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How Many Ants Become World Travelers?
多少蚂蚁成为世界旅行者？
On a visit to the Tampa area way back when, I enjoyed a stinging reminder that not all little red ants are benign. Introduced fire ants in the U.S. South are just one example of how ants from one region can set up colonies in another. South American so-called "crazy" ants now damage electrical equipment in the U.S. And super-colonies of Argentine ants are all over Europe.
在参观了坦帕区回来的时候，我被叮了，但是好消息是我知道了不是所有的小红蚂蚁都是温和的。美国南部的外来物种火蚁就是蚂蚁可以在其他区域建立殖民地的例子。美国南部所称为疯狂蚂蚁的物种现在大肆破坏电力设备。阿根廷蚂蚁在欧洲大范围蔓延。
To gauge such expansions, scientists, including Scientific American contributor Rob Dunn, tried to track introduced ant species in the Netherlands, New Zealand and the U.S.
为了衡量这种扩张，科学家们，包括科学美国人的撰稿人罗伯·邓恩试图跟踪介绍荷兰、新西兰和美国的蚂蚁。
They found that some 252 ant species have infiltrated the three places, mostly accidentally, for example, in shipping containers full of fruit or wood. The researchers think their official count is low—they estimate the true number at nearly a thousand species. And most can make a permanent home on new shores, thanks to coming from nearby, climatically similar regions.
他们发现这三个地方已经潜入有252种蚂蚁，大多数是属于意外，比如在装满水果或木头的集装箱里。研究人员认为他们的官方统计数少了，估计真实数字接近一千种。由于来自于附近和气候想像的地区，大多数能在新地方建立永久的栖息地。
The research appeared in the journal Biology Letters.
这项研究发表在《生物学快报》上。
Expanding their empires may be good news for ants. But maybe not for humans, as I learned all too painfully.
对蚂蚁来说，扩大他们的帝国是好消息。但是对人类来说则太痛苦了。
—David Biello
