新昆虫

露水中的昆虫(9P)

Insect — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:26:06 +0800

凌晨3点左右，波兰摄影爱好者 Miroslaw Swietek 在他家附近的森林里拍摄了这些浑身裹满了露水，正在熟睡的昆虫。颗颗晶莹剔透的露珠犹如镶嵌在昆虫身上的钻石。
37岁的 Miroslaw Swietek 两年半以前开始把摄影当作休闲爱好，他特别喜欢拍昆虫和蜥蜴。
黑夜里 Miroslaw Swietek 使用火把在他们村旁边的树林里搜索昆虫。他凌晨3点左右去树林，那时昆虫身上都裹满了露水。找到目标后安放好相机，并在距离昆虫仅几厘米的地方按下快门。凌晨3点到4点，昆虫们都正在熟睡，给它们拍照很容易——但要找到它们非常困难。拍这些照片必须迅速，因为露水很快就会消失。

Picture: Miroslaw Swietek/Solent

原文地址：Dew-covered insects photographed in the middle of the night in a forest in Poland

1859年的华莱士黄裳蝴蝶标本

Insect — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:01:33 +0800

这是一枚华莱士黄裳蝴蝶（Ornithoptera croesus）的标本，由阿尔弗莱德·罗素·华莱士1859年采集于印度尼西亚巴灿岛。标本现收藏于伦敦自然历史博物馆，伦敦自然历史博物馆里的蝴蝶标本藏量世界第一，有九百多万种。

1859年的华莱士黄裳蝴蝶(Ornithoptera croesus)标本

昆虫和蜘蛛的电子显微照片(12P)

Insect — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:37:48 +0800

原文：Creepy crawlies: Amazing Scanning Electron Microscope pictures of insects and spiders

61岁的退休科学摄影师史蒂夫·克施迈斯内尔(Steve Gschmeissner)来自美国贝德福德。他用一架扫描电子显微镜(SEM)就能把昆虫的形象放大一百万倍。成像结果显示出一些爬行昆虫的3D外形细节，让人震惊不已。

Using a Scanning Electron Microscope, retired scientific photographer Steve Gschmeissner, 61, from Bedford, is able to magnify insects by up to a million times. The results show incredibly detailed images of creepy crawlies in 3D

人蚤头部

A coloured scanning electron micrograph of the head of a human flea (Pulex irritans)
Picture: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/ BARCROFT MEDIA

黄粪蝇头部

A coloured scanning electron micrograph of the head of a yellow dung fly (Scatophaga stercoraria)
Picture: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/ BARCROFT MEDIA

跳蛛头部

A coloured scanning electron micrograph of the head of a Jumping Spider (family Salticidae)
Picture: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/ BARCROFT MEDIA

苍蝇

A coloured scanning electron micrograph of a fly
Picture: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/ BARCROFT MEDIA

热带毛虫头部

A coloured scanning electron micrograph of the head of a tropical caterpillar (order Lepidoptera)
Picture: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/ BARCROFT MEDIA

沫蝉头部下侧

A coloured scanning electron micrograph of the underside of the head of a froghopper (superfamily Cercopoidea)
Picture: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/ BARCROFT MEDIA

狗蚤

Coloured scanning electron micrograph of a dog flea (Ctenocephalides canis)
Picture: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/ BARCROFT MEDIA

黑盾胡蜂头部

A coloured scanning electron micrograph of a common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) head
Picture: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/ BARCROFT MEDIA

胡蜂头部

A coloured scanning electron micrograph of a wasp’s head (order Hymenoptera)
Picture: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/ BARCROFT MEDIA

兵蚁头部

A coloured scanning electron micrograph of the head of a soldier turtle ant (Cephalotes sp.) from the Amazonian rainforest
Picture: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/ BARCROFT MEDIA

蜜蜂头部

A coloured scanning electron micrograph of the head of a honey bee (Apis sp.)
Picture: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/ BARCROFT MEDIA

