時(shí)差N小時(shí):最早的農(nóng)民 南非切葉蟻

Who were the first farmers on Earth? You mightthink it was the Babylonians or another group in theMiddle East. But humans are newcomers when itcomes to the fine art of raising food. Leafcutter antsof arid and tropical regions of South, Central andNorth America have been farming for fifty millionyears, long before modern humans existed.

誰(shuí)是地球上的第一代農(nóng)民?你可能會(huì)想到古巴比倫人或是中東的另一族群。但是談到種植作物的藝術(shù)，人類還只是菜鳥(niǎo)而已。切葉蟻在美洲南部，中部和北部干旱的熱帶地區(qū)發(fā)展農(nóng)業(yè)已有五千萬(wàn)年的歷史，比人類的進(jìn)化的歷史還長(zhǎng)。

Leafcutter ants have large jaws to cut through plant and tree leaves, but they do not eat leaves.Instead, they carry leaf pieces back to their five million or so nest mates. Here is where thefarming begins. Foraging ants hand their leaves over to smaller ants who rush them off to oneof many football sized chambers. The leaves are then chewed into smaller and smallerfragments until they can be added to a fungus culture garden.

切葉蟻用大下巴切碎植物和樹(shù)葉，但它們并不吃樹(shù)葉。相反，它們把碎樹(shù)葉拖回容納著500萬(wàn)同胞的巢穴。這就是農(nóng)業(yè)的起源。外出覓食的螞蟻將樹(shù)葉交接給更小的螞蟻，它們則將樹(shù)葉碾到足球般大小的隔間里。然后將樹(shù)葉咀嚼成更細(xì)的碎片，直到可以將其添灑到真菌花園里。

Fungi feed off the leaves and grow bodies called gongylidia which are then distributed aroundthe colony, especially to growing larvae. Fungus may not sound too appetizing, but the whitefluffy growths are much more nutritious than leaves. We use a similar process with cows. Theyare fed grasses which we can't digest to create milk and meat. The leafcutters not only growcrops, they also protect them. While we use man-made pesticides, leafcutters use antibioticsmade by their skin bacteria to ward off invasive mold. They also physically remove foreignfungi growing in their gardens. Their system of agriculture is one to be admired. It certainly haspassed the test of time.

真菌以樹(shù)葉為食，長(zhǎng)出軀干來(lái)(叫做結(jié)節(jié)絲)，隨后四處蔓延，分散在茁壯成長(zhǎng)的幼蟲(chóng)的“殖民地”里。也許菌類聽(tīng)起來(lái)并不讓人垂涎三尺，但是那白絨絨的幼蟲(chóng)比樹(shù)葉營(yíng)養(yǎng)價(jià)值高得多。我們養(yǎng)牛的過(guò)程與此類似。我們喂牛吃草，草不能產(chǎn)奶但牛可以。切葉蟻不僅種植作物，還悉心料理它們。我們用人造殺蟲(chóng)劑來(lái)保護(hù)農(nóng)作物，而切葉蟻則用自身皮膚上的細(xì)菌分泌的抗生素來(lái)阻止霉菌入侵。它們也會(huì)除掉長(zhǎng)在花園里的異類真菌。它們的農(nóng)業(yè)系統(tǒng)令人驚嘆，當(dāng)然也經(jīng)得起時(shí)間的考驗(yàn)。