Over the time of the study, and especially in the past 10 years, there's been a very severe and deepening drought and it turns out that the colonies that conserve water, that stay in when it's really hot outside, and thus sacrifice getting as much food as possible, are the ones more likely to have offspring colonies.
在研究进行中的那些年里， 尤其是最近的十年， 实验所在的美国西南部 经历了非常严重和持久的干旱， 结果是那些更注重保持水分的蚁群， 那些大热天不出门的蚁群， 也就是那些失去了更多觅食机会的蚁群， 反而是更有可能有后代蚁群的。