臭虫头部

A coloured scanning electron micrograph of the head of a bedbug (Cimex sp.)
Picture: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/ BARCROFT MEDIA

小虫子大建筑师

Insect — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:36:20 +0800

适应环境(供图: Image Source/Rex Features)

作者：伦敦自由撰稿人Philip Ball

译者：somer

在非洲稀树大草原的中心坐落着一座城市，他是可持续发展的榜样。他的扶墙塔完全由自然的可生物降解的材料建成。他的居民生活和工作在有空气调节和湿度调节的地方，却不用消耗一度电。水来自地球深处的水井；粮食种在围墙内的花园里，自给自足。这座大都市不仅生态友好，还有弧形的墙，优美的拱门，他也相当漂亮。

当然这不是人类的城市，他是白蚁丘。

不像白蚁和其它昆虫的巢，我们人类很少注意让建筑适应环境。“我们发展荒谬的建筑理念，没有受到自然选择的惩罚，”芬兰赫尔辛基大学工艺学院的建筑师Juhani Pallasmaa 说，“然而，当我们认识到气候变化、能源枯竭时，关注昆虫如何管理他们建筑环境的意识开始觉醒。看上去我们还有很多东西要学。”

“昆虫筑巢的建设机制和设计原理可能很难理解，”位于图卢兹的法国国家科学研究中心从事动物认知研究的Guy Théraulaz 说。对蚁丘的研究在上世纪六十年代开始展开，当时瑞士昆虫学家Martin Lüscher 对非洲南部平原上的大白蚁属物种筑巢做了开创性的研究，是他提出了看起混乱不堪的蚁丘实际上有非常精致的生态结构设计。他特别指出白蚁筑巢和他们的食物间有着密切的联系。大白蚁属动物以纤维素为食，纤维素是植物的组成部分，我们人类不能消化他。实际上白蚁也不能。他们通过种植真菌把木质转化成可消化的营养来解决这个问题。

这些真菌种植园必须很好的通风，温度和湿度要严格控制－在白蚁生活的热带气候中这是一件很不容易的事。据Lüscher描绘，真菌新陈代谢和白蚁自身产生的热量使充满CO2的污浊空气上升到中部的烟囱里，通过蚁丘透气的墙排到外面，同时新鲜空气从底部被吸进来。

巨大的肺

这个创意如此简单和有吸引力，至少已经出现了一个人工模仿产品：由建筑师Mick Pearce设计的位于津巴布韦哈拉雷的东门中心。他1996年开放，拥有一个仿照白蚁建造的通风和冷却系统－或者至少被认为是。然而，实事证明几乎没有白蚁丘采用这种工作方式。

在蚁丘内保持温度和温度恒定，同时排出CO2，这需要很高的气体交换效率。一个典型的蚁丘大约有200万居民，每天需要呼吸1000升新鲜空气。纽约州立大学的白蚁专家Scott Turner和英国诺丁汉的自由工程师Rupert Soar 为了进一步调查是什么驱动了这样高效的气体交换，深入研究了纳米比亚的蚁丘设计原理。他们发现蚁丘的墙比巢穴的中心更加温暖，由此排除了Lüscher提出的富含CO2的气流上升排到巢外的模式。实际上对蚁巢注入示踪气体没有得到什么空气流通的稳定证据。
Turner 和Soar 认为蚁丘是利用阵风拍击它产生的间歇涡流工作的。一阵风包含很多小漩涡和气流，他们具有不同的速度、方向和频率。蚁丘的外墙只允许低频变化的漩涡渗透进去。随着一阵阵风频率范围变化，巢内污浊空气和外面新鲜空气的界线移向蚁丘墙内，允许两股空气进行交换。蚁丘的功能大体上像一个巨大的肺。

