Getting back to business, the protagonist begins to check the information packet on how to raise beetles conveyed by the messenger.
The protagonist's original attempt to tame beetles was abandoned at the theoretical stage because there were several problems that were difficult to solve.
The first is the problem of eggs.
Beetle eggs are relatively difficult to find. They usually lay their eggs in the soil and rotten wood, and the eggs are not concentrated.
It is difficult to find enough eggs without digging through the soil extensively. And large-scale soil digging is a time-consuming and labor-intensive matter. Even if something is gained, because many insects will lay their eggs in similar places, neither the protagonist nor the big-headed ants know how to distinguish suitable beetle eggs. come out.
The same is true if you look for larvae after the beetle eggs hatch. Beetle larvae are also worms, and it is difficult to distinguish them from other insect larvae.
After the beetle emerges from the pupa, its appearance is easy to recognize, but for insects, emerging from the pupa means adulthood. Many skills are innate, and the remaining skills will be adapted within a short period of time after emerging from the pupa. master.
If you find a beetle that has emerged from its pupa a long time ago, it will be difficult to tame it. The best way to tame flies, for example, is to allow them to adapt to the domesticated environment when they are larvae, and to be tainted with the scent of the tamer. In this way, the domesticated object after emerging from the pupa will not reject the domesticator.
In this regard, there is no useful advice in the domestication information in the information package, because this group already has a certain scale of beetle livestock and can rely on the internal proliferation of livestock to meet demand.
The protagonist thought about it, and it seemed that this fall, it would be a feasible plan to send scouts to track some target beetles, find their egg-laying locations, and then dig out the eggs and bring them back.
The last time the protagonist wanted to tame beetles was in spring and summer, which was not the season for beetles to lay eggs, so the opportunity was missed.
In contrast, collecting fly eggs is much simpler. As long as a large amount of rotten food is piled at a suitable location on the surface, large numbers of flies will naturally swarm from all corners, scrambling to eat and lay eggs on it. The ants only need to collect the fly eggs and maggots afterwards.
The second problem is food.
As mentioned earlier, stag beetles or stag beetles feed on tree sap, nectar and fruits. Because nectar and fruits are seasonal foods, they are difficult to obtain and their supply is unstable. Therefore, if these two beetles are domesticated, tree sap must be the main feed.
However, ants cannot collect tree sap, nor can it be kept fresh after collection. These beetles can only be kept where there are trees.
However, stocking beetles requires a large investment of ant hands, and stocking a large number of beetles can easily cause a few trees to quickly die due to insect damage. There must be a certain size of forest to support more beetles.
According to the protagonist's observation, the location of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom and the Pavement Ant Barbarian Kingdom is actually a mountain valley.
The great river flows from the mountains to the west, carrying silt and depositing it into a valley plain. The great river then flows out from the foothills of the low mountains to the east, leaving a sizable freshwater lake in the southeastern part of the valley.
This valley, in the protagonist's previous life, was probably the size of one or two human villages, but in the ant world, it is already a vast world.
The plain on the north bank of the river is larger and is mainly occupied by the pavement ant barbarians, while the overlord of the south bank plain is the big-headed ant. Many other species of ants are forced to survive in marginal hills, mountains and swamps.
In this mountain valley, perhaps due to the shallow soil and frequent mountain fires, the trees are not densely packed. Most of the trees grow sporadically, or a few trees gather together. Only in the hills and mountains on the edge of the plains are there large tracts. Concentrated forest.
In other words, most of the territory of the big-headed ant kingdom does not have the conditions for large-scale breeding of beetles.
These big-headed ant colonies, which provide beetle feeding methods, live in the woods at the foot of the mountain, so they don't have to worry about this problem.
As for the protagonist, he can only barely think of the newly conquered southern hills. The tree resources here are more abundant and may be able to support many beetles.
The third problem is that the ants do not know how to care for beetles at all stages and how to domesticate them.
Fortunately, at this point, the information in the information package is detailed enough, even so detailed that it exceeds the protagonist's expectations.
Let's take a look at this information in the packet. The first part is about the characteristics and care of beetles in each stage.
For example, the eggs of rhinopterus are milky white or light yellow. The newly laid eggs are like rice grains. As they develop, they will gradually expand into a spherical shape the size of mung bean grains. The incubation process takes about 10 days when the temperature and humidity are suitable.
The newly hatched larvae are first-instar larvae. After about one month, they molt into second-instar larvae, and after another month or so, they molt again into third-instar larvae. The third instar larvae has the longest period of 6-8 months, which will lengthen and shorten with changes in the temperature of the growing environment.
The weight of the larvae reaches its peak in the middle of the third instar, which is when winter begins. The weight of the larvae will begin to decrease. The weight of the larvae will not rise until the temperature warms in the second year, but it will not reach the peak level.
The larvae at the end of the third instar stop eating, use their bodies to squeeze out an ellipsoidal chamber in the soil, and reinforce the chamber walls with feces and secretions to form a pupal chamber. The chrysalis' pupal chamber is vertical or slightly tilted, while the pupal chambers of most beetles are nearly horizontal.
After that, the larvae enters the pre-pupal stage in the pupal chamber. The body becomes shorter, the color turns yellow, and the epidermis becomes wrinkled. Soon after, it molts, that is, it pupates. The pupa is dark yellow and has no movement ability. Only the abdomen can twist. They will stay in this state until next spring.
Female unicorns like to lay eggs in an environment suitable for larvae growth, such as humus piles. They will drill in and compact the soil to create an egg chamber that is slightly larger than the egg. Each egg has a separate egg chamber. After the female unicorn lays eggs in the humus for a period of time, she will come out to look for food to replenish nutrition and physical strength, and then continue to look for a suitable place to lay eggs. Under normal circumstances, a female unicorn can lay 40-80 eggs in more than 2-3 months.
After collecting these eggs, they should be placed in a nest filled with humus or fermented plants, and then filled with the same food, but ventilation must be paid attention to. These foods can have a certain thermal insulation effect.
After the beetle eggs hatch, they can continue to be cultured in the incubator, and the food will still be fermented or humus plants. However, this type of food is also particularly easy to breed fungi, and beetle larvae in this period are more afraid of these fungi and may even be wrapped in mycelium. Ant breeders need to remove the mycelium in time to create a "germ-free" environment.
