大黄蜂能诱使植物提早开花

大黄蜂能诱使植物提早开花

Bumblebees are pretty cool. They’re not nasty like wasps, and while they can sting if they are threatened, they’re usually content to just live their lives and avoid humans as much as possible. Now, a new study published in Science reveals a secret trick that bumblebees use to fool plants into flowering early. This makes them even cooler.

大黄蜂很酷。它们不像黄蜂那样讨厌，虽然它们受到威胁时会蜇人，但它们通常满足于过自己的生活，尽可能避开人类。现在，一项发表在《科学》杂志上的新研究揭示了大黄蜂用来诱骗植物早花的一个秘密诀窍。这让他们更酷了。

The research, which was conducted by scientists in Switzerland, blows the lid off of a technique the bees use when pollen is scarce. It seems all they have to do is let the plants know they’re waiting, and they do that by chewing a very specific pattern into the leaves.

这项由瑞士科学家进行的研究，揭开了大黄蜂在花粉稀少时使用的一项技术的面纱。似乎它们所要做的就是让植物知道它们在等待，它们通过咀嚼树叶的特定图案来做到这一点。

This whole thing is almost too incredible to believe but let me lay it out for you: Due to a combination of the variability of climates and mankind’s own impact on it, bumblebees sometimes find themselves with immature plants and a shortage of pollen. Not content to just wait it out or die, the bees have somehow learned that by chewing a special pattern into the plant’s leaves they can force it to begin flowering earlier than it would have otherwise.

这整件事几乎难以置信，但让我告诉你：由于气候的变化和人类自身的影响，大黄蜂有时发现自己的植物不成熟，花粉短缺。大黄蜂不想干等着，却不知从哪里学会了，通过咀嚼植物叶子上的特殊图案，进而迫使它比其他植物更早开始开花。

It’s absolutely bonkers.

真是太疯狂了。

As the researchers explain in their study, their observations reveal that bumblebees that use this special chewing technique can get a plant to produce flowers 30 days early. That’s a huge shift in the life of the plant, but the bees can make it happen.

正如研究人员在他们的研究中所解释的，他们的观察显示，使用这种特殊咀嚼技术的大黄蜂可以让植物提前30天开花。这是植物生命中的一个巨大变化，但大黄蜂可以使之发生。

Even more interesting — this is where your mind is really going to be blown — when the researchers closely replicated the damage the bees cause, using previously-untouched plants, the plants didn’t care, and didn’t produce flowers as early as they did when the bumblebees did their magic trick to them. The scientists can’t explain it.

更有趣的是——让人想不通的是——当研究人员用以前未被接触过的植物，仔细复制大黄蜂所造成的图案，而这些植物却并没有反应，也没有像大黄蜂对它们施魔法时那样尽快开花。科学家们无法解释。

“When faced with a shortage of pollen, bumblebees actively damaged plant leaves in a characteristic way, and this behavior resulted in earlier flowering by as much as 30 days,” the researchers write. “Experimenters were not able to fully replicate the results with their own damage, suggesting that there is a distinct method that the bees use to stimulate earlier flowering.”

研究人员写道：“当面临花粉短缺时，大黄蜂以一种特有的方式积极破坏植物的叶子，这种行为使植物提前30天开花。”。“实验人员无法完全复制出实验结果，这表明大黄蜂有一种独特的方法来刺激植物提前开花。”

That’s it. That’s all they could come up with. The bees just have “a distinct method” that, for some incredible reason, triggers plants to flower early.

就这样。这就是他们能想到的。大黄蜂只是有一种“独特的方法”，由于某种不可思议的原因，促使植物早早开花。

How did the bees learn to do this? How is it passed on from generation to generation? It’s almost too much to really wrap your head around, but it’s so, so cool.

大黄蜂是如何学会这样做的?它是如何代代相传的?这实在是太复杂了，但它就是如此，如此的酷。