|
Another museum expedition has just returned from Peru. There' s two that we' ve found so far that we think have very, very high likelihood of being completely new species. Right. And the planet. Max Barclay has been looking at the insect life on the forest floor and is now combing through his discoveries. This is a beetle called boboserated, and they live on underground truffles. The expensive things that you get in a restaurant? Exactly. I can' t remember what they cost but it' s an awful lot of money. There' s one species in France that actually competes with the locals for the very valuable white and black truffles. We don' t know exactly what kind of truffles this feeds on, but some kind of subterranean fungus. Great. In the rainforest. You' ve discovered, hopefully, a new species of beetle here. Is there anything else you' re interested that you just discovered? No, we' ve had some very interesting things. I mean, the guys we were working with from America were ecologists and they were looking at dung beetle ecology. These are dung beetles, because we all know what dung beetles eat, they eat poo, dung, faecal matter. They do a good job as well, don' t they? Yes. They' re very important in ecosystems because they clean up all the waste, and many of them are very specific about where they live. They live in a particular altitude. They live in a lowland tropical forests or live on Altiplano whatever. And what was interesting about this ecology group is that they were collecting the dung beetles and they were comparing it with data that they collected in the same place ten years ago. |
|
bó wù guǎn de lìng yī zhī kē kǎo duì gāng cóng bì lǔ fǎn huí, mù qián fā xiàn de wù zhǒng zhōng yǒu liǎng zhǒng. wǒ men rèn wéi jí yǒu kě néng shì xīn wù zhǒng, mǎ kè sī bā kè lái zhì lì yú yán jiū lín rù zhōng de kūn chóng, rú jīn zhèng zài shū lǐ zì jǐ de fā xiàn, zhè zhǒng jiǎ chóng jiào zuò bào shì jiǎ chóng yì zhù: xué míng yuán wén quē shī, gù yīn yì yǐ dì xià sōng lù wèi shí. jiù shì cān guǎn lǐ fēi cháng guì de nà gè sōng lù zhèng shì. wǒ bù jì de què qiè de jià gé, zǒng zhī hěn guì. fǎ guó yě yǒu zhè yàng yī zhǒng jiǎ chóng, yǔ dāng dì rén zhēng shí, jí wéi zhēn guì de hēi bái sōng lù. wǒ men shàng bù qīng chǔ zhè zhǒng jiǎ chóng yǐ nǎ zhǒng sōng lù wèi shí, dàn kě yǐ kěn dìng shì rè dài yǔ lín de dì xià jūn lèi. nǐ fā xiàn le zhè zhǒng yǒu kě néng shì xīn wù zhǒng de jiǎ chóng, hái yǒu bié de fā xiàn ma? wǒ men hái fā xiàn yī jiàn qù shì, yǒu xiē měi guó shēng tài xué jiā hé wǒ men gòng shì. tā men dāng shí zài yán jiū qiāng láng shēng tài xué, zhèi xiē jiù shì qiāng láng. zhòng suǒ zhōu zhī, qiāng láng yǐ fèn biàn děng pái xiè wù wèi shí. tā men hěn jìn zhí duì ma shì de, tā men duì shēng tài huán jìng yì yì zhòng dà. yīn wèi tā men qīng lǐ pái xiè wù, duō shù qiāng láng zhī zài tè dìng huán jìng zhōng shēng cún, bǐ rú zhī zài tè dìng de hǎi bá chū xiàn, dī dì rè dài sēn lín, huò zhě gāo yuán zhī lèi. zhè qún shēng wù xué jiā zuò le jiàn yǒu yì sī de shì, tā men bǎ shōu jí dào de qiāng láng yǔ shí nián qián tóng dì cǎi jí de shù jù duì bǐ. |