Prepping 17 Years for a 2-Week Visit

Prepping 17 Years for a 2-Week VisitBy PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN June 24, 201317年等一回，美國金蟬的盛大回歸PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN 2013年06月24日
HAMDEN, Conn. — Lawrence F. Gall, an entomologist at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale, bushwhacked his way through the muddy thickets leading to the River Road colony here, the epicenter of what is believed to be the world's only preserve dedicated to Magicicada septendecim, the 17-year periodical cicada.
康涅狄格州哈姆登——耶魯大學(Yale University)皮博迪自然歷史博物館(Peabody Museum of Natural History)的昆蟲學家勞倫斯·F·加爾(Lawrence F. Gall)在一片泥濘的灌木叢中開路，這片灌木林通向本地的河路地區，該地區據信是全世界唯一一個專門保護十七年蟬（又稱週期蟬。——譯註）的保護區的中心地帶。
“They're super-de-duper dense,” he observed, examining some of the roughly one million cicada nymphs that call this place home — about 1,500 to 2,000 of them per square yard.
“它們的分佈非常密集，”他觀察到。這裡有大約100萬隻若蟲，每平方碼（約0.84平方米）大約1500到2000只，他研究了其中的部分若蟲。
Just in time for graduation, the East Coast from Connecticut to northern Georgia is alive with newly emerging adults — only they make far more of a racket than the ones in caps and gowns. It is 17-year-cicada season, and grown men like Dr. Gall — who as a boy would get up in the middle of the night at summer camp to collect moths under a bathroom light — may be seen crawling on their hands and knees to confront insects with vermilion eyes, black thoraxes and golden gossamer wings , the sharp, entomological equivalent of a zoot suit.
正好趕上畢業，從康涅狄格州到喬治亞州北部的東海岸到處是剛剛長大的成蟲，只有它們能比那些戴著學位帽、身穿學位服的畢業生還要喧鬧。這是十七年禪的季節。人們可能會看到，像加爾這樣的成年人趴在地上，正對著紅眼睛、黑胸脯且有著金色輕薄羽翼的十七年蟬，它們完全就是昆蟲學裡的阻特服(zoot suit)一族。孩提時代的加爾參加夏令營時，會在半夜就著浴室的燈光收集飛蛾。耶魯大學皮博迪自然歷史博物館昆蟲學家拉里·加爾博士在查看博物館藏品儲藏室裡保存的蟬蛻。
Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times
耶魯大學皮博迪自然歷史博物館昆蟲學家拉里·加爾博士在查看博物館藏品儲藏室裡保存的蟬蛻。
Over two to three weeks, periodical cicada nymphs, which have the longest developmental cycle of any insect, emerge from the ground after 17 years of sucking xylem from tree roots to molt into adults. They latch on to stable vertical surfaces — trees, telephone poles , rural mailboxes — to shed their exoskeletons, a tricky gymnastic maneuver.
十七年蟬若蟲的發展週期是所有昆蟲中最長的。在樹根木質部吮吸了1​​7年的汁液後，若蟲會在兩到三週的時間裡從地下冒出來，蛻皮變成成年蟬。它們會附著在穩固的垂直表面，比如​​樹木、電話線桿、農村地區的郵箱，以便蛻去外殼，這是一件複雜且又耗費體力的事情。
Five days later, their wings elongated, their bodies pumped and tan, the cicadas are ready to make music together — the males congregating to sing together in chorus, usually on high, sunlit branches; the females flicking their wings in response. Thus begins a complex and deafening courtship, each cicada a tiny bit of drama.
五天后，它們的翅膀會變長，身體會變大，變成褐色，這些蟬已經準備好要一起奏樂了。雄蟬會聚集起來，一起歌唱，它們通常會停歇在高高的、能曬著太陽的樹枝上；母蟬會扇動翅膀作為回應。於是，一種複雜、震耳欲聾的求愛便開始了，每一隻十七年蟬都會演奏出一出小型戲劇。
Although Connecticut lies at the northern fringes of this year's emergence, known collectively as Brood II, the state is hallowed ground for cicada history and scholarship. The Peabody Museum, where the exhibition “Return of the 17-Year Cicadas!” is on display until Sept. 3, contains specimens of Magicicada septendecim from 1843, the oldest at any museum.
