2017-09-11 Nick Bos QING科学
本文首发公众号【QING科学】
（适合亲子共读或10-99岁独立阅读，建议阅读时间2-4分钟）
原作：Nick Bos
编译：赵奕青
重新组建一个家庭，对于蚂蚁来说，可真不是一件容易的事儿。世界上大部分的蚂蚁，都会在特殊时期进行婚飞交配。雄蚁和没有交配过的雌蚁飞出原生的蚁穴，在空中进行交配。交配后，雄蚁便终结生命，雌蚁将独自面对颇为艰难、无聊且漫长的一生。
毛蚁（Lasius nearticus）；两只处女蚁后（图右）和一只雄蚁（图左）准备结束它们的婚飞。结束婚飞，蚁后会褪去翅膀并建立一个新的蚁群。Picture by Alex Wild.
交配完成后，雌蚁（准蚁后）落回地面，寻找或挖一个小洞，开始建立新蚁群。不同种类的（准）蚁后，大部分都在开始产卵和照顾幼虫后，就不再外出寻找食物，仅靠消耗自身脂肪来维持生命、产卵和喂养幼虫。准蚁后只有熬过这段困苦、寂寞的日子，熬到第一批工蚁发育成熟，由第一批工蚁担起迫在眉睫、生死攸关的觅食任务，才算荣登蚁后之位。
这就意味着，如果准蚁后没有足够的脂肪储备，那还没来得及等第一批工蚁孵化发育成熟，就已经饿死，成为永远的准蚁后......
那蚁后要怎么确保不浪费任何能量呢？科学家发现准蚁后的一个秘密：褪去翅膀、再利用飞行肌肉。蚁后在婚飞交配结束后，便落回地面，褪去翅膀，飞行所用的肌肉也随即萎缩消失——既然不再飞翔，何不把肌肉里的能量回收利用呢。飞行的肌肉可以分解回收，那是否还有其他器官，也是准蚁后交配后再用不到的？
婚飞时，准蚁后需要良好的视力协助飞翔，瞎子式飞行可是不妙。但婚飞结束后，她就钻进地底，专注产卵三十年。在那黑漆漆的地底下，说实在的，还要明亮的双眼做什么？
果然，科学家格莱尼斯.朱利安（Glennis Julian）和乌菲拉.古腾堡（Wufila Groenberg）在2002年发现有关蚁后视觉发展的有趣结果。在婚飞结束后，准蚁后的确很快开始“分解回收”它的部分大脑——绝大部分是在视觉区域。维持完整的大脑功能，需要消耗很多的能量。用这样的分解回收的方式，就节约了不少珍贵的能量，以便准蚁后支撑到抚养出第一批工蚁，成为真正的蚁后，建立起自己的蚁群王国。
原文：
Founding a new colony is not an easy task for an ant. In a lot of ant species, there is a mating flight, where males and virgin queens fly out of their colonies and mate with each other in the air. The male immediately dies after this, but the female has a pretty tough (and probably pretty boring) life in front of her.
After mating, the female lands on the ground and digs or finds a hole in order to start a new colony. In many species, the queen will lay eggs and take care of them, but never go out to find food anymore. She just lives off her fat reserves, feeding the larvae until the first workers are born and start bringing in food.
This means that if she does not have enough fat reserves, the first workers will never be born and the queen will die of starvation.
One way of ensuring no calorie will go to waste has been long known. After mating, the queen will land and shed her wings. She then ‘dissolves’ her wing muscles (as she won’t need those anymore) and reabsorb their energy. However, there are more things a queen doesn’t need anymore after mating.
During the mating flight, the soon-to-be-queen will need good eyesight, as flying blind might not be an entirely good idea. Afterwards however, she will be underground, laying eggs for up to thirty years. Needless to say, it’s pretty dark down there, so what use would there be for good eyesight?
Glennis Julian and Wulfila Gronenberg found something fascinating regarding this in 2002. Very soon after mating, the queen will actually start ‘dissolving’ parts of her brain, mainly those parts involved in vision. It costs a lot of energy to maintain a fully functional brain, so in this way, she can save valuable calories in order to raise her first batch of workers.
参考文献
Julian, G.E. & Gronenberg, W. (2002). Reduction of brain volume correlates with behavioral changes in queen ants. Brain, Behavior and Evolution 60, 152-164
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