不可食用甲虫警示色研究.pdfVIP

Inediblebeet

Notallwarningcolourationsignalstoxicity

Insomecasesitmeansamealissimplyimpossibletochew

Printedition|Scienceandtechnology

Dec19th2017

BRIGHTcoloursinthenaturalworldareoftenawarning.Inthecaseoftiger

snakes,blue-ringedoctopuses,arrow-poisonfrogs,hornetsandmanyother

species,thewarningisthattheanimalcarriestoxinsthatwillsickenorkill.

ThusitwasthatAlfredRusselWallace,co-inventorofthetheoryofnatural

selectionandanavidinsectcollector,proposedthatthebeautifully

colouredPachyrhynchusweevilsofeasternAsiaandAustraliawere

dangerous.

Yet,afterspendinghourstryingtopintheweevilsontowoodenboardsinhis

collectionandeventuallyhavingtouseadrillforthechore,hesuggestedthat

不可食用的甲虫

并非所有警告色都表示毒性

在某些情况下，这意味着一顿饭根本无法咀嚼

印刷版|科技2017年12月19日

自然界中明亮的颜色通常是一种警告。对于虎蛇、蓝环章鱼、箭毒蛙、

黄蜂和许多其他物种来说，警告是这些动物携带的毒素会导致疾病或

。因此，自然选择理论的共同发明者和狂热的昆虫收藏家阿尔弗雷

德·拉塞尔·华莱士提出，东亚和澳大利亚色彩美丽的厚嘴象鼻虫是

的。

然而，在花了几个小时试图将象鼻虫钉在他收藏的木板上并最终不使用钻头来

完成这项杂务，他建议：

thethreatthebeetwerewarningofwiththeircolourswasnotpoison,but

thepresenceofbodyarmourthatwouldbeimpossibleforpredatorstochew.

Now,150yearsafterWallaceproposedthisidea,Chung-PingLinandLu-Yi

WangoftheNationalNormalUniversity,inTaipei,havetestedit.

Theyshow,inapaperintheJournalofExperimentalBiology,thatWallace

wasright.

DrLinknewofWallace’sideaandwassurprised,whenheconducteda

literaturereview