英語聽力文摘491 蜜蜂也吃肉？

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蜜蜂也吃肉?

I guess you never heard of Trigona hypogea, a South American bee that not only collects meat from animal carcasses, but has more recently been discovered to have a taste for live prey as well.

Scientists have seen the bees swiftly raid recently abandoned wasp nests, carrying off wasp eggs, larvae, and pupae until the nest is empty. They’ve observed the bees collecting toad eggs too.

All developing, young bees need protein. Pollen is actually very rich in protein. The adults of most bee species feed predominantly on nectar and save the pollen for their younger colony members. These South American bees simply require a different source of protein. Their anatomy reflects their different eating habits.

The leg modifications that enable most bee species to transport pollen are largely diminished on these bees. Their mouthparts are sharper, sort of tooth-like.

The bees prepare the meat for later consumption by the younger members of the colony by chewing it and then mixing it with sugary liquids, perhaps collected from fruit. Microbes break the mixture down into a viscous goo, which delivers important nutrients to the young bees.

你也許從未聽過一種南美洲的蜜蜂，它們不僅吃動物尸體，而且最近科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)它們還喜歡吃活的動物。

蜜蜂迅速地襲擊被遺棄的蜂窩，拿走蜂卵，幼蟲和蛹，把蜂巢搬空?？茖W(xué)家們觀察發(fā)現(xiàn)蜜蜂還會收集蟾蜍卵。

所有的小蜜蜂都需要蛋白質(zhì)?；ǚ凼堑鞍踪|(zhì)含量很高。大多數(shù)的成年蜜蜂主要以花蜜為生，并且將花粉留給幼蜂。這些南美蜜蜂只是需要不同的蛋白質(zhì)出處。解剖學(xué)反應(yīng)出它們不同的飲食習(xí)慣。

蜜蜂腿上那些能幫助它們運輸花粉的裝飾物在這些南美洲蜜蜂上大部分已經(jīng)消失了。它們的口器變得更鋒利，有點像牙齒。

蜜蜂為幼蜂準(zhǔn)備的肉是通過咀嚼，然后將肉與含糖的液體，大概是從水果中提取的。微生物將混合物分解成一種粘稠物，這種粘稠物將重要的營養(yǎng)輸送給幼蜂。