研究表明，性使蜂后失明

研究表明，性使蜂后失明，從而抑制其濫交行為

They say love is blind, but bees take that literally.

人們說(shuō)愛(ài)情是盲目的，但蜜蜂卻把這句話當(dāng)真了。

Bee sperm causes temporary blindness in honeybee queens, making it harder for them to fly off and mate with other males until the effect wears off.

蜜蜂的精子會(huì)導(dǎo)致蜂后暫時(shí)失明，這使得它們很難飛離并與其他雄性交配，直到這種效果消失。

“For social insects like honeybees, it is beneficial if their queens mate with many males,” said the study, published this month in the journal eLife. That’s because having lots of bee baby-daddies “can protect the hive against parasites.” So queens go on dayslong “mating flight” benders, during which they get impregnated by multiple bees and accumulate enough sperm for a lifetime.

本月發(fā)表在《生活》雜志上的這項(xiàng)研究稱：“對(duì)于蜜蜂這樣的群居昆蟲(chóng)來(lái)說(shuō)，蜂后與許多雄性交配是有益的。”這是因?yàn)橛泻芏嗝鄯鋵殞毎职?ldquo;可以保護(hù)蜂巢免受寄生蟲(chóng)的侵害”，所以蜂后們每天都會(huì)進(jìn)行“交配飛行”活動(dòng)，在這期間，它們會(huì)被多只蜜蜂受精，并積累足夠一生使用的精子。

The more males who inseminate the queen, though, the fewer kids the queen has from each partner. This poses a problem for the bee daddies, who want to have as many babies with the queen as possible. And so honeybee dudes kill their queen’s buzz — by blinding them with their semen.

然而，越多的雄性給蜂后授精，蜂后從每一個(gè)伴侶那里得到的孩子就越少。這給蜜蜂爸爸們帶來(lái)了一個(gè)問(wèn)題，他們想和蜂后生盡可能多的孩子。因此，蜜蜂兄弟們用精液使蜂后失明，以此來(lái)殺死蜂后的嗡嗡聲。

Exposure to honeybee “seminal fluid” poisons queens, scientists found, causing a “significant decrease in visual perception,” thus locking the genders in “a sexual arms race.” Queens attempt to counteract the blinding by fleeing quickly after sex, but the honey-daddy agenda often works anyway, thereby reducing “queen promiscuity.”

科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)，暴露在蜜蜂的“精液”中會(huì)毒害蜂王，導(dǎo)致“視覺(jué)感知能力顯著下降”，從而將兩性鎖定在“性軍備競(jìng)賽”中。蜂后們?cè)噲D通過(guò)性愛(ài)后迅速逃離來(lái)抵消失明的影響，但無(wú)論如何，“蜜糖爸爸”的計(jì)劃往往奏效，因此減少了“蜂后的濫交”。

Researchers tested the hypothesis by electronically tracking semen-exposed queens’ and saline-exposed queens’ responsiveness to light. Queens that had just had sex were “more likely to get lost and to not return to their hives” than the queens exposed only to saline.

研究人員通過(guò)電子追蹤暴露在精液中的蜂后和暴露在鹽水中的蜂后對(duì)光的反應(yīng)來(lái)驗(yàn)證這一假設(shè)。與只接觸鹽水的蜂后相比，剛發(fā)生過(guò)性關(guān)系的蜂后“更容易迷路，也更不可能回到蜂巢”。