Spiders Turn Violent When Alone Too Long

蜘蛛独处时间太长会变得暴力

Baby spiders enjoy the company of other spiders. But adult spiders often eat each other.

幼年蜘蛛享受着其他蜘蛛的陪伴。但是成年蜘蛛经常会相互吃掉自己的同类。

New research found that the adults seem to forget how to behave with each other after being alone too long. This causes the small, eight-legged creatures to become aggressive and even violent.

一项新的研究发现成年蜘蛛在独处了太长时间之后似乎忘记了如何与彼此相处。这导致了这种八条腿的小型生物变得富有攻击性甚至有暴力行为。

These findings could help researchers understand why some spider species like to stay together their whole lives but most would eat another spider if given the chance.

这些发现能帮助研究者理解为什么一些蜘蛛种类医生都喜欢与其他蜘蛛呆在一起但是大多数蜘蛛种类如果有机会便会吃掉其他蜘蛛。

A report on the study appeared in the scientific publication PLOS Biology.

关于这项研究的一个报告发布在名为PLOS生物学的科学出版物上。

Many people are frightened of spiders; yet the creatures are an important part of many ecosystems.

很多人害怕蜘蛛；然而这些生物是很多生态系统的一个很重要的部分。

Violette Chiara led the study. Chiara is a student at the University of Toulouse in France. She told VOA that spiders are often misunderstood.

维奥莉特·基娅拉指导了此次研究。基娅拉是法国图卢兹大学的一名学生。她告诉VOA蜘蛛经常被误解。

"Spiders are not just aggressive, cannibalistic monsters," Chiara said. "There are spiders that are social at the beginning of their lives, and there are also some species that remain social during their whole lives."

“蜘蛛不仅仅是具有攻击性的同类相食的怪兽”基娅拉说。“有一些蜘蛛在生命开始阶段是社交型的，并且也有一些蜘蛛一生中都保持社交行为。”

Baby spiders are known as spiderlings. They begin their lives together in groups with other spiderlings — sometimes as many as several hundred. But when spiders grow up, they usually live alone. Of the more than 40,000 known spider species, all but 30 live alone in adulthood.

幼年蜘蛛被称为幼蛛。它们以与其他幼蛛在群体中一起生活的方式开始它们的生活。有时群体的规模可达几百只。但是当蜘蛛长大后，它们通常单独生活。在已知的4万多种蜘蛛品种中，除了30多种蜘蛛外其他蜘蛛在成年后会单独生活。

It is not clear why so few spider species stay social their whole lives. Many researchers believe that spiders become more aggressive as they grow, which makes them avoid each other. Chiara decided to test which comes first: aggressive behavior or self-separation.

目前还不清楚为什么如此少的蜘蛛品种一生都处于社交状态。很多研究人员认为随着蜘蛛的成长会变得更具攻击性。这使得它们避免与其他蜘蛛在一起生活。基娅拉决定测试哪一个首先出现：攻击性的行为还是自我分离行为。

Chiara and members of her team studied labyrinth spiders, which are common in France. They observed that baby labyrinth spiders started to move away from each other five days after coming out of their eggs. The researchers first thought this pointed to a natural increase in aggression.

基娅拉和她的团队的成员研究了迷宫蛛。它在法国很常见。他们观察到幼年的迷宫蛛从卵中出来五天之后开始移动而远离彼此。研究人员首先认为这表明了其攻击性的一种自然增长。

However, they found that even spiderlings raised alone started to move around more after five days. In other words, the spiders were not fleeing from other spiders because they were worried they would get eaten. They were just stretching their legs and becoming better at moving around as they grew.

然而，他们发现甚至是那些独自培养大的幼蛛五天后也开始向周围移动。换句话说，这些蜘蛛并没有因为担心被吃掉而远离其他蜘蛛。它们只是伸展它们的腿从而在成长的过程中更好地向周围移动。

If an increase in aggressive behavior does not happen naturally as the spiders age, something must cause it. To test this, the researchers raised some spiders alone and others in groups. They then brought together groups of two spiders that did not know each other to see if they reacted peacefully or violently.

如果攻击行为的加剧并不是随着蜘蛛年龄而自然出现的，肯定有一些事物导致了它的出现。为了测试这一点，研究人员单独培养了一些蜘蛛并在群体中也培养了一些蜘蛛。接着他们将不同群体中的相互不认识的两只蜘蛛放在一起去看看它们会和平相处还是会暴力相对。

Spiders that were raised in groups almost never tried to eat the other spider. But those raised alone went on the attack 40 percent of the time. The more time the spiders had spent alone, the more likely they were to try to eat other spiders.

在群体中培养的蜘蛛几乎不会尽力去吃掉其他蜘蛛，而那些单独培养的蜘蛛40%的时间都在相互攻击。蜘蛛独处的时间越长，它们越容易尽力去吃掉其他蜘蛛。

The researchers decided that being alone causes spiders to become aggressive and not the other way around.

研究人员下决定称独处会引起蜘蛛变得更具攻击性而不是攻击性变得更低。

Scientist Jonathan Pruitt is an expert on evolution, but was not involved in the research. He said that the study was a good example of re-visiting what people had already believed to be true, “and questioning it and finding a very different story.”

科学家乔纳森·普鲁伊特是一名进化专家，但是并没有参与此项研究。他说这项研究是一个很好的例子，就是重新观察那些人们已经认为是真实的事物或理论“并对它产生质疑最后找到一个极其不同的答案。”

The researchers hope to learn what happens to the “loner” spiders that makes them more likely to attack others.

研究人员希望了解那些喜欢独处的蜘蛛身上发生了什么而使得它们变得更容易去攻击其他蜘蛛。

"We know that they are more aggressive, but from a cognitive point of view, what is the change?" said Raphael Jeanson, who helped with the research.

“我们知道它们更富有攻击性，但是从一个认识观点的角度来看，什么在改变？”协助了此项研究的拉斐尔·詹森说道。

One possibility is that when spiders spend too much time away from other spiders, they forget how to read social cues. In this case, the cues are chemicals in their "skin" that help them recognize each other. The researchers hope to explore this possibility by studying a species that is closely related to labyrinth spiders, but lives in groups all their lives.

一个可能性是当蜘蛛花费太多时间远离其他蜘蛛时，它们忘记了如何读取社交线索。在这个例子中，这项线索是帮助它们识别对方的皮肤内的化学物质。研究人员希望靠研究一种与迷宫蜘蛛很相近的但是一生都在群体中生活的一个品种来探索这种可能性。

Leticia Aviles is a specialist in social spiders, but was not involved in the study. She agreed that the lack of socializing could lead spiders to become more aggressive.

利蒂西娅·阿韦尔斯是社交型蜘蛛的一位专家，但是并没有参与此项研究。她同意社交的缺乏可能导致蜘蛛变得更具攻击性这个观点。

I’m Pete Musto.

皮特·马斯托为您报道。