文章大意:本文是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了蜜蜂幼虫中,大约有五分之一成长为蜂王,但蜂群只接受一只蜂王,所以一些蜂群必须杀死数千个想成为蜂王的蜜蜂。短文对此现象进行了研究和介绍。
Some bees seem to be able to choose whether to become a worker or a queen — but thousands of competitors for the throne (王位) are killed in each hive (蜂巢).
About one-fifth of all Melipona beecheii bee larvae (幼虫) start to develop as queens, but the colony accepts only one. The rest are attacked by strong-jawed workers.
Biologists suspected that colonies of this species overproduce queens as an evolutionary strategy to take over other hives. But it now seems that it is simply a result of the “selfishness” of individual larvae, to the detriment of the whole colony, says Caliari Oliveira at KU Leuven in Belgium.
Unlike most bee colonies where workers select one larva to become the only queen by feeding it a special diet, the M. beecheii colony is spending a lot of resources to produce new individuals, and then all they do afterwards is waste those resources and kill the queens. “This is a very good example of the tragedy of the commons, when a chase for personal gain harms society,” says Caliari Oliveira.
In the past, researchers suggested that M. beecheii workers were feeding a chemical called geraniol (香叶醇) to the future queens. Oliveira and his colleagues wondered if the bees chose so many queens in order to spread the colony’s DNA into other hives.
To investigate further, they took genetic samples of queens and workers from 25 free -ranging M. beecheii colonies. In the lab, they also gave higher doses of geraniol to more than 600 larvae. To their surprise, they discovered that extra geraniol didn’t affect larval development, so workers weren’t controlling queen production after all. Genetic analysis revealed that the DNA of each hive remained 100 per cent consistent.
The new study “settles a bit of a controversy” about Melipona bees, says Christoph Grueter at the University of Bristol, UK. But it doesn’t offer a new explanation for how the larvae “decide” to become queens. “For me, this is still one of the biggest puzzles in biology.”
12. What does the underlined phrase “to the detriment of” mean in Paragraph 3?
A.Taking charge of. | B.Falling victim to. |
C.Providing support for. | D.Causing damage to. |
13. Why did the researchers feed extra geraniol to the larvae?
A.To test their assumption. | B.To simplify their research. |
C.To apply new techniques. | D.To confirm previous findings. |
14. What does Christoph Grueter think of the new study?
A.It is fruitless. | B.It is innovative. |
C.It is insufficient. | D.It is satisfactory. |
15. What is the main idea of the text?
A.Some bee colonies adopt effective evolutionary strategies. |
B.Some bee colonies have to kill thousands of wannabe queens. |
C.Some bee species overproduce queens to conquer other hives. |
D.Some bee species rely on a chemical to spread the colony’s DNA. |