这是与现代人类建筑非常不同的通风方式。在这里新鲜空气通过通风口注入把混浊空气换出。Turner认为从白蚁方法中有一些东西需要搜集学习。“我们要从根本上转变对墙的观念，”他说。我们不应当把墙当做阻止外部进入的障碍，相反的应该把它设计成能够适应和渗透的分界面，可以调控内外的热量和空气交换。“取代打开窗子让新鲜空气进入，墙也可以做到这一点，但是要仔细筛选和管理蚁丘采用的这种方式”，他说。

去年在意大利威尼斯举行的由Théraulaz组织的昆虫建筑专题研讨会上，对Turner的观点进行了大量讨论，目的是在各个学科从昆虫行为专家到职业建筑师达成共同意见。
“一些真正的交叉联系点开始呈现，”Turner说。“在生物学家中有一个普遍的观点就是建筑师可以跟我们学习很多东西。我想反过来也成立。”

吸水海绵

其中一个主题是白蚁怎样能够熟练的调整他们的建筑以适应当地的条件（详情请看“不只一种方法筑巢”）。例如，在非常热的气候中白蚁把他们的巢嵌入土壤深处散热。另一些种类通过在蚁丘的基部堆集夹杂嚼碎的木头和草叶的混合泥浆来保持湿度。这种行为就象一块巨大的海绵，可以容纳多达80升水，能够提供或吸收水分来平衡巢内的湿度。我们可以模仿这项技术在建筑内部放置水箱在干热气候下恢复温度。“随着我们认识的越来越多，我们仿佛打开了新仿生设计原理广阔空间的大门，” Turner说。

从昆虫建筑巢穴的过程中也可以得到启示。研究最完善的筑巢昆虫是纸黄蜂，它因用纤维材料筑巢而得名。它的巢由排列整齐的六边形小格子组成，然而不同的设计令人惊讶，他们绝不是随机建成的。

为了发现蜂巢是怎样建成的，Théraulaz和他的同事们在纸黄蜂建巢的各个阶段给他们提供了不同颜色的纸。这项工作显示出纸黄蜂遵守的一般建筑规则是基于相邻格间的结构。“例如，他们会在一拐角区域增加一个格间，而不是另起一行，”Théraulaz说。没有哪个单独的黄蜂知道最后的建筑结构会是什么样，他们只是遵循一套简单的规则－这些规则在进化中早已决定，能使昆虫生存的机会最大化－就能使他们建筑达到完美。

白蚁用一种叫做信息激素的化学信号来协调彼此的动作，确保达到相似结果。筑巢的工蚁把土壤颗粒咀嚼成类似水泥样的糊状物，他们在唾液中添加一种化学物质，在短短几分钟内大约一厘米以内的其它工蚁就能闻到这种气味。这就建立一个正反馈：支柱越扩大，它就成为更强的信息素释放源，就会有白蚁添加更多的材料。

这种方法是对人类设计观念的颠覆，人类的做法是由建筑师事先已制定好蓝图并严格按照执行。但是Turner认为随着技术进步使其成为可能，我们会发现我们自己在采用类似昆虫的方法。“对自动建筑代理系统来说这是一个巨大的机会，他通过连接一个分布式的智能机器，当条件变化时可以改变建筑的结构。”他说。这听起来好像只是幻想，不过它实际上只是回到了古老人类有机建筑和居住设计的做法，在以前的基础上随时做一些添加和改变。

“昆虫建筑可能引导我们回到古老人类有机居住设计的做法”

白蚁面临许多与我们在建筑环境中同样的挑战，并且能更有效更合理的满足需求。“蚁丘是用许多方式建成的，它像白蚁一样是有生命的，”Turner说。人类建筑也很快就会开始有生机。

不只一种方法筑巢

非洲的一种白蚁Macrotermes bellicosus （译注：拉丁学名）已经发展出两种不同的策略来优化蚁巢的空气流通以适应当地的气候条件。在东非和西非炎热干旱的草原上，他们的巢有许多“教堂的尖塔”。根据德国Osnabrück大学的生物学家 Judith Korb，这有一个实例，白天热量梯度驱动空气循环流动，气流在蚁巢内下沉和在墙内上升。在晚上当热量梯度消失或者反向的时候，这个循环或多或少的关闭，避免热量散失，保持巢内大体上温度恒定。