今年出現的是一種統一被稱作布魯德2號群蟬(Brood II)的十七年蟬，儘管康涅狄格州地處其活動區域的最北邊，卻是蟬的歷史和學術聖地。皮博迪正在舉行名為《十七年蟬的回歸！ 》(Return of the 17-Year Cicadas!)的展出，展出將持續到9月3日。該博物館收藏著1843年的十七年蟬標本，是所有博物館藏品中最古老的。
The preserve (not open to the public) is on 90 acres of land owned by the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority, just north of Sleeping Giant State Park, a popular hiking spot. It was the brainchild of Charles Lee Remington, a longtime professor at Yale who was the Peabody's first curator of entomology.
保護區位於一片90英畝（約合36.4公頃）的土地上，不向公眾開放。土地的所有人是康涅狄格州中南地區水務局(South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority)，就在遠足的熱門去處——沉睡巨人州立公園(Sleeping Giant State Park)的北邊。將這個區域劃為保護區的主意來自在耶魯大學(Yale University)擔任教授多年的查爾斯·李·雷明頓(Charles Lee Remington)，他也是皮博迪博物館的首位昆蟲學策展人。
Though a pioneering lepidopterist, Dr. Remington did much to popularize the periodical cicada, once organizing a tasting at the Peabody and creating his own recipes. His popular class, “The Biology of Terrestrial Arthropods,” inspired generations of scientists, who would go on to study not only cicadas but butterfly genetics, cave crickets and the ant ecology of the Thimble Islands in Long Island Sound, to name a few.
身為鱗翅昆蟲學先驅的雷明頓博士還為推廣十七年蟬的知識做了大量工作。他曾經還在皮博迪組織了一次品嚐會，調製了自己的菜譜。他的《陸地節肢動物生物學》(Terrestrial Arthropods)課程很受歡迎，啟發了一代又一代科學家，這些科學家不僅會繼續研究蟬，還會研究蝴蝶遺傳學、洞穴蟋蟀、長島海灣頂針島的螞蟻生態等。
Dr. Remington, who died in 2007, appreciated the thoughtful gesture, like a box of mounted cockroach specimens from Ghana sent by a former student, Leonard E. Munstermann, the Peabody's current head curator of entomology. “He had a particular flare for extinct and endangered creatures at the edge of their range,” said Dr. Gall, another of his protégés. “Cicadas have an extraordinary and intriguing lifestyle, even for insects.”
雷明頓博士於2007年離世。他對一些體貼周到的做法很感激，比如，他以前的學生、皮博迪博現任昆蟲學總策展人倫納德·E·芒斯特曼(Leonard E. Munstermann)就曾經從加納寄來了一箱裱好的蟑螂標本。 “他對絕種或是處於瀕危邊緣的物種特別感興趣，”同是他的學生的加爾博士說。 “即便對昆蟲而言，蟬的生活方式也很特別，很有趣。”
Dr. Remington established the Magicicada Preserve a year before the 1996 emergence, to protect what he viewed as “an endangered phenomenon.” He visited his forest frequently, writing elaborate field notes by hand that sometimes transcended cicadas.
在周期蟬1996年破土而出的前一年，雷明頓博士建立了周期蟬蟬保護區(Magicicada Preserve)，旨在保護他所說的“一種瀕危的現象”。他頻繁去自己那片森林，用手寫下詳盡的實地筆記，有時不僅限於週期蟬。
On April 26, 1996, for instance, he helped an 85-year-old man who had fallen on the trail. “Left leg crumpled & he cut face falling,” he wrote. “Remembered 2 Magicicada hatches ('Noise Extremely Loud' ).”
比如，1996年4月26日，他就幫助了一個摔倒在小路上的85歲男子。 “他左腿受傷了，摔倒時臉還劃破了，”他寫道，“記得兩處蟬窩（'噪音非常大'）。”
Today, scientists from the Cicada Molecular Systematics Lab at the University of Connecticut are using GIS-GPS technology to map Magicicada populations with an accuracy unimaginable when the preserve was founded — some 10,000 individual locations so far (including the hot-off-the-press discovery of a Brood II pocket in northeastern Georgia, posted on the project's Web site, magicicada.org).
現在，來自康涅狄格大學(University of Connecticut)蟬分子系統學實驗室(Cicada Molecular Systematics Lab)的科學家正在用地理信息系統-全球定位系統(GIS-GPS)技術繪製週期蟬種群的地圖，其準確性是當年建立保護區時無法想像的。迄今為止，已經發現了大約1萬個獨立的地方（包括媒體最新報導在喬治亞州東北部發現的一小批布魯德2號群蟬，相關內容髮佈在了該項目的網站magicicada.org上） 。
One of those scientists is John R. Cooley, who studied with Dr. Remington as an undergraduate. He has become the Alan Lomax of cicadas, recording and analyzing their songs. He and other University of Connecticut researchers are comparing GIS-GPS to crowd- sourcing data from citizen scientists, an effort called Cicada Watch, to map emergences at the margins.
