After the "New Year's Eve", the official arrival of the "Spring Festival" is announced. For ants, the "Spring Festival" is a spring festival where they can go out, and it is also what they consider the beginning of a new year.
But it’s not just the ants that are waking up from winter. There are also a large number of insects that have "sleeped" all winter, and they will wake up one after another in spring. Those species that cannot survive the winter also leave behind their hope - a large number of cold-resistant eggs.
Everyone thinks that insects will wake up naturally when the weather warms up. In fact, the awakening of overwintering insects does not only depend on temperature, but temperature is only one of the most important conditions.
First, insects need sufficient water to wake up.
Insects need to drink enough water before waking up in spring, because overwintering insects have already excreted most of the water in their bodies in advance in order to lower the freezing point of their bodies and avoid freezing to death, and they will consume it physiologically during the winter. some moisture.
This causes the insect to lose too much water in its body, hindering normal physiological and metabolic activities. Therefore, even if the weather has warmed up, these overwintering insects cannot resume their activities.
At this time, they need to use the body's epidermis, respiratory system, digestive system and other water-absorbing organs to absorb as much water as possible from the soil. They will not start activities until the water required for physical activities is sufficient.
If the spring is too dry and cannot absorb enough moisture, it will cause a large number of overwintering insects to die. Someone has conducted such a survey and found that the overwintering mortality rate of corn borers is generally around 50-60%, and more than half of them die due to excessive water loss in spring. Insects that have survived the harsh winter often die before the spring rains, which has to be said to be a tragedy.
Relatively speaking, the fate of the eggs is much better. The overwintering eggs of the cotton bug can hatch in early May if the air humidity is above 60%. If there is not enough moisture or it does not rain for a long time, it will not hatch and will wait until They hatch after it rains.
Second, insects need food stimulation to wake up from hibernation.
The overwintering and awakening times of insects vary greatly depending on the species. Generally speaking, species with few generations in a year and simple food will spend the winter early; species with many generations or complex food habits will spend the winter later.
The time of awakening is not only related to their living habits, but also closely related to the growing season of the food they need.
Aphids that spend the winter in their eggs break out of their egg shells and come out to suck the sap from the shoots as soon as the desired host plant begins to germinate. Therefore, the host's germination time becomes a signal for aphids to hatch.
Similarly, hoverflies that specialize in aphids will wake up as soon as aphids appear, and then lay their eggs in the aphid colony.
Butterflies, bees and other insects that love flowers for nectar only spread their wings and fly when the spring buds are in full bloom.
The small beetles, leafhoppers, stink bugs and other adult insects sleeping among the dead leaves and dead grass have simple food. As long as the weather gets warmer, the spring rains fall, and the trees return to spring, they will start to move.
The weather this spring was very good. The rain fell very early. Although it was not much, it was enough to wake up a large number of animals and plants. As weeds begin to sprout and flowers begin to bloom, insects have ample water and potential food sources, and begin to move around.
Scarabs, wireworms, rhinoceros beetles, ladybugs, leaf beetles, etc. have begun to emerge from their hibernation sites. Beetles, blind bugs, and flower bugs are looking for food everywhere. Aphids such as wheat aphids have climbed onto the tender new plants. Cabbage caterpillars The larvae of butterfly moths such as cutworms and cutworms have not yet grown wings, and they are lying on the new leaves to feast.
It is at this time that the ants begin to leave the cat's nest where they have spent the winter.
After the beginning of spring, the ants have a lot of work, especially in "Linshui City".
As the forefront of winter defensive warfare, "Linshui City" successfully resisted many enemy attacks. But in general, due to seasonal and terrain restrictions, the Pavement Ant Barbarian Army has been unable to exert its strength advantage. The overall scale of the battle and the number of casualties on both sides were not large.
Finally, the enemy gave up the siege of "Linshui City" and began to move. The protagonist suspects that they have turned to attack other sub-nests. However, winter blocks the connection between different nests, causing the protagonist to lose his source of information and his eyesight goes dark.
It's spring now, although most of the land is still muddy and difficult to walk on, and there are still many shady areas where the snow has not melted. However, the ants can already take to the road and travel far.
The protagonist immediately sent out multiple teams of messengers to several nearby sub-nests to learn about their latest situation. There is also a team of messengers who will rush back to "Dongyang City" to convey instructions to the local garrison to transport a batch of urgently needed supplies for the protagonist.
In fact, the fastest way to contact them is for the protagonist to ride on Xiao Qing II and go to the target location in person. However, it was originally promised that Flying Eagle would lead the Flying Knights and bring Xiao Qing II over in the spring, but there has been no movement yet. Maybe Delayed by something. The protagonist can only do the next best thing and send a large number of messengers.
Most ants, whether workers or soldiers, are sent out by the protagonist to search for food.
After a winter of consumption and the "New Year's Eve" banquet, the food reserves in "Linshui City" have dropped to a dangerous level.
Some of these stored grains, such as dried banyan tree fruits, still have a lot of corruption, which has further exacerbated the food crisis.
Fortunately, the most indispensable thing in the spring wilderness is food.
Ants can hunt insects that have survived the winter, although many insects are so skinny that they have little meat.
The most popular ones are all kinds of caterpillars, which hatch out of their eggs. They chew on leaves and grass all the time, and their bodies expand rapidly. The ants enjoy the delicate flesh of these bugs and begin hunting them in large numbers near their nests.
The eggs of some insects hatch relatively late, and ants are good at detecting whether there are eggs underground from tiny traces on the ground. These unhatched eggs are rich in nutrients. Whether they are baked or added to soup and porridge, they are as delicious as eggs.
Plant-based vegetarian food is also essential. The buds and flowers of various spring plants can be eaten as long as they are free of toxins. With the introduction of clay pots, ants are also happy to cook and eat these vegetarian foods instead of eating them raw as in the past - the big-headed ants can only digest a small part of the plant fiber eaten raw, which is very wasteful.
In addition to the honey source of aphids, ants also have a sweet food in spring - nectar. Ants compete with bees for scarce nectar and pollen. The former is a luxury product, while the latter is equally nutritious.
The fertile spring suddenly opened its fertile embrace to the survivors of winter.