但是，在北部象牙海岸的凉爽森林里，同一个物种却建造更简单的圆顶形的蚁丘，温暖的空气上升穿过蚁巢，通过墙上的小孔散发出去。这个设计通过限制外向空气流动保留了更多的热量，确保为白蚁供应食物的真菌种植园保持理想的温度。

数千英里以外，另一个白蚁物种发展了一种改进的方法使他们能够最有效的利用阳光。这种澳大利亚的磁蚁 Amitermes meridionalis 利用地球磁场建造南北向的狭长蚁丘。朝向东西的宽阔面接收早晨和傍晚太阳较弱的光线；相对窄的面避免中午强烈阳光的照射－帮助保持温度相对恒定。

所有的蚁丘，Korb说，都力图设计产生稳态的条件，使内环境尽可能保持恒定。在不同环境下白蚁都能兴旺发达显示了他们的成功所在。

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原文

Fit for the environment (Image: Image Source/Rex Features)

IN THE heart of Africa’s savannah lies a city that is a model of sustainable development. Its buttressed towers are built entirely from natural, biodegradable materials. Its inhabitants live and work in quarters that are air-conditioned and humidity-regulated, without consuming a single watt of electricity. Water comes from wells that dip deep into the earth, and food is cultivated self-sufficiently in gardens within its walls. This metropolis is not just eco-friendly: with its curved walls and graceful arches, it is rather beautiful too.

This is no human city, of course. It is a termite mound.

Unlike termites and other nest-building insects, we humans pay little attention to making buildings fit for their environments. “We can develop absurd architectural ideas without the punishment of natural selection,” says architect Juhani Pallasmaa of the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland. As we wake up to climate change and resource depletion, though, interest in how insects manage their built environments is reawakening. It appears we have a lot to learn.

“The building mechanisms and the design principles that make the properties of insect nests possible aren’t well understood,” says Guy Théraulaz of the CNRS Research Centre on Animal Cognition in Toulouse, France. That’s not for want of trying. Research into termite mounds kicked off in the 1960s, when Swiss entomologist Martin Lüscher made trailblazing studies of nests created by termites of the genus Macrotermes on the plains of southern Africa. It was he who suggested the chaotic-looking mounds were in fact exquisitely engineered eco-constructions.

Specifically, he proposed an intimate connection between how the mounds are built and what the termites eat. Macrotermes species live on cellulose, a constituent of plant matter that humans can’t digest. In fact, neither can termites. They get round this by cultivating gardens of fungi that turn wood into digestible nutrients.

These fungus gardens must be well ventilated, and their temperature and humidity closely controlled – no mean feat in the tropical climates in which termites live. In Lüscher’s picture, heat from the fungi’s metabolism and the termites’ bodies causes stagnant air laden with carbon dioxide to rise up a central chimney. From there it fans out through the porous walls of the mound, while new air is sucked in at the base.
Giant lungs

So simple and appealing was this idea that it spawned at least one artificial imitation: the Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, designed by architect Mick Pearce. Opened in 1996, it boasts a termite-inspired ventilation and cooling system. Or at least it was thought to. It turns out, however, that few if any termite mounds work this way.

Keeping the temperature and humidity within termite mounds constant while at the same time getting rid of CO2 demands a very efficient process of gas exchange. A typical mound with about 2 million inhabitants needs to “breathe” about 1000 litres of fresh air each day. To investigate further what might drive such an exchange, Scott Turner, a termite expert at The State University of New York in Syracuse, and Rupert Soar of Freeform Engineering in Nottingham, UK, looked into the design principles of Macrotermes mounds in Namibia. They found that the mounds’ walls are warmer than the central nest, which rules out the kind of buoyant outward flow of CO2-rich air proposed by Lüscher. Indeed, injecting a tracer gas into the mound showed little evidence of steady, convective air circulation.

