這是被殺蟲劑噴過的大黃蜂的大腦

這是被殺蟲劑噴過的大黃蜂的大腦

Teeny brain scans have shown how pesticides have a damaging effect on the development of baby bumblebee brains.

微小的腦部掃描顯示，殺蟲劑對大黃蜂寶寶的大腦發(fā)育有破壞性的影響。

The research found that exposure to pesticides during the larval stage of bumblebees can mangle their brain development, causing specific parts of the brain to grow less, or abnormally, leaving them with smaller or functionally impaired brains when older. The research also strongly hints that this could help to explain why pesticides have such a dramatic effect on the behavior of bee populations, often impairing foraging bumblebees' ability to navigate and recognize flowers.

研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，在大黃蜂幼蟲時期接觸殺蟲劑會阻礙它們的大腦發(fā)育，導(dǎo)致大腦特定部分的生長減少或異常，使它們長大后的大腦變得更小或功能受損。這項研究還強(qiáng)烈暗示，這可能有助于解釋為什么農(nóng)藥對蜜蜂群體的行為產(chǎn)生如此巨大的影響，往往會削弱大黃蜂覓食和識別花朵的能力。

Tom Hale

Reported in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B this week, Imperial College London researchers carried out detailed micro-CT scans on the brains of almost 100 bees – which, for context, are just 0.0002 percent the size of a human brain. Some of the bees were part of a colony that was fed a diet of nectar spiked with neonicotinoids, a controversial pesticide that is banned in parts of Europe but still widely used across the USA.

《英國皇家學(xué)會學(xué)報B輯》本周報道，倫敦帝國理工學(xué)院的研究人員對近100只蜜蜂的大腦進(jìn)行了詳細(xì)的微ct掃描，這些蜜蜂的大腦體積僅為人類大腦的0.0002%。一些蜜蜂是一個群體的一部分，它們的食物是添加了新煙堿類殺蟲劑的花蜜。新煙堿類殺蟲劑是一種有爭議的殺蟲劑，在歐洲部分地區(qū)被禁止使用，但在美國仍被廣泛使用。

The team scanned the brains of bees three days and 12 days after emerging from the papal, then compared these results to the young from colonies that were fed no pesticides and others that were fed pesticides only once they had emerged as an adult.

研究小組在蜜蜂從教皇窩里出來3天和12天后分別對它們的大腦進(jìn)行了掃描，然后將掃描結(jié)果與不喂食殺蟲劑的幼蜂和成年后才喂食殺蟲劑的幼蜂進(jìn)行了比較。

Views of the mushroom body from a micro-CT scan of a bumblebee brain. Imperial College London

More specifically, the bees that were exposed to pesticides appeared to have a smaller volume of the “mushroom body,” a pair of structures in the brain of insects that play a role in learning and memory (shown above). This makes sense, given the known effect of some pesticides on bees' ability to navigate and forage for food.

更具體地說，接觸殺蟲劑的蜜蜂的“蘑菇體”體積更小，“蘑菇體”是昆蟲大腦中的一對結(jié)構(gòu)，在學(xué)習(xí)和記憶中起著作用(如上圖所示)?？紤]到一些農(nóng)藥對蜜蜂導(dǎo)航和覓食能力的影響，這是有道理的。

The research then went a step further and tested the bees’ cognitive abilities by seeing if they associate a smell with a food reward. As anticipated, the pesticide-spiked bees were poorer at performing the task later in life.

研究還進(jìn)一步測試了蜜蜂的認(rèn)知能力，看它們是否將氣味與食物獎勵聯(lián)系起來。正如預(yù)期的那樣，使用殺蟲劑的蜜蜂在以后的生活中更不善于完成這項任務(wù)。

“Bee colonies act as superorganisms, so when any toxins enter the colony, these have the potential to cause problems with the development of the baby bees within it,” lead researcher Dr Richard Gill, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, said in a statement.

帝國理工學(xué)院生命科學(xué)系的首席研究員理查德·吉爾博士在一份聲明中說:“蜂群扮演著超級有機(jī)體的角色，所以當(dāng)任何毒素進(jìn)入蜂群時，都有可能對里面的小蜜蜂的發(fā)育造成問題。”

“Worryingly in this case, when young bees are fed on pesticide-contaminated food, this caused parts of the brain to grow less, leading to older adult bees possessing smaller and functionally impaired brains; an effect that appeared to be permanent and irreversible.”

“令人擔(dān)憂的是，在這種情況下，當(dāng)年輕的蜜蜂被喂食農(nóng)藥污染的食物時，這導(dǎo)致大腦的部分生長減少，導(dǎo)致年長的成年蜜蜂擁有更小和功能受損的大腦;這種影響似乎是永久的，不可逆轉(zhuǎn)的。”

The declines of bees and other pollinating insects around the world remains one of the most concerning (and underestimated) challenges of our time. There are many factors behind this, from the destruction of habitat to disease, but the use of pesticides consistently stands out as a major factor. Considering about 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce, that's extremely worrying.

全世界蜜蜂和其他授粉昆蟲的減少仍然是我們這個時代最令人擔(dān)憂(也被低估)的挑戰(zhàn)之一。這背后有許多因素，從棲息地的破壞到疾病，但農(nóng)藥的使用始終是一個突出的主要因素。考慮到世界上大約35%的糧食作物依靠動物傳粉者來繁殖，這是非常令人擔(dān)憂的。