Antennae Key To Butterfly Navigation

触角是蝴蝶导航的关键 Antennae Key To Butterfly Navigation

Every year, millions of monarch butterflies fly thousands of miles to alight in one specific forest in Mexico. How do they know what direction to flutter? Scientists had thought that an insect GPS system in their brains steered them in the right direction.
每年，千百万的王蝶（monarch butterfly）不远千里飞往墨西哥的一个特定的森林。它们怎么知道飞行的方向？科学家过去认为他们脑中内置的“GPS系统”给它们指引了正确的方向。
Now, a new study published in the journal Science overturns that idea. Because sun-related directional sensing actually resides in the butterfly’s antennae, say scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
现在，《科学》杂志上发表的一项新的研究推翻了这种想法。因为和太阳相关的方向感实际上存在于蝴蝶的触角中，麻省医学院的科学家指出。
The researchers remembered a half-century old study that noted that if butterflies lost their antennae mid-flight, they became disoriented. So they put butterflies in a flight simulator and tried to convince them to fly south. Those with their antennae intact had no problem orienting and flying south. But those without their antennae just couldn’t do it. Next they painted some butterflies’ antennae black, blocking light sensing. Those insects couldn’t orient themselves. But when researchers covered antennae in clear paint, the butterflies could once again fly in the correct direction.
研究者回忆半个世纪前的研究指出如果蝴蝶中途失去了它们的触角，它们就会失去方向感。所以他们把蝴蝶放在一个飞行模拟器中并试图引导它们向南飞。触角完好的蝴蝶没有任何问题定向并飞向南方。但是，失去了触角的蝴蝶却不能。然后，他们把一些蝴蝶的触角涂黑，阻塞了光线感知。这些触角完好的蝴蝶也不能定向了。但是当研究者给触角涂上透明的涂料，蝴蝶依然能够飞向正确的地方。
Butterfly antennae were already known to sense odor, wind, even sound. Now it seems that they’re also vital for getting lonely Lepidopterans back to Mexico to mingle—and make the next generation of monarchs.
蝴蝶的触角已经被认为是用来感知气味、风、甚至声音的。现在，似乎它们对于孤独的鳞翅类动物回到墨西哥聚集至关重要——并且繁殖下一代的王蝶。