Turner and Soar believe that termite mounds instead tap turbulence in the gusts of wind that hit them. A single breath of wind contains small eddies and currents that vary in speed and direction with different frequencies. The outer walls of the mounds are built to allow only eddies changing with low frequencies to penetrate deep within them. As the range of frequencies in the wind changes from gust to gust, the boundary between the stale air in the nest and the fresh air from outside moves about within the mounds’ walls, allowing the two bodies of air to be exchanged. In essence, the mound functions as a giant lung.

This is very different to the way ventilation works in modern human buildings. Here, fresh air is blown in through vents to flush stale air out. Turner thinks there is something to be gleaned from the termites’ approach. “We could turn the whole idea of the wall on its head,” he says. We should not think of walls as barriers to stop the outside getting in, but rather design them as adaptive, porous interfaces that regulate the exchange of heat and air between the inside and outside. “Instead of opening a window to let fresh air in, it would be the wall that does it, but carefully filtered and managed the way termite mounds do it,” he says.

Turner’s ideas were among many discussed at a workshop on insect architecture organised by Théraulaz in Venice, Italy, last year. It aimed to pool understanding from a range of disciplines, from experts in insect behaviour to practising architects. “Some real points of contact began to emerge,” says Turner. “There was a prevailing idea among the biologists that architects could learn much from us. I think the opposite is also true.”
Absorbent sponges

One theme was just how proficient termites are at adapting their buildings to local conditions (see “More than one way to make a mound”). Termites in very hot climates, for example, embed their mounds deep in the vast heat sink of the soil – a hugely effective way of regulating temperature. Other species maintain humidity by depositing a slurry of chewed wood and grass at the base of the mound. This acts like a giant sponge, which, with a capacity of up to 80 litres, can supply or absorb water to counteract any humidity fluctuations within the nest. Such a trick could be mimicked using water tanks positioned in the bowels of a building to restore humidity in hot, dry climates. “As we come to understand more, it opens up a vast universe of new bio-inspired design principles,” says Turner.

Tips might also be gleaned from the construction processes that insects employ. Some of the most thoroughly studied nest-building insects are the paper wasps, named after the fibrous material they use to make their combs. These consist of arrangements of tubular cells with hexagonal cross-sections, and while the designs are astonishingly diverse they are by no means random.

To find out how the combs are made, Théraulaz and his colleagues supplied different coloured paper to the wasps for each stage of nest building. This showed that the wasps observe general construction rules based on the configuration of neighbouring cells. “For example, they prefer to add cells to a corner area rather than starting a new row,” Théraulaz says. No individual wasp has any idea what the final structure will be, yet by following a simple set of rules – rules that evolution has determined maximise the insects’ chances for survival – the constructions they arrive at are sound.

Termites ensure a similarly successful outcome using chemical signals called pheromones. As the nest-builders chew soil pellets into a cement-like paste, their saliva adds a chemical which, for just a few minutes, can be “smelled” by other builders over a distance of a centimetre or so. This sets up a positive feedback: the more a pillar is augmented, the stronger a pheromone source it becomes, causing the termites to add even more material.

Such approaches are anathema to human ideas of design and control, in which a central blueprint is laid down in advance by an architect and rigidly stuck to. But Turner thinks we could find ourselves adopting a more insect-like approach as technological advances make it feasible. “There’s a huge opportunity for robotics to build systems of agents linked by a distributed intelligence that can remodel a building’s structure as conditions change,” he says. That might sound fanciful, but really it is just a return to the old human practices of organic building and settlement design, in which additions and alterations were made piecemeal over time in response to what went before.
Insect architecture might lead us back to old human practices of organic settlement design

Termites face many of the same challenges we do in our built environments, and meet them more efficiently, and sustainably. “A mound is in many ways as alive as the termites that build it,” says Turner. Human buildings could soon come to life too.
More than one way to make a mound

Termites of the African species Macrotermes bellicosus have developed two very different strategies to optimise mound ventilation to local weather conditions. On the hot, dry savannahs of east and west Africa, their mounds are many-spired “cathedrals”. According to biologist Judith Korb of the University of Osnabrück, Germany, this is one instance where heat gradients drive currents of air circulation that sink through the nest and rise in the walls during the day. This circulation gets more or less switched off at night when the temperature gradients disappear or reverse, avoiding heat loss and keeping the nest at a roughly constant temperature.

