时差N小时:原始的蚂蚁农场

Our ancestors developed agriculture about twelvethousand years ago. As they harvested the firstcrops, they undoubtedly congratulated themselveson their cleverness—after all, cultivation is farmore efficient than hunting and gathering. Littledid they know, however, that humans were not theEarth's first farmers. Certain species of ant havebeen practicing agriculture for millions of years.

我们的祖先早在12000年前就开始发展农业了。想必在收获第一批粮食时，他们一定为自己的聪明才智好好庆祝了一番，毕竟耕种比打猎和采集更有效率。然而，殊不知人类并不是地球上第一群农民。某些种类的蚂蚁已有上百万年的耕种经验了。

One example is the parasol ant of South America. The workers of this species clip largequantities of leaves from the forest and bring them back to the nest. These leaves are not eatenby the ants, but buried in a huge complex of underground chambers. As the leaves turn tocompost, the ants seed them with their favorite type of fungus. They tend this fungus cropwith great care, even weeding it to get rid of less desirable species. After a while, the fungusis harvested and eaten.

其中南美洲的樵蚁就是一个例子。这类蚂蚁工人们修剪大量的树叶，在森林里拖回蚁巢。但这些树叶并不是用来吃的，蚂蚁把它们埋在一个大型复杂的地下室里。待树叶开始堆肥，蚂蚁就在树叶堆上播撒它们最爱的菌类的种子。它们精心照料呵护这些菌类作物，甚至会除草，以除掉那些长势不合人意的作物。过一阵子，菌类成熟，可以收获食用了。

Planting and harvesting is one thing, but what would a real farm be without farm animals?Actually, humans are second to ants in this respect too. Several species of ant domesticate akind of insect called an aphid. Aphids are good at sucking nutritious juice out of plants. In fact,they're so good at it that they often suck out more than they can digest. The extra juice issecreted out the back of the aphid, where an ant can milk it like a farmer milking a cow.

种植和收获是一回事，但是没有家畜的话还算是农场吗?实际上在这方面，人类也是仅次于蚂蚁。蚂蚁驯养的几种动物中有一种就是蚜虫。蚜虫善于吸食植物的营养汁液。因为它们太擅长，以至于吸食过多不能被消化的汁液。多余的汁液储藏在蚜虫后背上，蚂蚁就可以像农夫挤牛奶一样挤出汁液。

This is a symbiotic relationship, and in exchange for the nutritious juice the ants protecttheir aphid flocks from predators. Some species even bring the aphids' eggs into the safety oftheir own nest, and feed the aphid young until they are ready for grazing.

这是一种共栖关系，作为交换，蚂蚁保护蚜虫群不受猎食者的侵害。一些蚂蚁群甚至会把蚜虫卵带回安全的蚁巢，饲养幼小的蚜虫直至它们能够啃食绿叶。