The tribe quickly determined the location of the new nest and chose the natural hollows and bark cracks of the jujube tree.
We need to clean up the new nest site - there are a lot of dead leaves, floating soil, and some insects have also chosen this place as their nests. Naturally, they need to be driven away or killed.
In fact, compared to the warm and safe caves underground, our species does not like this kind of nest in the tree very much.
The warmth of tree holes is far inferior to that of underground nests, and it will be more difficult to survive in winter. It is also difficult to build or expand a nest inside a tree trunk, as wood is far harder than soil.
But these problems can be overcome. As long as there is enough food, even if the tree hole is cold, we can eat and sleep through the cold winter. Although I have not experienced cold winter, some of the older generations in the tribe have lived since last year. They said that cold winter is the season of evil gods, and it is the easiest gathering place to die, and food is the only winter nemesis.
Our tribe is not large in scale, and the existing tree holes are enough for our tribe to have a spacious space.
Several young and strong soldiers and I were responsible for going to the jujube tree and cleaning the tree holes first.
As we gradually approached the dry river ditch, this jujube tree appeared in front of us.
This is a tall tree. It would take me a whole meal to climb from the roots to any branch. If game is plentiful, such a date tree can sometimes support a small tribe.
The jujube tree has gray-brown bark, and the branches have different shapes, some are long, some are short, and some new branches have a smooth surface and no longitudinally split bark, but are purple-red or gray-brown.
The leaves of the jujube tree are very small, unlike the broad leaves of the faton tree inhabited by the tribe opposite. The leaves are shaped like insect eggs and oval. The leaves are only as wide as one or two warriors, and as long as three or four warriors. long. The tops of these jujube leaves are blunt and rounded, with short tips, and the edges of the leaves have a serrated shape like the jaws of a beetle. The leaves are dark green and hairless above, and light green and hairless below, with only a few sparse hairs along the veins.
This jujube tree is very different from the jujube trees I have seen before. Its jujube head, secondary branches and jujube hanging branches are all curled and not straight. The branches are dense, twisted and stretched forward, just like when we were struggling before hunting. Like earthworms.
The drupe of the jujube tree is oblong or oblong, only slightly smaller than the leaves. Now it is long and mature, and the outer skin is green and red.
These date trees will be very important to our tribe, although we do not eat these sweet fruits, even though it is as sweet as honeydew. But many prey like this fruit, and we can get a lot of prey close to the new nest.
These prey include date gall midges, date armyworms, date marchers, scale insects, stink bugs, leaf ticks, red spider mites, thorn moths, etc.
Jujube gall mosquito larvae like to eat the young leaves of jujube trees. They can be found wherever the leaves are red, swollen, rolled vertically, thickened, turn purple-red or dark brown, and wither and fall off. When these larvae grow to their maximum size, they are only as thick and long as the limbs of our soldiers. Their soft bodies are milky white to light yellow, with obvious body segments, small brown heads, and an amber breast fork.
There are not many date gall midge larvae this season, but they will definitely appear again next year. These are easy-to-catch prey and delicate meat.
Compared with jujube gall midge larvae, which only like to eat young leaves, the feeding habits of jujube armyworm larvae are much more complex. They like to eat jujube buds, jujube flowers, jujube leaves, and eat jujube fruits.
The larvae of date armyworm are about the same length as a warrior. The carcass is beautiful light green to yellow-green or yellow, with a reddish-brown or brown head. The scutes and buttocks of the chest are brown with dark brown spots.
Now is the time when jujube armyworm larvae appear in large numbers. We randomly inspected some branches and fruits and caught two for lunch.
Jujube is a kind of ruler moth, also called pear inchworm and pear bug. In addition to jujube trees, it is also common on pear trees, apple trees, hawthorn trees, crabapple trees, apricot trees, poplars and other plants. It is also what we often see. captured prey.
Jujube larvae have abdominal legs. When moving, they will first move the tail end forward, arch the body, and then lift the front half of the body and move it forward. It looks quite clumsy. When still, they resemble a small branch, often deceiving hunters with less keen senses.
We are familiar with scale insects, which not only produce delicious meat, but also produce honeydew. Outsiders like to raise scale insects and aphids in groups, but our species will not do this and will only kill and eat them.
Among the stink bugs on jujube trees, there are stink bugs, stink bugs, tea-winged stink bugs, etc. Their nymphs and adults will suck the newly sprouted buds.
Stink bugs are not good hunting targets. They have odor glands that secrete odorous liquid that evaporates into an unbearable odor in the air. Moreover, some stink bugs are carnivorous. If you identify the wrong target, you may encounter a fight, which may lead to injury or death of the warrior in serious cases.
But stink elephant meat is very delicious, with high protein content, low fat, and a strong special aroma, like the aroma of some kind of tree bark. Attracting some warriors to go hunting regardless of their own safety.
Leaf ticks are very small insects and are generally not worthy of hunting. However, if you are very hungry, you can find pieces of leaf ticks and eat them one by one to satisfy your hunger.
Both adults and nymphs of these leaf ticks like to eat leaves and flowers. The leaves of the jujube trees that are eaten will appear hyperplasia, the leaves will shrink, and the leaves will curl toward the front along the leaf edges, showing uneven shapes, or redness and shrinkage, and the backs of the leaves will become sponges. It loses a lot of water and dries up. Following these characteristics, we can find large leaf tick communities.
Spider mites are not actually spiders, but spider mites. Adult mites are not large, but look quite like spiders. Its body color varies greatly, usually red, pear-shaped, with a long black spot on each side of its back.
Spider mites are larger than leaf ticks, but are just as often found in swarms. They first live on both sides of the main vein on the back of the leaf, and gradually spread across the entire leaf from several small groups. When there are too many spider mites, they can spin silk like real spiders, crawl on the surface of plants, and use the wind to move to other places where food is more abundant.
The larvae of the thorn moth are short, fat and slug-like. It has no abdominal legs and uses suckers instead. It moves instead of crawling but gliding.
Some thorn moth larvae are brightly colored, and their appendages are densely covered with brown stinging hairs, like matted hair. When they spin a cocoon, their appendages extend out of the cocoon for protection and camouflage. When disturbed, it will sting the target with its poisonous stinging hairs. The poison is so powerful that some warriors will die from it. (The larvae of the thorn moths are the notorious foreign spicy moths, pig hairs, eighth street moths, tentacle hairs, and bat clips)
These are the main prey near our new nest.
