go out and get the food, and they are also the ones to care for the queen, the larvae, and the nest in general. The males of these species of insects are typically lazy, and they bear the brunt of much abuse. They’re sometimes bitten, fed scraps, and chased out of the home for good by their sisters not long after they’re born.
群居昆蟲中大多奉行母系制度，比如黃蜂、蜜蜂、螞蟻。群體里的工蜂是負責外出尋覓食物、照顧蜂王及幼蟲并守衛蜂巢。而雄蜂通常都游手好閑，因此招來罵聲一片。雄蜂有時候會被欺負，食不果腹，出生后不久被雌蜂趕出蜂巢覓食。
Not only that, but among paper wasps in the United States the females practice what scientists call “male stuffing.” When a worker brings food home to the nest, her sisters shove their brothers headfirst into empty nest cells to prevent them from consuming any of the food.
科學家發現美國胡蜂群體里的雌蜂盛行的是“包夾雄蜂”。當工蜂運送食物回蜂巢，雌蜂就把雄蜂頭擋在空蜂房里，不讓雄蜂享受勞動果實。
Behavior like this, however, is reversed in a Costa Rican wasp species. The males in this species not only attack their sisters, who curl into submissive positions or flee, but they steal food from the queen herself, their very own mother.
但是，在哥斯達黎加黃蜂卻恰好相反。雄蜂不但圍攻雌蜂，還從蜂王那里偷食物，蜂王可是他們的親生母親??！雌蜂只得縮成一團或逃跑。
These wasps live in a cloud forest in Costa Rica. Whereas wasp colonies in temperatezones can only reproduce for a brief period in the summer, these colonies can mate year round. Thus, a scientist studying these wasps proposes that it’s in the females’ interest to put up with the abuse of their brothers and to let them hang around longer because it increases the males chances of mating with queens from other nests, which makes the colony more biologically fit.
這類黃蜂居住在哥斯達黎加的霧林中。溫帶黃蜂只在夏天很短的一段時間繁衍后代，而這種黃蜂終年交配。研究這類黃蜂的科學家推斷，雌蜂對雄蜂的放任自流是忍辱負重，為其它蜂巢的蜂王制造更多交配機會，順應物種繁衍。
