A tiny fly, related to biting no-see-ums, pollinates cacao trees and enables our chocolate cravings.

一种与蚋有亲缘关系的小飞蝇，能够给可可树授粉并满足我们对巧克力的渴求。

撰文\播音：克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔(Christopher Intagliata)

翻译：陈美娟

审校：杨青

As you unwrap a Halloween candy or two, it's worth paying your respects to the real reason for many of the treats: a tiny fly whose trick is to make chocolate possible.

当你打开一两个万圣节糖果时，值得把敬意献给糖果背后的功臣：一种让巧克力成为可能的小飞蝇。

"They're all in the family Ceratopogonidae, which is the biting midges family. But not all of the adults bite. How we usually do it is we call them 'Cerats.'" Erica McAlister is a fly scientist at the Natural History Museum of London, and author of The Secret Life of Flies.

“它们都属于会咬人的蠓科，但不是所有的成虫都会叮咬。我们通常称其为‘蜢蝇’。”艾丽卡·麦卡里斯特是伦敦自然历史博物馆的昆虫学家，同时还是《蝇虫的秘密》(The Secret Life of Flies)一书的作者。

The "cerats"—related to no-see-ums—do a job that's very hard to get done by hand: they crawl through long, twisty cacao flowers, pollinating the stubborn cacao tree. Which produces the beans used to make chocolate.

“蜢蝇”，这种与蚋有亲缘关系的昆虫，能够完成用手难以做到的工作：它们爬行在又长又弯的可可花上，给难授粉的可可树传粉。这让可可树结出用以制作巧克力的可可豆。

"They are really, really difficult to pollinate. So you do need these little things to do it."

“这种植物真的很难很难传粉，所以需要利用这些小东西来达到目的。”

And to McAlister, at least, the tiny midges are a beautiful sight to behold. "They look like a very tiny mosquito, but they are basically absolutely covered in hair, they're very beautiful, very hirsute little organisms. And the males have got the most—they look like feather duster antennae. He's got to not only smell for the female, he's listening. And his ears are on the antennae. They're not very robust, these things, they're tiny, as the name implies. They've got nice external genitalia for the boys… I don't know what else you want me to say "

对麦卡里斯特来说，这种小蜢虫至少看着挺不错。“它们看起来像小蚊子，但它们基本上完全被毛发覆盖了，他们是非常漂亮、毛发旺盛的小生物。雄性尤甚——它们的触角就像羽毛掸子一样，这个部位不仅可以用来闻雌性的味道，还用来听声音，听觉器官就长在触角上。它们没那么活泼好动，这种小东西和它们名字一样文静。雄性有着硕大的外部生殖器……我不知道还有什么好说了<笑>。”

Well, here's the bad news: The chocolate midges are in danger, as farmers clear out shade-grown rainforest plots, in favor of sunnier monocultures of cacao. That threatens the tiny flies, which need the damp rotting leaf litter of the forest floor to thrive. But some producers are taking notice.

不过坏消息是：由于农民为了单一巧克力林的阳光更充足，清除了庇荫的丛林点，这种巧克力蚊正处于危险中，需要潮湿腐叶维系生命的小飞虫正受到威胁。但这已经引起了一些生产者的注意。。

"Obviously our human demand for chocolate has gone up, so now a lot more research is going into fly pollinators, including these as well."

“显然我们人类对巧克力的需求已经增加，所以现在更多研究指向飞虫传粉领域，其中就包括这种小飞虫。”

As for McAlister? She won't be joining you on that chocolate binge. "I can't stand it. Revolting stuff."

麦卡里斯特怎么看呢？她并不想参与巧克力狂欢。“我受不了，甚至有些反感。”


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