In the cooler forests of northern Ivory Coast, though, the same species builds simpler dome-shaped mounds in which buoyant warm air rises up through the nest and escapes through small holes in the walls. This design seems to trap more heat by limiting outward airflow, making sure that the fungus gardens that provide the termites’ food are kept at an optimal temperature.

Thousands of miles away, another species of termite has developed an innovative way of making sure it gets the most out of the sun. The magnetic termite Amitermes meridionalis of Australia uses Earth’s magnetic field to build mounds elongated in a north-south direction. The broad eastern and western faces soak up the weaker rays of the morning and evening sun, while a relatively narrow surface is subjected to the fierce glare of the midday sun – helping to keep the temperature relatively constant.

All termite mounds, Korb says, seem designed to produce homeostatic conditions in which the inner environment remains as constant as possible. The very different environments in which termites thrive show how successful they are.

Philip Ball is a freelance writer based in London

如何训练蜜蜂探测爆炸物

Insect — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:13:12 +0800

作者：Julia Layton

译者：WideBridge

几十年来，警察和军事人员一直在利用狗来嗅出爆炸物。不过，据美国国防部高级研究实验室（DARPA）的科学家透露，他们自1999年以来一直在探索利用蜜蜂来从事这项工作，因为在嗅觉上，蜜蜂完全可以接受狗的挑战。这些长相相似、整天嗡嗡嚷嚷的昆虫，为了酿造蜂蜜，在空气中探测花粉的分子微粒早就成了它们的拿手好戏，追踪用于制造炸弹材料的痕迹根本难不在话下。那么如何训练它们像对花粉那样也对TNT炸药作出反应？

很简单。像训练动物一样对待它们：把某种特定的刺激与奖赏联系起来。我们知道，巴甫洛夫训狗时，把食物的气味与铃声关联在一起，结果铃声一响，狗就会流口水。在洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室，那里的研究人员正在把蜜蜂用于军事目的。他们把含有炸弹成份气味的物质掺和到糖水中，让蜜蜂扩大自己的嗅觉范围。结果当它们嗅到炸药气味时，以为追踪到了甜蜜蜜的花粉。这个适应的过程并不需要花很长时间。蜜蜂仅仅接触了几次含有炸药蒸发成份的糖水，马上就将两者联系在一起了。

昆虫帝国(Alien Empire)

Insect — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:00:56 +0800

昆虫帝国(Alien Empire)

中文名：昆虫帝国
英文名：Alien Empire
发行时间：1995
出品公司：BBC
内容简介：
    当人类文明仍旧混沌黑暗时，就有一种生物和人类的生活互相抗衡着。它们咀嚼人类的屋舍，以建立自己的殖民地，使用天生拥有的“高科技”武器，一步步且渐进地使人类输去了这场世界之争，它们就是人类永久的敌人——昆虫。
    在《昆虫帝国》中，科学家们精确细微的观察这些昆虫，它们身体的架构是如何的与生俱来，适于生存。而不可思议的沟通方式，如范围广远的感官系统和分辨声音、光线的转换器官，处处微腻地显示出它们惊人但有麻雀虽小五脏俱全的个体。
    《昆虫帝国》的拍摄内容，运用最新的高科技和人类的智能，活生生将昆虫的生命过程，以及它们奥妙鲜为人知的世界介绍给大家知道，活像一部科幻电影，却真实的呈现在人类眼前！科学家们不仅运用最小的摄影设备，及伸长型望远镜，更用许多精细的器材带领着我们一起探索这未知的昆虫王国。