本科時師從雷明頓博士的約翰·R·庫利(John R. Cooley)便是這些科學家中的一位。他已經成了蟬收集領域的艾倫·洛馬克斯(Alan Lomax)，會錄下並分析蟬的歌聲。他和康涅狄格大學的其他研究人員正在比對通過地理信息系統-全球定位系統技術得到的數據和通過向大量民間科學家求助得來的數據，這項工作被稱作觀蟬(Cicada Watch)，旨在通過比較更精確地繪製出十七年蟬出現地區的地圖。
In creating the Magicicada Preserve in Hamden, Dr. Remington wanted to raise awareness of cicadas and their special biology in an untouched habitat, said the University of Connecticut lab's founder, Chris Simon, a professor ​​of ecology and evolutionary biology. “He could see that their territory was being taken away,” she said.
蟬分子分類學實驗室創始人克里斯·西蒙博士(Chris Simon)稱，通過在哈姆登成立週期蟬保護區，雷明頓博士希望能在一片未被破壞的地區提高人們對周期蟬及其特殊的生物學知識的認識。 “他當時可能看到，它們的領地正在遭受掠奪，”身為生態學及進化生態學教授的她說。
Although it may seem counterintuitive, periodical cicada populations have been shrinking and even disappearing. The reasons, scientists suggest, have to do with climate change and land development. Among the endangered populations is Brood VII, in upstate New York, now largely restricted to the Onondaga Nation south of Syracuse. On Long Island, a Walmart in Port Jefferson Station was built on top of a large cicada population, Dr. Simon said.
你可能想像不到，但周期蟬的種群數量正在減少甚至滅絕。科學家表示，原因和氣候變化以及土地開發有關。瀕危種群中包括紐約州北部的布魯德7號群蟬(Brood VII)，這種蟬現在主要只出現在錫拉丘茲市南邊的奧農多加。西蒙博士說， 在長島杰弗遜港站一座沃爾瑪(Walmart)所在地曾生活著大量的周期蟬。
Chris T. Maier, an entomologist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, said that between 1945 and 1979, the state lost roughly 5 percent of its cicada population, much of it as a result of Interstate System highway development.
康涅狄格農業試驗站(Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station)的昆蟲學家克里斯·T·梅爾(Chris T. Maier)說，在1945年至1979年期間，康涅狄格州蟬的數量減少了5%，大部分是開發州際公路系統(Interstate System)的結果。
Among the mysteries as yet unsolved, Dr. Simon said, is the “internal clock that lets them count the passing of years and the genetic control mechanism for when they arrive early or late.” Those growing up in suburban Chicago, as this writer did , may recall the emergence of Brood XIII in 1969, four years early, blanketing verdant summer lawns with exoskeletons that made a satisfying crunch when walked upon, like spilled popcorn at a movie theater.
西蒙博士提到了一些未解之謎，其中包括“它們體內在計算已經過去了幾年時間的時鐘，還有決定它們早或晚於預定時間出現的基因控制機制”。那些和本文作者一樣在芝加哥郊區長大的蟬可能會讓人想起1969年出現的布魯德13號群蟬(Brood XIII)，它們的出現提前了四年。在那個夏天，蔥綠的草坪上全是它們蛻下的外骨骼，踩上去會發出令人愉快的嘎吱聲，就像在電影院裡踩上溢出來的爆米花一樣。
A major goal of the mapping projects is to develop a baseline for future researchers so that population loss can be tracked.
繪圖項目的主要目的是為將來的研究人員制定一條基線，以便跟踪週期蟬種群的規模縮減情況。
Dr. Simon laments the telephone calls she receives from freaked-out suburbanites wanting to get rid of their cicadas. “It's crazy,” she said. “They're only inconvenienced for two weeks every 17 years.”
被嚇壞了的郊區居民給西蒙博士打來電話，想除掉周圍的蟬，這讓他很不滿。 “太荒唐了，”她說，“它們每17年才不過帶給你兩週的不便。”


Copyright © 2013 The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.
翻譯：陳亦亭

Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times

耶鲁大学皮博迪自然历史博物馆昆虫学家拉里·加尔博士在查看博物馆藏品储藏室里保存的蝉蜕。