四種洞穴蜘蛛以泰國洞穴救援英雄命名

四種洞穴蜘蛛以泰國洞穴救援英雄命名

The rescue of 12 teenagers and their coach trapped in the Tham Luang caves transfixed the world in 2018, but memories are short. However, the team who rescued them will not be forgotten, at least by arachnologists, after four species of spiders were named in their honor.

2018年，被困在Tham Luang洞穴的12名青少年和他們的教練的獲救震驚了全世界，但人們的記憶很短暫。然而，營救他們的團(tuán)隊(duì)不會被忘記，至少不會被蜘蛛學(xué)家忘記，因?yàn)橛兴姆N蜘蛛以他們的名字命名。

The numerous caves that thread their way beneath the vast limestone Nullarbor are deeply hostile to life. No light penetrates to stimulate growth, but the area is a treasure trove for scientists who have found the bones of animals that became trapped there.

在巨大的納拉伯石灰石下有無數(shù)的洞穴，它們對生命非常不利。沒有光線穿透來刺激生長，但對科學(xué)家們來說，這是一個寶庫，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了困在那里的動物骨頭。

Today, even less life is present, since the land above is so forbidding its name is Latin for “no trees”. Nevertheless, Dr Mark Harvey of the Western Australian Museum told IFLScience that occasional floods wash plant matter into the caves, where cockroaches either feed on it directly or on the fungi that break it down. These then form the base of a food chain, the apex predators of which are spiders of the genus Troglodiplura.

今天，甚至更少的生命存在，因?yàn)樯厦娴耐恋厥侨绱肆钊松罚拿质抢≌Z“沒有樹”。然而，西澳大利亞博物館的馬克·哈維博士告訴IFLScience，偶爾的洪水會把植物沖進(jìn)洞穴，蟑螂要么直接以植物為食，要么以分解植物的真菌為食。它們構(gòu)成了食物鏈的基礎(chǔ)，食物鏈的頂端捕食者是穴居蜘蛛屬的蜘蛛。

Stephen Luntz

Only two or three people have seen a live Troglodiplura, Harvey told IFLScience. Even the museum collections on which he conducted his research have DNA too degraded to answer many of the questions one might ask.

哈維告訴IFLScience，只有兩三個人見過活的穴居雙足蟲。即使是他進(jìn)行研究的博物館藏品，其DNA也已經(jīng)退化，無法回答人們可能會提出的許多問題。

T. lowryi was named in 1969, and the few Troglodiplura specimens were lumped together under that name. The DNA Harvey could extract was sufficient to establish the existence of five species and their place in the broader spider family tree. Harvey thought that, given their habitat, it made sense to name the spiders after heroic cave explorers.

T. lowryi于1969年被命名，少數(shù)穴居雙鰭目動物標(biāo)本被歸為這個名稱。哈維提取的DNA足以確定五種蜘蛛的存在，以及它們在更廣泛的蜘蛛族譜中的位置。哈維認(rèn)為，考慮到它們的棲息地，用英勇的洞穴探險者的名字給它們命名是有意義的。

In Invertebrate Systematics Harvey named two of the new species T. beirutpakbarai and T. samankunani after the two Thai rescuers whose lives were lost in the attempt. Saman Kunan died of asphyxiation during the rescue, while a blood infection Beirut Pakbara caught at the time killed him 18 months later.

在無脊椎動物分類學(xué)上，哈維以兩名在嘗試中喪生的泰國救援人員的名字命名了其中的兩個新物種T. beirpakbarai和T. samankunani。薩曼·庫南在營救過程中死于窒息，18個月后，貝魯特·帕克巴拉被血液感染致死。

Australian cave diving experts Dr Craig Challen and Dr Richard Harris were called in as leading experts to assist the efforts, and survived to become joint Australians of the Year in 2019. Now they are immortalized with the naming of T. challeni and T. harrisi.

澳大利亞洞穴潛水專家克雷格·查倫博士和理查德·哈里斯博士被召集為協(xié)助這項(xiàng)工作的領(lǐng)先專家，他們幸存下來，在2019年共同成為了年度澳大利亞人?，F(xiàn)在它們以T. challeni和T. harrisi的名字而名垂青史。

For some people, having a spider named after them would be a decidedly doubtful honor, but Harris (who was recently honored the same way) told IFLScience his suggestion was answered with delighted emails from both men. “Both are active explorers of cave ecosystems in Australia and are passionate about their conservation,” he said in a statement, adding to IFLScience that both men have explored the Nullarbor caves, undeterred by the idea of encountering the spiders that now bear their names.

對一些人來說，讓蜘蛛以自己的名字命名肯定是一個令人懷疑的榮譽(yù)，但哈里斯(他最近也獲得了同樣的榮譽(yù))告訴IFLScience他的建議收到了兩個人愉快的電子郵件。他在一份聲明中說:“兩人都是澳大利亞洞穴生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的活躍探險家，對保護(hù)它們充滿熱情。”他還向IFLScience補(bǔ)充說，兩人都曾探索過納拉伯洞穴，并沒有因?yàn)橄氲綍龅浆F(xiàn)在以他們的名字命名的蜘蛛而卻步。

Troglodiplura were initially thought to be most closely related to South American spiders, but Harris established they are part of the Anamidae, a large family of exclusively Australian spiders common on the west coast. In the great tradition of Australian species, the above-ground Anamidae confound their categorization by being part of the superfamily of trapdoor spiders, but seldom cover their burrows with trapdoors.

穴居雙plura最初被認(rèn)為是南美洲蜘蛛的近親，但哈里斯認(rèn)為它們是Anamidae的一部分，Anamidae是澳大利亞蜘蛛的一個大家族，在西海岸很常見。在澳大利亞物種的偉大傳統(tǒng)中，地上的阿納米科由于是活地門蜘蛛超科的一部分而混淆了它們的分類，但它們很少用活地門蓋住它們的洞穴。

Troglodiplura almost certainly go further, not having burrows at all. In cave environments where they – and the creatures they prey on – are all blind, ambush strategies need to adapt. Instead, Harvey told IFLScience, Troglodiplura rely on the common spider hunting technique of hairs picking up vibrations that allow them to detect moving prey.

穴居雙足類幾乎可以肯定走得更遠(yuǎn)，根本沒有洞穴。在洞穴環(huán)境中，它們和它們捕食的生物都是盲的，伏擊策略需要適應(yīng)。相反，哈維告訴IFLScience，穴居雙翅目動物依靠的是一種常見的蜘蛛狩獵技術(shù):用毛發(fā)捕捉振動，從而探測到移動的獵物。

The differences between the species probably result from caves becoming disconnected, isolating the spiders until they evolved apart, rather than adapting to different niches, Harvey suspects.

哈維懷疑，不同物種之間的差異可能是由于洞穴的分離，隔離了蜘蛛，直到它們進(jìn)化分開，而不是適應(yīng)不同的生境。