蜜蜂可以用它們的翅膀“沖浪”到安全的地方

蜜蜂可以用它們的翅膀“沖浪”到安全的地方

When stuck in water, honeybees are able to use their wings to generate waves that they then surf on to safety, a new study has revealed.

一項(xiàng)新的研究表明，當(dāng)蜜蜂被困在水中時(shí)，它們能夠利用翅膀產(chǎn)生海浪，然后它們就能安全的沖浪了。

Like most of us, bees get thirsty on hot days. After a long day at the hive slaving away for the queen, they will fly to the local watering hole to drink and cool off. However, this can quickly turn lethal. If their wings make contact with the water surface, it’s very easy for bees to get stuck, and they can drown in a matter of minutes.

和我們大多數(shù)人一樣，蜜蜂在熱天也會(huì)口渴。在蜂房為蜂王忙碌了一整天后，它們會(huì)飛到當(dāng)?shù)氐木瓢珊壬弦槐?，涼快一下。然而，這種做法很快就會(huì)致命。如果它們的翅膀與水面接觸，蜜蜂很容易被困住，幾分鐘內(nèi)就會(huì)淹死。

Honeybees, however, have found a way out of this dilemma, according to California Institute of Technology engineer Chris Roh, who observed the bees’ efforts in a standing water fountain while walking around campus one day.

然而，據(jù)加州理工學(xué)院的工程師Chris Roh稱，蜜蜂已經(jīng)找到了解決這一難題的方法。一天，他在校園里散步時(shí)，在一個(gè)靜水噴泉里觀察了蜜蜂的活動(dòng)。

“It was a hot summer day and this honeybee was apparently trapped on the water surface,” Roh said in an interview with Fox News. “And the sunlight was just right so it cast a shadow on the ripples it was creating. That’s what I first noticed, and then on the water surface, I saw the bee struggling to get out of the water but also moving around quite adequately.”

Chris Roh在接受福克斯新聞采訪時(shí)說:“那是一個(gè)炎熱的夏日，這只蜜蜂顯然被困在水面上。陽光正好投射在它所激起的漣漪上。這是我第一次注意到的，然后在水面上，我看到蜜蜂掙扎著要從水里出來，但也充分地移動(dòng)著。”

Roh began observing other honeybees trapped on the surface of standing water. He watched as they would somehow generate thrust, moving across the water as their wings twitched. He collected a few of the insects and took them to his lab, where he and his adviser (and study co-author) Mory Gharib placed them one at a time in a pan of water, so their wings would become stuck to the water.

Chris Roh開始觀察其他被困在死水表面的蜜蜂。他看著它們以某種方式產(chǎn)生推力，當(dāng)它們的翅膀抖動(dòng)時(shí)，它們就會(huì)在水面上移動(dòng)。他收集了一些昆蟲并把它們帶到他的實(shí)驗(yàn)室，在那里他和他的導(dǎo)師(也是這項(xiàng)研究的合著者)莫里·加里布(Mory Gharib)一次一只地把它們放在一鍋水里，這樣它們的翅膀就會(huì)粘在水里。

With a filtered light casting a shadow on the floor of the pan, Roh and Gharib noticed the tiny asymmetrical wave pattern being generated by the wings. Soon after, the bees would start moving along the surface of the water, surfing — albeit very slowly — on the tiny waves.

隨著濾過的光線在鍋底投射出陰影，Chris Roh和加里布注意到翅膀產(chǎn)生的微小的不對(duì)稱波圖案。不久之后，蜜蜂開始在水面上移動(dòng)，在微小的海浪上沖浪——盡管速度很慢。

The act is performed by effectively pulling on the water surface with the sticky underside of their wings, creating tiny waves that can propel them forward.

這一動(dòng)作是通過它們翅膀下方的粘性有效地拉動(dòng)水面，產(chǎn)生微小的波浪推動(dòng)它們前進(jìn)。

“When they get stuck on the water, what happens is that the bottom side of the wing gets wet, but the other side is dry,” Roh explained. “And when they try to free themselves, it’s very difficult for them to completely free their wings so that they can regain their aerodynamic ability. So instead what they do is pull on the water that’s stuck on the bottom side of the wing and when they’re pulling on the water, the water pulls on the bee- kind of like they’re playing a tug of war.”

