Compared with the unruly and unruly hunting ants, the pavement ants have integrated into the Divine Envoy King's army relatively smoothly.
Based on King Ukiye's good performance since his surrender and his contribution to the protagonist's subjugation of the pavement ants, the protagonist has slowly begun to change the way he used to both defend and use King Ukiye.
King Fuye was ordered to form a new "Southern City" garrison. Two-thirds of the legion were pavement ant warriors and one-third were big-headed ant warriors. Since the combat effectiveness of pavement ant workers is relatively weak, the combat effectiveness of this garrison is not as good as that of other garrison corps. However, the garrison is located in the southern hilly area that has been cleaned up and has been rarely threatened by the indigenous hunting ant tribe recently. **There is also the support of the surrendered Sickle Hunting Ant clan that can be recruited at any time, which is enough.
And letting King Fuye serve as the commander of the garrison is also a sign of trust and promotion. However, as a check, the male Big-headed Ant Gardenia was still appointed as the deputy commander, mainly responsible for the Big-headed Ant squad in the garrison.
In this army, the command between the pavement ants and the big-headed ants is relatively smooth. The thinking and behavior patterns of the two ants are similar, and there is no obstacle to communication, if they are willing to communicate with each other.
Perhaps it is precisely because of such similar habits that two ants of different races have become mortal enemies, forming a confrontation across the river and each dominating the other!
If someone is not of my species, their mind will be different, and it will be the same among ants. What is more difficult to reconcile is the issue of mutual discrimination between the two races.
The big-headed ants look down on the pavement ants, thinking they are losers and barbarians. The pavement ants, especially King Fuye, are only willing to submit to strong men like the protagonist, and other big-headed ants are also regarded as rude barbarians.
Just as racial discrimination and geographical blackness are common in human society, ants are also not immune. Just like before in the main nest "Qingqiu City" of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom, the protagonist also realized that the male ants in the main nest discriminated against the male ants in each sub-nest.
The protagonist has no good way to eliminate this kind of discrimination in the short term. It is unrealistic to completely eliminate it. Even modern developed human society cannot do this. The mutual discrimination between different races is also objectively helpful for the protagonist to check and balance his subordinates. It is partly for this reason that the protagonist promotes King Fuye as a clampdown on the male giants such as Gun and Big-headed Ant, who have become increasingly arrogant due to their military exploits. .
In addition to dealing with the problem of integrating the scythe ants and pavement ants into the Angel King's army, the protagonist is also concerned about the domestication and integration of beetles into the army.
After the big-headed ant survivors donated five beetle eggs and breeding technology, the protagonist immediately organized the ant hands to start hatching and domesticating these beetles.
Five beetle eggs were put into a special greenhouse. This greenhouse was built next to the combustion chamber. It has air channels to adjust the temperature, ensuring that in the cold winter, the temperature is suitable for beetle eggs to hatch and for the beetles to live.
With the technology of the Big-headed Ant survivors, they can only hatch and domesticate a batch of beetles every year in the warm season. However, the protagonist can achieve year-round hatching with the help of technology similar to human greenhouses.
Humidity adjustment can be achieved by allowing worker ants to humidify by holding water droplets, or by introducing hot air to dehumidify.
The incubation cycle of beetle eggs is about ten days. Now the first batch of beetle eggs are about to hatch, and the selected feeder ants are working around the clock to take care of these eggs that the protagonist attaches great importance to.
In addition to the five medium-sized beetle eggs presented as a gift, the protagonist also mobilized the ants in "Dongyang City" and "Southern City" to search for beetle eggs when foraging.
The locations where various beetles lay their eggs are similar, usually in the soil. Ants generally forage on the surface, so it is difficult to find these buried beetle eggs.
But there are exceptions. When there are strong winds or heavy rains, some soil layers will always be stirred up and a small number of insect eggs will be exposed. Some of these eggs are dead, but whether they are dead or alive, the ants will use them as food after discovering them.
Now under the strict orders of the protagonist, the ants began to search everywhere to find the eggs and brought them to "Dongyang City".
The dead eggs are still used as food. These foods rich in protein and fat are an important component of high-end foods.
The other living eggs were thrown into the beetle hatching greenhouse. Some eggs are not beetle eggs, but it doesn't matter. Once they hatch and notice something is wrong, it's not too late to kill them.
Some eggs are not adapted to the greenhouse environment, especially if they have just been dug out of the ground where the temperature is constant. After a period of cold environment, they are then sent to a relatively warm greenhouse, which will cause some eggs to lose their vitality. The worker ants can only clean these eggs and use them as food.
Currently, a total of more than 20 eggs have been collected in the greenhouse, most of which appear to be beetle eggs, including many of large beetles.
As long as different beetles can form a large scale, they are expected to reproduce internally, which will greatly increase the number of beetles and eliminate the need to waste time and effort in searching for eggs in the wild.
However, in order to maintain genetic diversity and enhance the beetle's physique, it is still necessary to continuously replenish fresh blood from the wild to prevent the beetle from falling into inbreeding.
Although inbreeding does not seem to be a big problem for insects. Although theoretically long-term repeated inbreeding will reduce genetic diversity and increase the probability of homozygosity for harmful genes, the probability of homozygosity for beneficial genes also increases. Combined with insect population size and generally short life histories, inbreeding sometimes does not necessarily mean degeneration.
Some ant species, such as house ants, stubbornly insist on inbreeding. The new breeding ants are digested internally, and then the nests bud out to produce new ant colonies, which is very different from the practice of most ants that mate in the form of nuptial flights.
However, considering the long-term inbreeding of the beetles raised, it may still lead to a greatly increased chance of recessive homozygosity, an increased probability of disease in offspring, a general decrease in vitality, productivity, fecundity, stress resistance, adaptability, and slow growth and development. wait. The protagonist decides that he still has to persist in the laborious and costly search for insect eggs in the wild.
In order to prepare for the hatching of the first batch of beetle eggs, a group of domesticated worker ants are already undergoing training. They will learn the domestication technology taught by the survivors of the big-headed ants, combined with the protagonist's experience in domesticating flies and fly tigers, and be responsible for training the beetles after they emerge from the pupae.
Just next to the beetle hatching greenhouse, new beetle stables are being excavated as a place for beetles to be domesticated and live in the future.
The army is also ready to receive the beetles, but all the commanders have not yet understood the status and role of the beetles in the army!
