你不知道的关于龙虾的10件怪事(上)

Lobsters are pretty strange animals. For starters they have no vocal chords, possess two stomachs, and have been known to eat each other.

龙虾是十分奇怪的一类动物，它们没有声带，却有两个胃，甚至还会互相吞食。

But you don't think about all that when a big Red one lands on your dinner plate. There's nothing like extracting large pieces of lobster meat from the shell, swirling them in warm drawn butter, adding a squeeze of lemon, and savoring each sweet, delicious bite.

但是当一只红色的大龙虾摆在你的餐盘里时，你就不会思考这些了。去掉壳的龙虾肉拌上奶油，再配上一杯柠檬汁，再没有比这更美味的食物了。

While lobster is usually considered a gourmet entrée, right up there with filet mignon, that wasn't always the case.

龙虾和菲力牛排都是精美的主菜，然而事情并不总是这样美好的。

Lobsters were once so plentiful in New England that they could easily be caught right at the shore and were eaten mainly by poor people and prisoners.

新英格兰的海滩上的龙虾曾经多得随手一抓就是一把，而这些龙虾大都被穷人和囚犯享用了。

Let's look at this and nine other strange facts about lobsters. (For the purposes of this article, we're mostly focusing on the American or Maine lobster). Read on to find out how familiarity bred contempt.

让我们一起来阅读这篇文章，了解关于龙虾的怪事吧。（为了完成这篇文章，作者集中研究了美国和缅因州的龙虾），继续阅读下去，你就会知道到龙虾是如何发展为一种美食的。

ter Was Once Poor Man's Food

10.龙虾曾是穷人家的饭食

Lobsters were considered a delicacy during the Middle Ages in Europe, and even served as medicine.

在中世纪的欧洲，龙虾既是一种美食也可作为药材。

The rostrum, or frontal part of the body, was pulverized and used to help people pass kidney stones. The gastrolith, or gizzard stone which the lobster uses to help grind up food, was handy for treating stomach aches.

龙虾的嘴巴和前额磨成细粉可以用于治疗肾结石，而龙虾用于磨碎食物的胃石和砂囊石则可以缓解胃疼。

Fast-forward a few hundred years and attitudes changed drastically. Lobster was so abundant in 18th and early-19thcentury New England that it was fed to pigs and the shells used as fertilizer.

这几百年里社会迅速发展，人类对龙虾的态度也彻底改变。在18世纪和19世纪初的新英格兰，龙虾因为太多，甚至被用于喂猪，而虾壳则作为肥料使用。

Indentured servants in Massachusetts were so sick of eating it that they won a court case to keep their masters from feeding them lobster more than three times a week.

在马萨诸塞州，签约的仆人非常讨厌吃龙虾，他们甚至赢得了一个法案诉讼，规定他们的主人每周让他们吃龙虾的次数不得超过三次。

The first shift to luxury food item took place in the late 1800s, as wealthy city-dwellers flocked to the beach and enjoyed the novel taste (for them) of lobster. Advances in refrigeration allowed live ones to be transported all over the country.

18世纪末，一些富有的城里人涌到海滩，尝到了龙虾这种新鲜的（对他们来说）美味，龙虾开始成为奢侈品。而随着冷藏技术的发展，生龙虾也可以运到世界各地。

As demand increased, supply decreased, which drove up the price. Supply and demand has ebbed and flowed over the years, but these days lobster is considered fancy food.

需求的增加和供应减少导致龙虾的价格水涨船高。虽然这些年龙虾的供需一直起伏不定，但它已被普遍认为是一种美食了。

Aren't (Usually) Red Before Cooking

9.生龙虾不都是红的

In the wild, most lobsters are a mottled greenish brown. They turn red when cooked because heating breaks the bond between pigmentation and protein in the shell.

大部分野外龙虾都是绿褐色，当它们被煮熟时就会变成红色，这是因为加热打破了虾壳上天然色与蛋白质之间的束缚。

The red color comes from the expression of astaxanthin, a type of carotenoid pigment found in orange-colored plants, eaten by the animals the lobster eats.

虾壳的红色来源于虾青素，这是橘红色的植物里所含一种类胡萝卜素，龙虾是因为捕食一些食用虾青素的动物才变成红色的。

A small number of lobsters can be red prior to being cooked -- as well as orange, yellow, green, blue and various combinations of these colors.

有一部分龙虾在被煮熟前就变成了红色或者橙色、黄色、绿色、蓝色以及其他颜色的混合色。

In some cases, these hues are a genetic mutation. Other times, it has to do with the food the lobster eats; if it only has one type of food available, it may turn a solid color as a result.

有一些龙虾壳的颜色变化是由基因突变引起的，有时候却与它们所吃的食物有关。如果它们只吃一种食物，也许龙虾壳就只有固定的单一颜色。

So far, we've been referring to the American lobster. This big-clawed crustacean is found off the east coast of Canada and the United States.

到目前为止，我们提及的主要是美国龙虾。这种在加拿大东海岸和美国发现的大爪子龙虾属于甲壳纲。

Its cousin, the European lobster, has smaller claws and its natural coloring is dark blue with spots and a yellow underbelly. It'd found in the waters around Western Europe and North Africa.

而它的“表亲”欧洲龙虾爪子则要小一些，虾壳的天然色带有深蓝色的小斑点，下腹部为黄色。在西欧和北非的水域里可以找到它们的身影。

Non-clawed lobsters, called rock lobsters or spiny lobsters, are found in warmer waters around the world and come in a variety of colors.

无爪龙虾又叫大螯虾或岩虾，这类龙虾可变换各种不同的颜色，在世界上更暖和些的水域里可以寻到它们的踪迹。

ters Pee Out of Their Faces

8.龙虾从脸部排尿

You might look a little differently at the next lobster you see when you learn how they excrete their waste. Good thing we don't eat their faces, right?

在了解了龙虾是如何排泄废物之后，你再次看到龙虾时可能就会有不同的想法了。幸好的是我们并不吃它们的头部，对吧？

A lobster pees from openings (nephrophores) located at the base of its second antennae. These excretory organs are called green glands and include a sac linked to a bladder by a coiled tube.

龙虾会从它的第二对触须底部触角腺孔（类似于人类的原肾管）排尿。这些排泄器官也叫绿腺，绿腺包括通过螺旋状管与膀胱连接的体腔囊。

Lobsters also excrete from other places on their bodies, including their gills and digestive glands.

当然，龙虾也会从身体其他部位排泄废物，包括鳃和消化腺。

Excreting from the nephrophores isn't just about getting rid of toxic waste products, though -- it's part of the lobster mating ritual.

而从触须腺排尿不仅仅是除去体内的有毒废物，也是龙虾交配仪式的一部分。

Male lobsters love to fight. Female lobsters seek out the most aggressive, dominant male in the area and show their interest by peeing repeatedly into his shelter.

雄性龙虾生性好斗，雌性龙虾会在附近水域找出最好斗，最强大的雄性龙虾，然后在这个雄性龙虾的居住地不时地留下尿液求偶。

Their urine contains pheromones, which calm him down and get him in the mood, so to speak. Lobsters also urinate in each others' faces during fights to express themselves.

雌性龙虾的尿液中含有信息素，可以使雄性龙虾平静下来，也可以说是让它愉悦。此外，为了表现自己，龙虾也会在战斗过程中彼此喷尿。