第一集完美外型 (Hardware)

第二集昆虫大军 (Replicators)

第三集终极战区 (Battlezone)

第四集空中黑客 (Voyagers)

第五集昆虫社会 (Metropolis)

第六集亦敌亦友 (War of the worlds)

灌丛下的生命(Life in the Undergrowth)

Insect — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:09:30 +0800

灌丛下的生命(Life in the Undergrowth)

中文名: 灌丛下的生命
英文名: Life in the Undergrowth
发行时间: 2005年
简介:
    这个节目是英国有名的自然节目主持人David Attenborough刚完成的新系列：Life in the Undergrowth：灌丛下的生命，专门介绍地球上的无脊椎动物的。精彩绝伦……
    欢迎来到怪异、凶猛但出奇美丽的无脊椎昆虫世界！
    与大卫艾登堡禄爵士一起进行开创性的探索，瞭解一个壮观、不受重视但却充斥人类周遭的迷你宇宙。
    这里不只有昆虫与甲虫，还有奇特的蝉、会发出萤光的蠕虫、吐丝技巧複杂的蜘蛛，以及专吃蝙蝠的蜈蚣，更别说是其他各种奇妙的生物与私密惊人的行为。
    多亏了照明、光学与电脑化机械操控的科技革新，我们终於能以这些奇妙生物的观点出发，瞭解这个热闹的超级有机体世界。
    这些生物或许渺小，但牠们的生活机制却惊人地庞大！

第一集：大举登陆
 第二集：翩翩飞舞
 第三集：吐丝织网
 第四集：相互依存
 第五集：庞大社会

微观世界(草丛里的居民)

Insect — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:25:22 +0800

微观世界（草丛里的居民）Microcosmos

中文名: 微观世界
英文名: Microcosmos
别名: 草丛里的居民/点虫虫/小宇宙
IMDb: 7.9/10 (4,368 votes)
发行日期: 1996年
导演: Claude Nuridsany
　　　Marie Pérennou
演员: 雅克·贝汉 Jacques Perrin …..Récitant/Narrator (French version) (voice)
　　　克里斯汀·斯科特·托马斯 Kristin Scott Thomas …..Narrator (English version) (voice)
地区: 法国
语言: 法语
简介:
　　　本片无以伦比的摄影技术，独具匠心的拍摄角度，将森林下、草丛下的世界无数倍放大到你的面前，昆虫、草叶、水滴无不纤毫毕现。竟成为壮丽的奇观。本片获得第二十二届凯撒电影节最佳摄影和最佳剪辑奖。你会惊讶于在我们的脚下，竟有这样一个世界存在。这是黎明时分，在地球的某一处隐藏着星球般巨大的世界。茂草变成了森林。小石头变像高山。小水滴形同汪洋大海。时间以不同的方式流逝。一小时就像过了一天，一天像过了一季，一季像过了一生。想要探究这个世界。我们须先保持静默。倾听和观赏这奇迹。

昆虫帝国(Alien Empire)6:亦敌亦友(War of the worlds)

Insect — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:26:41 +0800

昆虫帝国(Alien Empire)6:亦敌亦友(War of the worlds)

昆虫帝国(Alien Empire)5:昆虫社会(Metropolis)

Insect — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:24:39 +0800

昆虫帝国(Alien Empire)5:昆虫社会(Metropolis)

新昆虫

露水中的昆虫(9P)

1859年的华莱士黄裳蝴蝶标本

昆虫和蜘蛛的电子显微照片(12P)

小虫子 大建筑师

如何训练蜜蜂探测爆炸物

昆虫帝国(Alien Empire)

灌丛下的生命(Life in the Undergrowth)

微观世界(草丛里的居民)

昆虫帝国(Alien Empire)6:亦敌亦友(War of the worlds)

昆虫帝国(Alien Empire)5:昆虫社会(Metropolis)

小虫子大建筑师