A Beetle By Any Other Name

换一个名字,甲虫还是甲虫

99% Invisible

艺术

2025-03-05

28 分钟
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单集简介 ...

A tiny, unremarkable beetle hiding in the caves of Slovenia has an infamously unfortunate name—one that has sparked heated debates in the scientific world.
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单集文稿 ...

  • This is 99% invisible.

  • I'm Roman Mars.

  • In a valley in central Slovenia,

  • there's a giant limestone cave called Pel, which means hell in Slovene.

  • If you look hard at the rocks.

  • Above the entrance, you can just make.

  • Out the shape of the devil, which.

  • Is one explanation of how the cave got its name.

  • That is British expat and 99pi's Slovenia correspondent, will Aspinall.

  • I recently met up with Andrej Kappler from the Slovenian National Institute of Biology.

  • Andre studies the ecology of caves, and today he is taking me spelunking.

  • I'm not naturally inclined to go into caves.

  • Is it safe?

  • It's completely safe.

  • But there's one caveat in this case, because it was very,

  • very rainy these days and hopefully it didn't flood.

  • But if it did flood, then we're in trouble.

  • Okay, we're in the cave.

  • The cave is narrow, only about a meter wide in places, but it's like 15 meters high.

  • It's a chasm and it's flooded.