四种洞穴蜘蛛以泰国洞穴救援英雄命名

四种洞穴蜘蛛以泰国洞穴救援英雄命名

The rescue of 12 teenagers and their coach trapped in the Tham Luang caves transfixed the world in 2018, but memories are short. However, the team who rescued them will not be forgotten, at least by arachnologists, after four species of spiders were named in their honor.

2018年，被困在Tham Luang洞穴的12名青少年和他们的教练的获救震惊了全世界，但人们的记忆很短暂。然而，营救他们的团队不会被忘记，至少不会被蜘蛛学家忘记，因为有四种蜘蛛以他们的名字命名。

The numerous caves that thread their way beneath the vast limestone Nullarbor are deeply hostile to life. No light penetrates to stimulate growth, but the area is a treasure trove for scientists who have found the bones of animals that became trapped there.

在巨大的纳拉伯石灰石下有无数的洞穴，它们对生命非常不利。没有光线穿透来刺激生长，但对科学家们来说，这是一个宝库，他们发现了困在那里的动物骨头。

Today, even less life is present, since the land above is so forbidding its name is Latin for “no trees”. Nevertheless, Dr Mark Harvey of the Western Australian Museum told IFLScience that occasional floods wash plant matter into the caves, where cockroaches either feed on it directly or on the fungi that break it down. These then form the base of a food chain, the apex predators of which are spiders of the genus Troglodiplura.

今天，甚至更少的生命存在，因为上面的土地是如此令人生畏，它的名字是拉丁语“没有树”。然而，西澳大利亚博物馆的马克·哈维博士告诉IFLScience，偶尔的洪水会把植物冲进洞穴，蟑螂要么直接以植物为食，要么以分解植物的真菌为食。它们构成了食物链的基础，食物链的顶端捕食者是穴居蜘蛛属的蜘蛛。

Stephen Luntz

Only two or three people have seen a live Troglodiplura, Harvey told IFLScience. Even the museum collections on which he conducted his research have DNA too degraded to answer many of the questions one might ask.

哈维告诉IFLScience，只有两三个人见过活的穴居双足虫。即使是他进行研究的博物馆藏品，其DNA也已经退化，无法回答人们可能会提出的许多问题。

T. lowryi was named in 1969, and the few Troglodiplura specimens were lumped together under that name. The DNA Harvey could extract was sufficient to establish the existence of five species and their place in the broader spider family tree. Harvey thought that, given their habitat, it made sense to name the spiders after heroic cave explorers.

T. lowryi于1969年被命名，少数穴居双鳍目动物标本被归为这个名称。哈维提取的DNA足以确定五种蜘蛛的存在，以及它们在更广泛的蜘蛛族谱中的位置。哈维认为，考虑到它们的栖息地，用英勇的洞穴探险者的名字给它们命名是有意义的。

In Invertebrate Systematics Harvey named two of the new species T. beirutpakbarai and T. samankunani after the two Thai rescuers whose lives were lost in the attempt. Saman Kunan died of asphyxiation during the rescue, while a blood infection Beirut Pakbara caught at the time killed him 18 months later.

在无脊椎动物分类学上，哈维以两名在尝试中丧生的泰国救援人员的名字命名了其中的两个新物种T. beirpakbarai和T. samankunani。萨曼·库南在营救过程中死于窒息，18个月后，贝鲁特·帕克巴拉被血液感染致死。

Australian cave diving experts Dr Craig Challen and Dr Richard Harris were called in as leading experts to assist the efforts, and survived to become joint Australians of the Year in 2019. Now they are immortalized with the naming of T. challeni and T. harrisi.

澳大利亚洞穴潜水专家克雷格·查伦博士和理查德·哈里斯博士被召集为协助这项工作的领先专家，他们幸存下来，在2019年共同成为了年度澳大利亚人。现在它们以T. challeni和T. harrisi的名字而名垂青史。

For some people, having a spider named after them would be a decidedly doubtful honor, but Harris (who was recently honored the same way) told IFLScience his suggestion was answered with delighted emails from both men. “Both are active explorers of cave ecosystems in Australia and are passionate about their conservation,” he said in a statement, adding to IFLScience that both men have explored the Nullarbor caves, undeterred by the idea of encountering the spiders that now bear their names.

对一些人来说，让蜘蛛以自己的名字命名肯定是一个令人怀疑的荣誉，但哈里斯(他最近也获得了同样的荣誉)告诉IFLScience他的建议收到了两个人愉快的电子邮件。他在一份声明中说:“两人都是澳大利亚洞穴生态系统的活跃探险家，对保护它们充满热情。”他还向IFLScience补充说，两人都曾探索过纳拉伯洞穴，并没有因为想到会遇到现在以他们的名字命名的蜘蛛而却步。

Troglodiplura were initially thought to be most closely related to South American spiders, but Harris established they are part of the Anamidae, a large family of exclusively Australian spiders common on the west coast. In the great tradition of Australian species, the above-ground Anamidae confound their categorization by being part of the superfamily of trapdoor spiders, but seldom cover their burrows with trapdoors.

穴居双plura最初被认为是南美洲蜘蛛的近亲，但哈里斯认为它们是Anamidae的一部分，Anamidae是澳大利亚蜘蛛的一个大家族，在西海岸很常见。在澳大利亚物种的伟大传统中，地上的阿纳米科由于是活地门蜘蛛超科的一部分而混淆了它们的分类，但它们很少用活地门盖住它们的洞穴。

Troglodiplura almost certainly go further, not having burrows at all. In cave environments where they – and the creatures they prey on – are all blind, ambush strategies need to adapt. Instead, Harvey told IFLScience, Troglodiplura rely on the common spider hunting technique of hairs picking up vibrations that allow them to detect moving prey.

穴居双足类几乎可以肯定走得更远，根本没有洞穴。在洞穴环境中，它们和它们捕食的生物都是盲的，伏击策略需要适应。相反，哈维告诉IFLScience，穴居双翅目动物依靠的是一种常见的蜘蛛狩猎技术:用毛发捕捉振动，从而探测到移动的猎物。

The differences between the species probably result from caves becoming disconnected, isolating the spiders until they evolved apart, rather than adapting to different niches, Harvey suspects.

哈维怀疑，不同物种之间的差异可能是由于洞穴的分离，隔离了蜘蛛，直到它们进化分开，而不是适应不同的生境。