蜜蜂可以用它们的翅膀“冲浪”到安全的地方

蜜蜂可以用它们的翅膀“冲浪”到安全的地方

When stuck in water, honeybees are able to use their wings to generate waves that they then surf on to safety, a new study has revealed.

一项新的研究表明，当蜜蜂被困在水中时，它们能够利用翅膀产生海浪，然后它们就能安全的冲浪了。

Like most of us, bees get thirsty on hot days. After a long day at the hive slaving away for the queen, they will fly to the local watering hole to drink and cool off. However, this can quickly turn lethal. If their wings make contact with the water surface, it’s very easy for bees to get stuck, and they can drown in a matter of minutes.

和我们大多数人一样，蜜蜂在热天也会口渴。在蜂房为蜂王忙碌了一整天后，它们会飞到当地的酒吧喝上一杯，凉快一下。然而，这种做法很快就会致命。如果它们的翅膀与水面接触，蜜蜂很容易被困住，几分钟内就会淹死。

Honeybees, however, have found a way out of this dilemma, according to California Institute of Technology engineer Chris Roh, who observed the bees’ efforts in a standing water fountain while walking around campus one day.

然而，据加州理工学院的工程师Chris Roh称，蜜蜂已经找到了解决这一难题的方法。一天，他在校园里散步时，在一个静水喷泉里观察了蜜蜂的活动。

“It was a hot summer day and this honeybee was apparently trapped on the water surface,” Roh said in an interview with Fox News. “And the sunlight was just right so it cast a shadow on the ripples it was creating. That’s what I first noticed, and then on the water surface, I saw the bee struggling to get out of the water but also moving around quite adequately.”

Chris Roh在接受福克斯新闻采访时说:“那是一个炎热的夏日，这只蜜蜂显然被困在水面上。阳光正好投射在它所激起的涟漪上。这是我第一次注意到的，然后在水面上，我看到蜜蜂挣扎着要从水里出来，但也充分地移动着。”

Roh began observing other honeybees trapped on the surface of standing water. He watched as they would somehow generate thrust, moving across the water as their wings twitched. He collected a few of the insects and took them to his lab, where he and his adviser (and study co-author) Mory Gharib placed them one at a time in a pan of water, so their wings would become stuck to the water.

Chris Roh开始观察其他被困在死水表面的蜜蜂。他看着它们以某种方式产生推力，当它们的翅膀抖动时，它们就会在水面上移动。他收集了一些昆虫并把它们带到他的实验室，在那里他和他的导师(也是这项研究的合著者)莫里·加里布(Mory Gharib)一次一只地把它们放在一锅水里，这样它们的翅膀就会粘在水里。

With a filtered light casting a shadow on the floor of the pan, Roh and Gharib noticed the tiny asymmetrical wave pattern being generated by the wings. Soon after, the bees would start moving along the surface of the water, surfing — albeit very slowly — on the tiny waves.

随着滤过的光线在锅底投射出阴影，Chris Roh和加里布注意到翅膀产生的微小的不对称波图案。不久之后，蜜蜂开始在水面上移动，在微小的海浪上冲浪——尽管速度很慢。

The act is performed by effectively pulling on the water surface with the sticky underside of their wings, creating tiny waves that can propel them forward.

这一动作是通过它们翅膀下方的粘性有效地拉动水面，产生微小的波浪推动它们前进。

“When they get stuck on the water, what happens is that the bottom side of the wing gets wet, but the other side is dry,” Roh explained. “And when they try to free themselves, it’s very difficult for them to completely free their wings so that they can regain their aerodynamic ability. So instead what they do is pull on the water that’s stuck on the bottom side of the wing and when they’re pulling on the water, the water pulls on the bee- kind of like they’re playing a tug of war.”

Chris Roh说:“当它们被困在水里的时候，机翼的底部会变湿，而另一边是干的。“当它们试图让自己自由时，很难让翅膀完全自由，这样才能重新获得空气动力学能力。所以它们所做的是拉住粘在翅膀底部的水，当它们拉住水的时候，水就拉住蜜蜂，就像在玩拔河游戏。”

These wingbeats generate a large-amplitude wave with an interference pattern behind the bee that it can then surf on to safety. A slow-motion video showed that the bee’s wings curve downward to push down the water and curve upward when pulling up out of the water. This pulling movement propels it forward, and the pushing motion is the bee’s recovery stroke. The bee is also somehow able to keep the water then accelerating towards it from being a deterrent.

这些翼拍会产生一个振幅很大的波，在蜜蜂身后形成一个干扰图案，然后它就可以安全的冲浪了。一段慢动作视频显示，蜜蜂的翅膀向下弯曲是为了向下推动水，向上弯曲是为了向上拉出水。这种推动运动推动它前进，而推动运动是蜜蜂的恢复行程。蜜蜂还能以某种方式保持水，然后加速朝它冲去，而不是起到威慑作用。

“When the bee pulls on the water, water pulls on the bee and it, therefore, moves forward,” Roh added “But the problem with the propulsion pulling effect is that water, once it’s pulled, is moving towards you. So if you interact with that accelerating water, it will probably stop you, so they seem to be doing it so that they pull on the water and then move over it so they don’t have to be slowed down.”

Chris Roh说:“当蜜蜂拉动水的时候，水也拉动蜜蜂，因此，蜜蜂向前移动。但是，水一旦被拉动，它就会向你移动。所以如果你和加速的水相互作用，它可能会阻止你，所以它们似乎在这样做，它们拉着水，然后在上面移动，这样它们就不必减速。”

Creating the waves is more taxing than flying, wearing the bee out in an estimated 10 minutes. Hopefully, that’s enough time to make it to shore, where the insect can pull itself out.

制造海浪比飞行更费力，大约10分钟就把蜜蜂耗光了。希望有足够的时间到达岸边，在那里昆虫可以自己爬出来。

According to Roh, the way the bees move on the water is different from any other aquatic insect seen before. He and his fellow researchers are hoping the discovery will lead to a new wave of bio-inspired technology, and they’re currently developing a small robot that can fly through the air as well as move on water.

Chris Roh说，蜜蜂在水面上移动的方式不同于以前见过的任何其他水生昆虫。他和他的同事们希望这一发现能带来一波新的仿生技术，他们目前正在开发一种小型机器人，它可以在空中飞行，也可以在水上移动。

“A lot of flying in biology seems to rely on the flapping-wing system, but what we’ve thought out [for robotics] is you can keep that flapping wing system to fly but you don’t have to change much,” Roh continued.

Chris Roh说:“生物学中很多飞行似乎都依赖于扑翼系统，但我们(为机器人)想到的是，你可以保持扑翼系统飞行，但不需要改变太多。”

“When [the robot] actually falls in water or needs to do any sort of mission on the water surface and have some functionality there, you can use [the wings] by just pulling on the water. So that part is what intrigued us, [that there’s] another way you can move around on the water surface.”

“当(这个机器人)真的掉进水里，或者需要在水面上执行任何任务，并且具备一些功能时，你可以通过拉动水来使用(翅膀)。”所以这就是我们感兴趣的地方，有另一种方法可以在水面上移动。”

The researcher has been published in the scientific journal PNAS.

该研究发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。