關于蜣螂，你需要知道和熱愛的5件事

關于蜣螂，你需要知道和熱愛的5件事

Who would expect greatness from a creature whose first name is essentially "turd"? The scarab beetle, despite being a kind of dung beetle, has been dining incognito, coasting on its name — and all that ancient Egyptian mystique — for millennia.

誰會期望一個名字本質上是“屎”的生物會變得偉大呢?圣甲蟲，盡管是一種屎殼郎，幾千年來一直以它的名字和古埃及的神秘莫測為食，隱姓隱名。

The dung beetle, on the other hand, has just been dining, literally, on dung.

另一方面，蜣螂只是在吃糞而已。

Dung beetles meticulously polish their turd balls to make them easier to cart home. (Photo: Villiers Steyn/Shutterstock)

But to walk away from this story with only that thought would be a disservice to dung beetles everywhere. This beetle is more like the unicorn of bugs.

但是，帶著這樣的想法離開這個故事，對各地的蜣螂都是一種傷害。這種甲蟲更像蟲子中的獨角獸。

Now what exactly makes the dung beetle such a magical little insect?

那么到底是什么讓蜣螂成為如此神奇的小昆蟲呢?

1. Dung beetles give freshly polished balls of poo a good name.

蜣螂給剛擦亮的糞球起了個好名字。

There's no getting around the fact that dung beetles love poop. They build with it, nest in it, eat it — the word you're looking for there is coprophagous — and lord knows what else they do with it in the privacy of their own homes. But dung beetles also offer a powerful lesson to us all on how to use every precious atom of the resources we're given.

蜣螂喜歡便便，這是無法回避的事實。它們用它建房子，在里面筑巢，吃它——你在那里尋找的詞是合食的——上帝知道它們在自己的家里還用它做什么。但是蜣螂也給我們上了一堂強有力的課，告訴我們如何利用我們所擁有的每一個寶貴的原子資源。

2. Their creations occasionally cause a great sensation.

它們的作品偶爾會引起轟動。

Tumblebugs — a kind of dung beetle particularly passionate about rolling balls of poo on the ground — don't make headlines very often. But considering the nature of their interests and hobbies, when they do, everyone makes quite a stink about about it.

Tumblebugs是一種蜣螂，特別喜歡在地上滾糞球。但是考慮到他們的興趣和愛好的性質，當它們這樣做的時候，每個人都對此大發(fā)牢騷。

Scarab beetles were lucky enough to be associated with divinity, hence avoiding more dung-y associations. (Photo: King Tut/Shutterstock)

3. They're the strongest animals on Earth.

它們是地球上最強壯的動物。

The brawniest bug — and likely, animal — on the planet is Onthophagus taurus, a type of horned dung beetle that's reportedly able to haul more than 1,100 times its own body weight. In superhero parlance, that's your average scrawny human towing six double-decker buses crammed full of people. (It's a pity Peter Parker wasn't bitten by a radioactive dung beetle. But then, Dung Man would have likely been a tough sell for Marvel Comics.)

地球上最強壯的蟲子——很可能是動物——是食角金牛，一種有角的屎殼郎，據(jù)報道它能拖著超過自身體重1100倍的東西。用超級英雄的話說，那是一個骨瘦如柴的普通人拖著六輛滿載乘客的雙層巴士。(可惜彼得·帕克沒有被一只放射性蜣螂咬傷。但話說回來，《糞人》對漫威漫畫來說可能很難賣出去。)

4. They're brilliant navigators.

它們是杰出的航海家。

Many animals use the sun to navigate, rather than ever-changing and unreliable landmarks on the ground. But dung beetles set to their compass to a much higher power — the galaxy itself. Sure, by day they use the sun to get around. But when the lights go off, according to a 2016 study published in Current Biology dung beetles will chart a course by the Milky Way.

許多動物利用太陽導航，而不是地面上不斷變化和不可靠的地標。但是蜣螂?yún)s把它們的指南針指向了一個更高的能量——銀河系本身。當然，白天它們利用太陽活動。但是，根據(jù)2016年發(fā)表在《當代生物學》(Current Biology)雜志上的一項研究，當燈光熄滅時，蜣螂將沿著銀河系繪制出路線圖。

They may have a very intimate relationship with the ground, but dung beetles, like the earth-boring variety pictured here, pack a handy set of wings. (Photo: Dennis van de Water/Shutterstock)

5. They make wonderful parents.

它們是很棒的父母。

As a study published in Animal Behaviour points out, dung beetles are a rarity in the insect world for the care they shower on their young, although parental roles are strictly divided along gender lines. Dad brings home the bac— err, food. And mom is a bit of a homemaker, designing and building the living space. Some species, like Cephalodesmius dung beetles, even mate for life.

發(fā)表在《動物行為》雜志上的一項研究指出，盡管父母的角色嚴格按照性別劃分，但在昆蟲世界里，屎殼郎是罕見的，因為它們會悉心照料自己的孩子。爸爸把食物帶回家。媽媽有點像家庭主婦，負責設計和建造生活空間。有些種類的蜣螂甚至會終生交配，比如蜣螂。