Qualified draft animals must have three major indicators: sufficient pulling power, speed and continuous working time (endurance). Therefore, not any large mammal can become a draft animal. The "grass mud horses" were eliminated due to insufficient pulling power and can only be used as draft animals. Lightweight pack animal.
After comprehensively evaluating the three indicators of pulling power, speed and continuous working time, the protagonist feels that among insects, the best ones with the potential to become draft animals are various types of beetles. Among them, the protagonist's favorites are the stag beetle and the horned fairy.
Stag beetles, also known as stag beetles, are the collective name for about 1,000 species of beetles in the family Lucanidae of the order Coleoptera.
Stag beetles are generally medium to extra-large insects, with a body length of 70 to 129 mm, an oblong or oval body, and a rather oblate dorsal and ventral shape. The body color is mostly tan, dark brown to black, or has brown-red, yellow-brown and other spots. Some species have metallic luster, and usually the body surface is not hairy.
The sexual dimorphism of the stag beetle is very obvious. The male has a large head, close to the size of the chest, and the upper jaw is abnormally developed, mostly in the shape of antlers. Male individuals of the same species also have significant differences in size and simplicity due to different levels of development. There are various forms of stag beetles, and the compound eyes are usually small. The elytra are well developed and cover the back like natural armor, and 5 abdominal plates can be seen on the abdomen.
The most typical feature of the stag beetle is the male's well-developed upper jaw, which is shaped like a stag's antlers. Many species have thinner branches and teeth on their horns, and their horns are as long as their bodies. The Sumatran giant stag beetle can even cut off human fingers.
The stag beetle is an aggressive insect. Its long mandible is its weapon, and its body is covered in armor, like a heavily armored warrior.
Most stag beetles live around dead wood. The larvae feed on the dead wood and the adults suck sap or nectar. Adult beetles are mostly active at night. Some species of adults are phototaxis, but there are also species that are active during the day.
The one-horned beetle, also known as the two-pronged rhinoceros beetle, is an insect belonging to the family Scarabaeidae. It is named after the male’s well-developed head horns and lives in the forest.
The body length of adult worms is generally 30 to 50mm (excluding horns), the body width is 20 to 30mm, the body is oblong, the back surface of the body is smooth or slightly hairy, and the ventral surface is more hairy.
The body color of unicorns varies greatly among individuals, ranging from dark red to reddish brown to pure black. Sometimes the color of the head, thorax and elytra of the same individual will also be different. The head is small, the compound eyes are dark reddish brown, and the upper lip is in the shape of an upturned flat shovel. Elytra shoulder warts and end warts are well developed.
The phenomenon of sexual dimorphism in Rhizoctonus is also significant. Males have well-developed forehead horns, 15-35mm long, extending forward, with the end bent upward and divided into four forks. Smaller individuals may only have two forks, pronotum and thorax. A chest and dorsal horn protrudes forward from the center, bends slightly downward, and bifurcates at the end. The female has only a small bulge on the top of her forehead, no prothoracic dorsal horn, and a Y-shaped shallow depression on the sterno-dorsal plate. The male's back is brighter, while the female's back is thicker and darker. The male's front legs are significantly longer than those of the female.
The larvae mostly inhabit evergreen or deciduous broad-leaved forests. The larvae rely on the humus formed by the leaf soil or dead wood under the forest to feed. Therefore, they have high requirements for the originality of the forest, and they are especially fond of Fagaceae plants, such as Quercus lucidum. In addition, larvae also live in rotten grass piles, wood chip piles in lumber mills, and wood chip culture media in mushroom farms.
In the human world, under natural conditions, adult beetles begin to appear in early summer, and are most common between June and July. Most of them will die by September. Adults like to be active when the temperature is above 20°C. They mostly rest in dark and humid environments such as leaf piles and soil during the day. They begin to be active at dusk. The peak period of activity is the first few hours of the night after sunset, and they are phototaxis.
Adult unicorns feed on the sap flowing out of tree wounds or overripe fruits. Although they have chewing mouthparts, their feeding methods are highly specialized. The unicorns will first use their spade-shaped upper lip to scratch the bark of the tree or the surface of the fruit. , and then lick the sap or fruit with its brush-like tongue. The sap will also attract other insects to feed together. If there is not enough food taken in at night, it will also happen that the unicorn will continue to lie on the food to eat during the day.
Males of the horned fairy are aggressive and will fight with their forehead horns in order to compete for food and mating rights. The fighting parties will first shake their foreheads up and down, contract their abdomens and make "chi-chi-" noises to demonstrate. If neither side retreats, they will try to insert their foreheads under the opponent's body and lift the opponent over. The party that is lifted up is the loser. Generally, as long as it is lifted up once, it will immediately admit defeat and run away. Stag beetles also exhibit similar mating competition behavior.
There are often a large number of mites attached to the body surface of adult unicorn beetles, but they are generally not life-threatening.
Both the stag beetle and the rhinoceros beetle have the characteristics of larger size and strength. In addition, they are herbivorous, and their aggression is mostly directed at competitors during mating. They are usually relatively docile, and they are simply the "old scalpers" in the insect world. ".
In the human world, stag beetles and stag beetles do not live long. Stag beetles can only live for 1-3 months. Stag beetles generally live for half a year, and a few individuals can survive the winter and live for another season.
But in this world, the protagonist knows from the information packets observed by other ants that these big guys can live for several years to ten years, and even live longer than many ants.
With sufficient lifespans, domesticating stag beetles and rhinoceros beetles becomes more economically feasible. After all, if draft animals take a lot of time to domesticate but can only be used for a few months, it is undoubtedly a waste of time, energy and materials.
At the same time, the protagonist also noticed that this longevity phenomenon does not only appear in stag beetles and rhinoceros beetles. The protagonist's race of big-headed ants, whether they are worker ants, soldier ants, male ants and queens, have longer life spans than humans. The world's brethren live longer, with queens and male ants even able to live for more than ten years.
Through King Floating Leaf, the protagonist knows that the lifespan of pavement ants is roughly the same.
On the other hand, the average lifespan of newly conquered ants is shorter. Their warriors generally only live a few months to one or two years after emerging from pupae, and the queen ants can only live three or four years.
However, this short lifespan does not mean that the life span of the Hunter Ant is inherently short. You must know that most of the Hunter Ant warriors were killed in wars or hunting, and almost none of them died. A tribe of hunting ferocious ants can only exist for a few years on average, which is close to the average lifespan of a queen or male ant. This also means that if there is a peaceful environment, the life span of the ants has great room to increase.
When the Angel King's Legion conquered the southern hills, they captured and surrendered a cowardly old male ant hunter from the tribe of ant hunters that encountered the bark mantis. He lived for four or five years. And it looks very healthy, which is considered a long life among the ants.