Chris Roh說:“當(dāng)它們被困在水里的時(shí)候，機(jī)翼的底部會(huì)變濕，而另一邊是干的。“當(dāng)它們?cè)噲D讓自己自由時(shí)，很難讓翅膀完全自由，這樣才能重新獲得空氣動(dòng)力學(xué)能力。所以它們所做的是拉住粘在翅膀底部的水，當(dāng)它們拉住水的時(shí)候，水就拉住蜜蜂，就像在玩拔河游戲。”

These wingbeats generate a large-amplitude wave with an interference pattern behind the bee that it can then surf on to safety. A slow-motion video showed that the bee’s wings curve downward to push down the water and curve upward when pulling up out of the water. This pulling movement propels it forward, and the pushing motion is the bee’s recovery stroke. The bee is also somehow able to keep the water then accelerating towards it from being a deterrent.

這些翼拍會(huì)產(chǎn)生一個(gè)振幅很大的波，在蜜蜂身后形成一個(gè)干擾圖案，然后它就可以安全的沖浪了。一段慢動(dòng)作視頻顯示，蜜蜂的翅膀向下彎曲是為了向下推動(dòng)水，向上彎曲是為了向上拉出水。這種推動(dòng)運(yùn)動(dòng)推動(dòng)它前進(jìn)，而推動(dòng)運(yùn)動(dòng)是蜜蜂的恢復(fù)行程。蜜蜂還能以某種方式保持水，然后加速朝它沖去，而不是起到威懾作用。

“When the bee pulls on the water, water pulls on the bee and it, therefore, moves forward,” Roh added “But the problem with the propulsion pulling effect is that water, once it’s pulled, is moving towards you. So if you interact with that accelerating water, it will probably stop you, so they seem to be doing it so that they pull on the water and then move over it so they don’t have to be slowed down.”

Chris Roh說:“當(dāng)蜜蜂拉動(dòng)水的時(shí)候，水也拉動(dòng)蜜蜂，因此，蜜蜂向前移動(dòng)。但是，水一旦被拉動(dòng)，它就會(huì)向你移動(dòng)。所以如果你和加速的水相互作用，它可能會(huì)阻止你，所以它們似乎在這樣做，它們拉著水，然后在上面移動(dòng)，這樣它們就不必減速。”

Creating the waves is more taxing than flying, wearing the bee out in an estimated 10 minutes. Hopefully, that’s enough time to make it to shore, where the insect can pull itself out.

制造海浪比飛行更費(fèi)力，大約10分鐘就把蜜蜂耗光了。希望有足夠的時(shí)間到達(dá)岸邊，在那里昆蟲可以自己爬出來。

According to Roh, the way the bees move on the water is different from any other aquatic insect seen before. He and his fellow researchers are hoping the discovery will lead to a new wave of bio-inspired technology, and they’re currently developing a small robot that can fly through the air as well as move on water.

Chris Roh說，蜜蜂在水面上移動(dòng)的方式不同于以前見過的任何其他水生昆蟲。他和他的同事們希望這一發(fā)現(xiàn)能帶來一波新的仿生技術(shù)，他們目前正在開發(fā)一種小型機(jī)器人，它可以在空中飛行，也可以在水上移動(dòng)。

“A lot of flying in biology seems to rely on the flapping-wing system, but what we’ve thought out [for robotics] is you can keep that flapping wing system to fly but you don’t have to change much,” Roh continued.

Chris Roh說:“生物學(xué)中很多飛行似乎都依賴于撲翼系統(tǒng)，但我們(為機(jī)器人)想到的是，你可以保持撲翼系統(tǒng)飛行，但不需要改變太多。”

“When [the robot] actually falls in water or needs to do any sort of mission on the water surface and have some functionality there, you can use [the wings] by just pulling on the water. So that part is what intrigued us, [that there’s] another way you can move around on the water surface.”

“當(dāng)(這個(gè)機(jī)器人)真的掉進(jìn)水里，或者需要在水面上執(zhí)行任何任務(wù)，并且具備一些功能時(shí)，你可以通過拉動(dòng)水來使用(翅膀)。”所以這就是我們感興趣的地方，有另一種方法可以在水面上移動(dòng)。”

The researcher has been published in the scientific journal PNAS.

該研究發(fā)表在《美國國家科學(xué)院院刊》上。