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A butterfly's wings can have many jobs besides keeping the insect aloft.
蝴蝶翅膀除了保持昆蟲(chóng)在空中飛行外，還有許多其他的功能。
They may be called on to attract mates, to warn potential predators to stay away,
它們可能被用來(lái)吸引配偶，警告潛在的捕食者遠(yuǎn)離，
to mimic other animals or even to provide camouflage.
模仿其他動(dòng)物，甚至提供偽裝。
All of these roles, though, depend on their colouration—which is unchanging.
然而，所有這些角色都取決于它們不變的色彩。
This plays into the idea that butterfly wings are dead tissue, like a bird's feathers or a mammal's hair.
這正好印證了蝴蝶翅膀是死亡組織的觀點(diǎn)，就像鳥(niǎo)的羽毛或哺乳動(dòng)物的毛發(fā)一樣。
In fact, that is not true. For example, in some species males' wings harbour special cells that release pheromones which attract females.
事實(shí)并非如此。例如，在一些物種中，雄性翅膀上有特殊的細(xì)胞，這些細(xì)胞會(huì)釋放信息素來(lái)吸引雌性。
Nanfang Yu, a physicist at Columbia University, in New York, has been looking into the matter.
紐約哥倫比亞大學(xué)的一名物理學(xué)家虞南方一直在研究這個(gè)問(wèn)題。
One of his interests is the optical properties of biological materials.
他的興趣之一是生物材料的光學(xué)特性。
That has led him to study butterfly wings in more detail.
這使他對(duì)蝴蝶翅膀進(jìn)行了更細(xì)致的研究。
And, in collaboration with Naomi Pierce, a butterfly specialist at Harvard University,
他與哈佛大學(xué)一名蝴蝶專家Naomi Pierce進(jìn)行合作，
he has now shown, in a paper published this week in Nature Communications,
并在本周發(fā)表于《Nature Communications》的一篇論文中表示
that butterfly wings are, indeed, very much alive.
蝴蝶的翅膀確實(shí)是活的。
Initially, Dr Yu and Dr Pierce wanted to know how the insects keep their body temperatures up without their wings overheating.
起初，虞博士和Pierce博士想知道這些昆蟲(chóng)是如何在不讓翅膀過(guò)熱的情況下保持體溫的。
Unlike birds and mammals, butterflies do not generate enough internal heat to run their metabolisms at full pelt.
和鳥(niǎo)類及哺乳動(dòng)物不同，蝴蝶不會(huì)產(chǎn)生足夠的內(nèi)熱來(lái)進(jìn)行新陳代謝。
Instead, they rely on outside heat sources—usually the sun—to bring their bodies up to speed.
相反，它們依靠外部熱源—通常是太陽(yáng)—來(lái)讓身體加速。
But their wings, being thin protein membranes, have a limited thermal capacity.
但是它們的翅膀，由于是薄薄的蛋白質(zhì)膜，所以熱容量有限。
Those wings can therefore overheat quickly if the insects bask too long in sunlight,
因此，如果昆蟲(chóng)在陽(yáng)光下曬得太久，這些翅膀會(huì)很快過(guò)熱，
or, conversely, can cool down too rapidly if they are flying through cold air.
或者，相反如果它們?cè)诶淇諝庵酗w行，就會(huì)很快冷卻下來(lái)。
In their experiments, the two researchers used a laser to heat up spots on the wings of dozens of butterfly species,
在他們的實(shí)驗(yàn)中，兩名研究人員用激光對(duì)數(shù)十種蝴蝶的翅膀進(jìn)行加熱，
including the painted lady and the hickory hairstreak.
包括小苧麻赤蛺蝶和山茱蝴蝶。
When the temperature of the area under the laser reached 40°C or so,
當(dāng)激光照射的區(qū)域溫度達(dá)到40℃左右時(shí)，
the insects responded within seconds by doing things that stopped their wings heating up further.
昆蟲(chóng)通過(guò)一些行為在幾秒鐘內(nèi)做出反應(yīng)，停止翅膀進(jìn)一步升溫。
These actions included a butterfly turning around to minimise its profile to the laser, flapping its wings or simply walking away.
這些動(dòng)作包括轉(zhuǎn)身，盡量不受激光的影響，拍打翅膀，或者干脆走開(kāi)。
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