SECTION 3

PROFESSOR: Good morning everyone. In today's seminar, Grant Freeman, a biologist who specialises in identifying insects, and who works for the Australian Quarantine Service, has come to talk to us about his current research work.

教授：大家早上好！在今天的研讨会中，我们邀请到了来自澳大利亚检疫局的生物学家、昆虫分类专家格兰特·弗里曼先生来谈一谈他最近的研究。

Right, well, over to you, Grant.

好的，那接下来就交给你了，格兰特。

GRANT: Good morning, everyone. I'm sure that you know that the quarantine service regulates all food brought into Australia.

格兰特：大家早上好！众所周知，检疫局的工作是检查被带入澳洲的食物。

Well, obviously they want to protect Australia from diseases that might come in with imported goods, but they also want to prevent insect pests from being introduced into the country, and that's where I have a part to play.

这样做的目的显然是想要保护澳洲民众免受进口食物带来的疾病之苦。但与此同时，我们还有另一项工作，那就是防止害虫入境。而这也正是我的主要工作。

Anyway, my current research involves trying to find a particular type of bee, the Asian Honey Bee, and finding out whether there are any of them around in various states of Australia.

总之，我目前的工作是寻找一种特殊的蜜蜂——亚洲蜜蜂。看看它们是否存在于澳洲各州。

We discovered a few of them in Queensland once and eradicated them.

我们在昆士兰发现了一些，并且将它们消灭了。

Now, we're pretty keen to make sure that there aren't any more getting in, particularly to New South Wales and other states.

现在，我们非常希望确认没有新的亚洲蜜蜂入境，尤其是出现在新南威尔士和其他州。

STUDENT 1: What's wrong with Asian Honey Bees?

学生1：亚洲蜜蜂怎么了？

Are they so different from Australian bees?

它们和澳洲蜜蜂区别很大吗？

GRANT: Well, in fact, they look almost the same, but they are infested with mites - microscopic creatures which live on them, and which can seriously damage our own home-grown bees, or could even wipe them out.

格兰特：这个嘛，它们看起来和澳洲蜜蜂差不多，但它们身上携带着很多螨虫，这些寄生虫会严重的伤害澳洲蜜蜂，甚至会导致它们的灭绝。

PROFESSOR: Well, what would happen if Australian bees died out?

教授：那如果澳洲蜜蜂都灭绝了将会有什么样的后果呢？

GRANT: Well, the honey from Australian bees is of excellent quality, much better than the stuff the Asian bees produce.

格兰特：嗯，澳洲蜜蜂产的蜂蜜质量很好，比亚洲蜜蜂产的蜜好很多。

In fact, Australia exports native Queen bees to a large number of countries because of this.

实际上因为这个原因，澳大利亚向很多国家都出口蜂后。

When the European Honey Bee was first discovered out in the bush, we found they made really unpleasant honey and they were also too big to pollinate many of our native flowers here in Australia.

当我们在灌木丛中首次发现欧洲蜜蜂的时候，我们发现它们产的蜂蜜质量很差，而且它们的体型太大了，无法为澳洲当地的很多花授粉。

STUDENT 2: That must have had a devastating effect on the natural flora.

学生2：那肯定对当地的植物产生毁灭性的影响。

Did you lose any species?

有没有因此而灭绝的物种呢？

GRANT: No, we managed to get them under control before that happened but if Asian bees got in there could be other consequences.

没有，在悲剧发生之前我们成功的控制了状况。但如果亚洲蜜蜂出现，那后果就不一样了。

We could lose a lot of money because you might not be aware, but it's estimated that native bees' pollination of flower and vegetable crops is worth 1.2 billion dollars a year.

我们很可能因为没有意识到它们的存在会导致巨大的经济损失。据估计每年通过本地蜜蜂授粉而生产的花卉和蔬菜的价值大约是12亿美元。

So in a way they're the farmers' friend.

因此，某种程度上它们是农民的朋友。

Oh, and another thing is, if you're stung by an Asian Honey Bee, it can produce an allergic reaction in some people; so they're much more dangerous than native bees.

对了，还有一点，如果被亚洲蜜蜂蜇伤了，一些人会出现过敏反应，所以它们比本地蜜蜂更加危险。

PROFESSOR: How will you know if Asian bees have entered Australia?

教授：你是通过什么方法来知道是否有亚洲蜜蜂进入澳大利亚呢？

GRANT: We're looking at the diet of the bird called the Rainbow Bee Eater.

格兰特：通过观察一种名为彩虹蜂虎的鸟类的饮食状况。

The Bee Eater doesn't care what it eats, as long as they're insects.

这种鸟吃各种昆虫，从不挑食。

But the interesting thing about this bird is that we are able to analyse exactly what it eats and that's really helpful if we're looking for introduced insects.

关于这种鸟有意思的地方在于，我们能够分析它们到底吃了些什么，而这能够帮助我们寻找入境的昆虫。

PROFESSOR: How come?

教授：这是怎么做到的呢？

GRANT: Because insects have their skeletons outside their bodies, so the Bee Eaters digest the meat from the inside.

格兰特：因为昆虫的体外有一层壳，蜂虎消化的是昆虫体内的肉质。

Then they bring up all the indigestible bits of skeleton and, of course, the wings in a pellet - a small ball of waste material which they cough up.

然后将所有不能消化的部分，包括翅膀弄成一个小球吐出来。

PROFESSOR: That sounds a bit unpleasant.

教授：这听上去有些恶心。

So, how do you go about it?

你们是怎么进行研究的呢？

GRANT: In the field we track down the Bee Eaters and find their favourite feeding spots, you know, the places where the birds usually feed.

格兰特：在野外我们追踪蜂虎并且寻找他们的捕食地点。

It's here that we can find the pellets.

我们在那些地方能够找到这些小球。

We collect them up and take them back to the laboratory to examine the contents.

我们收集这些小球，然后带回实验室分析里面的成分。

PROFESSOR: How do you do that?

教授：怎么分析呢？

GRANT: The pellets are really hard, especially if they have been out in the sun for a few days so, first of all, we treat them by adding water to moisten them and make them softer.

格兰特：这些小球很硬，尤其是在太阳下晒过几天以后。所以我们得先用水把它们泡软。

Then we pull them apart under the microscope.

然后我们将它们弄开放在显微镜下观察。

Everything's all scrunched up but we're looking for wings so we just pull them all out and straighten them.

所有的东西都揉成一团了，但是我们要找的只是翅膀。我们把它们弄出来然后展平。

Then we identify them to see if we can find any Asian bee wings.

然后我们通过翅膀来辨认亚洲蜜蜂的踪迹。

PROFESSOR: And how many have you found?

教授：你们到现在发现多少了？

GRANT: So far our research shows that Asian bees have not entered Australia in any number - it's a good result and much more reliable than trying to find live ones as evidence of introduced insects.

目前的研究表明澳大利亚境内还没有亚洲蜜蜂的踪迹。这个结果十分乐观，而且这种方法也比直接寻找活的蜜蜂更可靠。

PROFESSOR: Well, that's fascinating! Thank you, Grant, for those insights.

教授：那真是太棒了！谢谢你，格兰特，来跟我们分享这么多知识。

I hope that you might inspire some of our students here to conduct some similar experiments.

希望你的研究能激励我们这儿的学生也进行类似的实验。