The dung beetle and the butterfly enjoyed their delicious meal without disturbing each other, but they did not expect that the delicious meal in front of them was actually just a bait, and the trap had been activated...
The dung beetle, also known as the dung beetle, belongs to the family Coleoptera. The body of the dung beetle is black or dark brown, nearly round in shape, with short elytra and an exposed end of the abdomen. It is 5 to 30 centimeters long and is a medium-to-large insect.
Dung beetles can use the polarization phenomenon of moonlight to locate themselves to help feed, and they have certain phototaxis. Most dung beetles are coprophagous and feed on animal excrement. They are known as "natural scavengers". The dung beetle was also the scarab of ancient Egypt.
Dung beetles are commonly known as dung beetles because they use their shovel-shaped heads and paddle-shaped antennae to roll their feces into a ball, which can sometimes be as big as an apple. In early summer, dung beetles bury themselves and their dung balls in underground chambers and feed on them. Later, the female lays eggs in the dung balls, which the hatching larvae also feed on.
However, in this world, there are no large animals that provide dung beetles with dung as food. Most dung beetles have switched to scavenging, and a few still make a living by eating insect dung.
And that butterfly is actually a dead leaf butterfly.
The dead leaf butterfly, whose scientific name is the dead leaf butterfly, belongs to the family Nymphalidae of the order Lepidoptera. It is a world-famous species of mimicry and a typical example of natural camouflage.
The back of the dead leaf butterfly's wings is the color of dead leaves. When the wings are brought together and resting on the branches of trees, it is difficult to distinguish them from the dead leaves of broad-leaved trees that are about to wither.
The wingspan of the dead leaf butterfly is 70 to 80mm wide, and the back of the body is black. It likes to live on cliffs and lush forests, and feeds on plant sap. The larvae feed on plants such as Malanthus and Polygonaceae.
When the two insects finished eating, they left separately. At this time, their bodies were already contaminated with dozens of mycelium, but they were unaware of it.
The dung beetle and the dead leaf butterfly, two different insects, have become the targets of the larvae of the thread-parasitic fungus at the same time. This is something the protagonist never thought of.
According to previous intelligence, the protagonist always thought that these thread-parasitic fungi only parasitized ants.
If the protagonist sees it correctly, these mycelium larvae have already pierced their heads into the bodies of dung beetles and dead leaf butterflies. They are not just using insects to spread long distances like cockleburs, but treat them as for a new host.
The protagonist doesn't understand why these thread-parasitic fungi can parasitize other insects, even though this has never been discovered before.
But reality has emerged, and the protagonist needs to consider the impact of this information.
Flying insects like the dead leaf butterfly have a very large range of activities, so the thread-parasitic fungi that live on it may be spread to far away places and are no longer limited to a corner of the hilly area, and the threat will be greatly increased. . New infected people will even appear near "Dongyang City".
The protagonist decides to return to "Dongyang City" immediately and formulate a corresponding defense plan.
The protagonist rides Xiaoqing and continues to fly over their heads along the path of the parasitic ants at a height of half a meter, while returning and continuing to observe.
After flying for a while, the protagonist suddenly felt a strange reaction in his heart, as if he was being stared at by something.
He immediately asked Xiao Qing to hover on the spot and looked around to find the source of this feeling of gaze.
Soon, he found his target on the ground, which was ignored by the protagonist at the beginning.
It was a huge parasitic ant. Her abdomen was extremely bloated and there were dozens of dense threads of parasitic fungi growing on her back.
The protagonist recognizes her - the queen of the parasitic ant he once saw when reading the captive's memory.
Generally speaking, the effective visual field of worker ants and soldier ants is one decimeter, and that of male and female ants is three meters. The protagonist is currently flying half a meter, which is five meters in the air. In theory, even the queen ant cannot see such a distant target clearly.
The focus of the parasitic queen's compound eyes is always tracking Xiao Qing, who is hovering in the sky. The protagonist does not think this is a coincidence, because the other party can obviously see him.
As soon as the protagonist makes eye contact with the queen of this parasitic ant, he feels a surge of hostility.
At first, the parasitic queen thought the fly above her head was moving very strangely. It kept flying and hovering above the parasitic ants, and there seemed to be something on her back.
But as soon as the protagonist's eyes came into contact with hers, an innate hostile instinct made both parties aware of the other's identity and that there was no possibility of peace between the two.
The parasitic ant queen suddenly sent out some kind of signal, and the guards around her suddenly became alert, guarding him closely, and made threatening gestures toward the sky - although they saw nothing.
The protagonist gave the parasitic queen a meaningful look, pulled up the reins, increased the flying height, and continued flying towards "Dongyang City".
After looking at each other, he had a feeling that this parasitic queen seemed to be the actual ruler of the parasitic ant nest.
So, is she the mastermind behind the scenes?
——I am the dividing line——
The protagonist, who returned to the main nest, issued an important order after emergency consultations with the male ants.
Instruction requirements: After all members of "Dongyang City" find that thread parasites are present on their companions (with morphological diagrams of the parasites in each stage), they must take the companion to a designated isolation location for review by male ants.
The thread-parasitic fungus has the ability to make other healthy ants ignore its existence in the early stages of parasitism.
However, this instruction given by the protagonist has the highest priority, which is higher than the silk thread parasite affecting other ants and thus hiding their abilities.
This directive quickly bore fruit.
After a series of heavy rains, the sky cleared up quickly, and the summer temperature jumped up a lot.
With moisture, temperature, and light, this season is the best time for plants and fungi.
The protagonist received good news - dense leaf buds began to appear in the farmland where grass seeds were sown before.
This is a good start. The protagonist asks the worker ants who are responsible for guarding the farmland to take good care of them. In particular, they must drive away and kill the pests to avoid damaging the crops.
Gun led most of the teams of the Divine Envoy King to settle in the southern fortress again. So far, there have been no reports of infestation attacks by parasitic ants.
According to the protagonist's repeated investigations, the water pool in the south of the fortress still exists. There is a lot of water in this pool and it will not be evaporated in a short time.
To the west of the big pool is a large swamp caused by heavy rains, which stretches for several kilometers and shows no sign of drying out in a short time.
The water level of the large lake to the east of the pool has risen a lot recently, approaching the location of "Dongyang City" by dozens of meters. The distance between the new lake shore and this large pond is only a short distance of more than a hundred meters.
In other words, even if the parasitic ants attack again, if they don't want to struggle in the swamp, they can only go east around to the lake shore and come back again.
