【英语时差8,16】斑螽斯的诱惑之歌

（单词翻译）

The Siren Song of the Spotted¹ Katydid A lonely male cicada scrambles² through the top of a tree in eastern Australia. He chirps³ and then pauses–listening. He’s hunting for a mate. He chirps again and he hears it–the tell-tale click of a receptive female. He moves towards the sound and chirps again. Right on cue, she clicks back. He moves closer and closer. CHIRPS. Listens. He follows the female clicks, which get louder as he draws nearer and nearer to the source. Surely she must be close by. But just then a lightning-fast flash of long green legs and the lovelorn male cicada unfortunately finds himself the dinner of a predatory spotted katydid. It was the katydid all along making those clicks. Like the mythological⁵ sirens, who lured⁷ mortal men to their doom⁸ with their enchanting⁹ songs, the katydids lure⁶ male cicadas to their doom by singing an irresistible¹⁰ song. To human ears, the clicks of a female cicada may not sound like the sweetest of love songs. But for a male cicada, the katydid’s clicks perfectly¹¹ mimic¹² the mating calls of the female cicada. The males are irresistibly¹³ drawn¹⁴ towards the source of the clicks. The spotted katydids are even more amazing in that they can mimic the female calls of many different species of cicadas. Katydids were able to fool male cicadas of twenty-two out of twenty-six different species tested! The katydids’ deceptive¹⁵ behavior was discovered by entomologists from the University of Connecticut, Storrs. The discovery is remarkable¹⁶ because it’s the first documented case of acoustic¹⁷ mimicry¹⁸ used in an aggressive manner. There are many known examples of predators¹⁹ mimicking²⁰ the odors or visual displays of prey²¹ species to lure victims, but this is the first example of a predator⁴ mimicking sounds to attract victims.