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Insects Forego Flocks In Favor of Swarms
昆虫不排队，更喜欢乱成一团
[Mosquito buzzing sound]
Aha — got ‘im! Yes, the mosquitos are swarming this time of year. Alaskans joke that the bloodsucker is their state bird. But have you ever looked closely at a swarm of mating mosquitos, gnats, or midges? It’s a curious thing. The swarm maintains a kind of shape as it moves around. But the bugs inside it seem to flit about randomly rather than flocking like birds.
啊，抓住它了！没错，这个季节蚊子横行。阿拉斯加人开玩笑说蚊子是他们的州鸟。但是你有没有近距离观察过一群交配的蚊子，或者其他种类的蚊子呢？这很让人好奇。蚊群移动的时候会保持一个形状。但是蚊群里面的文字随机飞行而不是像鸟一样保持队形。
This collective, yet disordered, flight intrigued physicists in Rome. They shot ultraslow-motion video of swarming midges. Then they mapped the flight of each midge, and did a mathematical analysis of the collective behavior.
蚊子的这种集体无序飞行引起了罗马物理学家的兴趣。他们给蚊群拍摄了超慢速运动录像。然后他们绘制了每一个蚊子的飞行路线。接着对蚊子的集体行为作了数学分析。
Their finding: the motion of the midges is not random. The bugs stay far enough apart to avoid locking into a formation. The swarm instead expands as needed to stay just below the threshold density. The work appears on the site arXiv.org.
他们发现蚊子的移动不是随机的。蚊子保持一定距离防止保持一个队形不变。相反地，蚊群按需扩张低于最大密度。这份报告发表在arXiv.org网站上。
Flocks and schools move in formation only once the group reaches a critical density. Below that threshold, the individuals move—well, like midges. Insect avoidance of full-fledged flocking may be a reproductive strategy: after all, it’s hard to mingle when you’re stuck in a line dance.
当蚊群到达临界密度的时候，蚊群才会按队形飞行。在临界值以下，蚊群自由移动。昆虫避免完全统一队形可能是一个生殖策略，毕竟，站成一排的时候可不好乱搞。
—Wayt Gibbs
