(单词翻译:单击)
Pesticides offer bees a risky allure
农药居然是蜜蜂危险的诱惑
Bees flit from flower to flower dining on nectar. Sometimes that nectar may contain traces of widely used pesticides. Yet the bees are unlikely to know which nectar is tainted. Indeed, they can't taste these pesticides, a new study finds. However, the pesticides are similar to nicotine. This can encourage the bees to come back for more. And especially troubling: A second new study suggests the pesticides can harm some wild bees.
蜜蜂轻盈的从一朵花飞到另一朵花上采集花蜜,有时这些花蜜上可能会残留常用的农药,但是蜜蜂似乎察觉不到哪个花蜜已被其污染
The pesticides are known as neonicotinoids (Nee-oh-NICK-uh-tin-oydz). Farmers use them to protect their crops from certain insects. The two new bee studies add to the controversy surrounding the use of these chemicals on corn and other crops.
农药也称为新烟碱类农药,农民利用它来保护庄稼免受一些昆虫的破坏
In the lab, scientists tested how nerves in the mouthparts of honeybees and bumblebees respond to three widely used neonicotinoids. And they found no reaction to any of them. What this means: "I don't think they can taste it at all," says Geraldine Wright. She works at Newcastle University in England. There, she studies nerve signaling in bees.
实验室里,针对蜜蜂和大黄蜂口腔内的神经对三种经常使用的新烟碱农药的反映,科学家进行了一场测试
Her team's new findings suggest that bees in nature can't taste or avoid nectar laced with the chemicals. They published their new data online April 22 in Nature.
她的团队的新发现表明大自然中的蜜蜂尝不出或者说不能避免沾有化学物质的花蜜
Especially troubling: The chemistry of the pesticides may keep bees coming back for more, Wright says. Offered a choice in the lab, both honeybees and bumblebees preferred sugar water dosed with a neonicotinoid pesticide. The insects sipped more of it than plain sugar water. The bees might not have tasted a difference between the two feeders. Wright表示尤其令人烦恼的是,农药这种化学物质可能会阻止蜜蜂飞回来采集更多花蜜
。实验室,他们发现蜜蜂和大黄蜂更加喜欢掺有烟碱类农药的糖水并且与普通糖水比起来,他们会喝更多 。可能蜜蜂并不能尝出二者之间有什么区别 。译文属可可原创,仅供学习交流使用,未经许可请勿转载