排尿王者 秒变丧尸 这是什么动物界怪咖？

Cicadas

蝉

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如果自然界中有怪咖排行榜，蝉一定名列前茅。

周期蝉（Magicicada），也叫十七年蝉或十三年蝉。其幼虫孵化后就钻入地下，靠吸食树根的汁液生存，长达 13 年或 17 年。破土而出之后，蝉在 4-6 周内迅速羽化、交配、产卵、死亡。卵孵化后进入下一个生命周期。

They have pumps in their heads that pull moisture from the roots of trees, allowing them to feed for more than a decade underground.

它们头上有“泵”，借此能从树根中吸取水分，使其能够在地下生活长达十多年。

They use their proboscis like a tiny straw — about the width of a hair — with the pump sucking out the liquid, said Georgia Tech biophysics professor Saad Bhamla. They spend nearly their entire lives drinking, year after year.

佐治亚理工大学生物物理学教授萨德·巴姆拉(Saad Bhamla)说，它们的口器就像一根细小的吸管——细如发丝——这就起到了一个泵的作用，依靠这个“泵”它们才能吸出木质部中的液体，来补充水分和营养。蝉几乎一辈子都在泵取木头中的水分，日复一日，年复一年。   

2024年3月28日，一只周期蝉的若虫在佐治亚理工大学校园里扭动着它的前肢。（Cr.美联社）

“It’s a hard way to make a living,” Deans said.

“这是一种艰难的生存方式。”学者迪恩斯（Deans）说。

These insects are the strongest urinators in the animal kingdom with flows that put humans and elephants to shame.

蝉是动物王国中的“最强排尿王者”，它们的尿液流速让人类和大象都自愧不如。

蝉撒尿，图片来源：Wilson Walker

Bhamla in March published a study of the urination flow rates of animals across the world. Cicadas were clearly king, peeing two to three times stronger and faster than elephants and humans. 

巴姆拉教授在三月发表了一项关于世界各地动物排尿速率的研究。蝉不负众望位居第一，它们排尿的速度是大象和人类的两到三倍。

他无法观测到那些主要在地下觅食和排尿的周期性蝉，所以他采用视频调查的方法测量并记录了它们在亚马逊的近亲的排尿流速，最高可达每秒 10 英尺（约合每秒 3 米）。

They have a muscle that pushes the waste through a tiny hole like a jet, Bhamla said. He said he learned this when in the Amazon he happened on a tree the locals called a “weeping tree” because liquid was flowing down, like the plant was crying. It was cicada pee.

巴姆拉说，蝉有一种肌肉，可以像喷气机一样把废物从一个小孔排出。他是在亚马逊偶然发现一棵被当地人称为“哭泣树”的树时了解到这一点的。这棵树上时不时有液体会流下来，就像植物在哭泣一样。其实这不是树在哭泣，而是是蝉在尿尿。

“You walk around in a forest where they’re actively chorusing on a hot sunny day. It feels like it’s raining,” said University of Connecticut entomologist John Cooley. That’s their honeydew or waste product coming out the back end ... It’s called cicada rain.”

“设想一下，一个炎热的晴天，你走在一片森林里，一大群蝉正在火热地合唱，此起彼伏的叫着。突然你感觉好像天在下雨。”康涅狄格大学昆虫学家约翰·库利（John Cooley）说，“但其实你错了，那只不过是从蝉的身体末端排出的废弃液体(也就是蝉尿)。文艺一点的话，这或许能被叫做‘蝉雨’。”

大雨过后清晰可见的蝉洞（Cr.美联社）

And they are being ravaged by a sexually transmitted disease that turns them into zombies.

但蝉这个物种又正饱受一种性传播疾病蹂躏，变成“丧尸”。

There’s a deadly sexually transmitted disease, a fungus, that turns cicadas into zombies and causes their private parts to fall off, Cooley said.  

库利补充说，有一种致命的性传播疾病(其来源是一种真菌)，把蝉变成丧尸，并导致它们的“私处”脱落。

It’s a real problem that “is even stranger than science fiction,” Cooley said. “This is a sexually transmitted zombie disease.”

库利说：“这是一个‘比科幻小说还要离奇’的现实问题。这种疾病是一种性传播的丧尸病。”

Cooley has seen areas in the Midwest where up to 10% of the individuals were infected.

库利在美国中西部地区发现，有数量高达 10% 的蝉感染这种性传播疾病。

This white fungus takes over the male, their gonads are torn from their body and chalky spores are spread around to nearby other cicadas, he said. The insects are sterilized, not killed. This way the fungus uses the cicadas to spread to others.

他说，这种白色的真菌会占据并控制雄性蝉，它们的生殖腺会从身体上脱落，真菌产生的白垩孢子能传播到附近的其他蝉身上。一旦被感染，蝉不会直接死亡，但却会失去繁殖能力。尽管如此，还是被这种真菌控制着去交配，实行繁衍的本能，在这个过程中真菌也趁机把孢子撒到其他蝉身上，让其他蝉也被感染。

“They’re completely at the mercy of the fungus,” Cooley said. “They’re walking dead.”

库利说：“它们完全任由真菌摆布。已然是行尸走肉了。” 

 被这类真菌感染的蝉（Cr.网络）