工业设计专业英语翻译

Lesson17

Insects won’t take over the earth, they own it now. A leading biologist explains why bugs are the world’s most successful design.

昆虫没有占据地球，它们现在属于地球，一个杰出的生物学家解释为什么昆虫是世界上最成功的设计。

They incorporate astonishingly sophisticated design features, both structurally and functionally, which render them especially well suited for survival on this planet.无论在结构上还是机能上，它们具有令人惊讶的设计能力特征，来展示出它们在这个星球上的适应性。

There’s no denying it: Bugs Rule. There are currently 200 million insects for every man, woman and child. Of the 1.5million species identified, more than half are insects.不可否认的是：昆虫法则。当前每一个人都对应2亿虫类。1.5亿被人所识别，其中一半以上为昆虫。

We humans may not like the idea, but there is no denying it: Bugs Rule. Estimates have it that there are some 1018 bugs now alive on the planet. It is not only their sheer number, but also their diversity that is staggering: Of the total 1.5 million species of animals, plants and microorganisms that have been identified, more than

half—or

over 800,000—are insects. And while new species of insects are being discovered daily, over 10 million may yet remain unknown.

我们人类可能不喜欢这个主意，但是不可否认：昆虫法则。估计有1018种昆虫生存在地球上，这些并不是全部的数量，但它们的物种多样性令人惊愕：总共有150万种植物，动物，微生物被确认，超过一半，或者80万种以上是昆虫，并且每天都有新的昆虫被发现，超过1000万的物种仍然未知。

What makes insects the most successful inhabitants of the earth? One answer is that they are small, which has made it possible for them to colonize literally every nook and cranny. But there is another reason: Insects are built to last. It is these features that have allowed them to gain the evolutionary advantage they have achieved.

是什么使昆虫成为地球上最成功的居住者？一是因为它们小，使它们能在角落和偏僻的地方有繁殖的可能性。但是另外一个原因是：昆虫生来就是为了生存，这些特征使它们在进化中拥有优势。

The suit of armor that insects are encased in provides them with protection from predators and keeps them from drying out, the latter being of considerable concern, given their tiny size. Without their outer casing, they would

never have mastered life in the open. The insect skeleton is appropriately hinged in places to provide for mobility. Like our own, their legs have flexible joints, but so do their principal body parts—their head, thorax and abdomen. Even the wings of the insect, which can beat at frequencies of hundreds of times per second, are no more than flaplike elaborations of their skeleton. It is thanks to the combined motor capacity of their legs and wings that insects are able to achieve the feats of agility for which they are famous. (Think of a housefly evading swats or cockroaches in your kitchen, scurrying for cover when you turn on the lights.) Potentially, because of its rigidity, the insect skeleton imposes limits on growth. Insects solve the problem by molting: As they get too large for their armor, they simply shed it.

它们的盔甲是为了提供防止被捕食的保护和保持干燥，后者是相当的不安，给它们微小的体形。没有外壳，它们无法生存。昆虫骨架是在适当的地方连接提供流动性，就像我们自己的，它们的腿具有柔性接头，但这样做的主要身体部位是头部，胸腔和腹部。即使昆虫有每秒数百次击打的频率的翅膀，都比不上它们像折翼状的骨骼。多亏了它们的腿和翅膀机动能力的结合，昆虫有了它们有名的灵敏性（想象一下家蝇或者蟑螂

在厨房躲避拍击，当你打开灯时它们急速跑到角落的情形）潜在的，因其刚度，昆虫加强限制其增长。昆虫靠脱皮来解决这些问题，当它们相对于它们的外壳越来越大时，他们很容易就脱壳了。

Agility in animals correlates with high respiratory demand, and insects have a remarkable way of delivering oxygen to their internal organs. Air flows into the insect body through a series of openings called spiracles that lead inward into tubes, or tracheae. Instead of conveying oxygen by way of blood, insects provide or direct aeration of their tissues. The flight muscles of insects could not function nearly as effectively without such a quick means of oxygen delivery.

敏捷的动物具有高呼吸的需求，昆虫有一种高明的方法把氧气运送到他们的内部器官。空气流入昆虫身体通过一系列昆虫气门的开口，到达软管或呼吸管。昆虫提供一个直接的通风口到组织里，代替了通过血液运输氧气。昆虫的战斗肌肉的功能巨虎不可能没有一个这样的快速有效的手段进行氧气传递。

Insects occupy virtually every feeding niche. Put in another way, this means that they are able to eat literally anything. Their success in this regard derives from the extraordinary diversification of their mouth parts.

Beetles and caterpillars have jaws for cutting and tearing, mosquitoes have slender stylets for piercing skin and sucking blood and butterflies have coiled tubes for imbibing nectar.

实际上昆虫占领着每一个合适喂养的地方。另一个说法是，在字面上意味着它们可以吃任何东西。他们说它们的成功源于非凡的多样化。甲虫和毛虫有颌用来切割和撕扯，蚊子有纤细的口针为穿刺皮肤和吸血，蝴蝶有来连续管来吸收甘露。

Insects have extraordinary sensory capacities. Their eyes, which may take the form of enormous hemispheres bulging from their head, typically consist of hundreds of tiny, tightly opposed units, called facets. Each facet points in one particular direction, with the result that the two eyes see in virtually all directions. For an aerial hunter such as a robber fly, this means being able to spot prey instantly from wherever it may appear. Insects can also see a color—ultraviolet—to which we are blind. Flowers are often adorned with ultraviolet patterns that are invisible to us, but visible and attractive to the pollinating insect.

昆虫有非凡的感官能力，它们的眼睛，这可能在它们的头上需要巨大的半球形，眼形一般包括数以百计的小而紧紧反对的单位，

称为

小眼面。每一个小眼面分在一个特定的方向，其结果是两只眼睛几乎看到所有的方向。一个空中猎人就像盗蝇在飞，这意味着能够立即辨认出猎物坑可能从哪里出现。昆虫也可以看到一种颜色——紫外线，而我们却看不见。花是经常装饰紫外线的模式，它们是看不见的，但我们可见，用来吸引授粉昆虫。

Insects are also the best defended of animals. Their chemical weapons are prodigious. Some, such as bombardier beetles, discharge irritating chemicals called quinones when disturbed. They make the quinones in special glands by mixing chemicals and causing an explosion. The explosion is of such magnitude that the quinones are expelled boiling hot, at 100 degrees centigrade. Other insects are no less remarkable. Certain Australian beetle larvae and European moths emit hydrogen cyanide, the infamous poison of detective novels. There are cockroaches in New Zealand that spray ethyl acrolein, a tear gas. Anyone who collects insects as a matter of routine knows that picking them up by hand can be hazardous. Many bite, others sting and still others, such as several strains of caterpillar, have hairs that cause itching upon contact. Insects lacking such defenses may be otherwise protected. Some may be so well