The causes of locust plagues are complex, and even human scientists have not fully understood them. According to existing data and results, from an environmental perspective, locust plagues are mainly caused by drought.
Locust plagues are prone to occur in drought years. The ancient Chinese have already summed up this rule, so-called "nine out of ten droughts are locusts." The main reason for this phenomenon is that arid environments have many benefits for locust reproduction, growth, development and survival.
On the one hand, because locusts lay their eggs in the soil, in drought years, due to the drop in water levels, the soil becomes more solid, the moisture content decreases (moisture content between 10% and 20% is most suitable for them to lay eggs), and the ground vegetation is sparse. The number of eggs laid by locusts has greatly increased. When there are many, they can lay 4,000-5,000 egg masses per square meter of soil, and each egg mass contains 50-80 eggs, that is, there are 200,000-400,000 eggs per square meter.
Second, in drought years, the water levels of rivers and lakes shrink and low-lying areas are exposed, providing more suitable places for locusts to lay their eggs.
On the other hand, plants grown in arid environments have lower water content, and locusts feed on them, growing faster and having higher fecundity.
The recent climate near "Dongyang City" has been relatively dry.
After the beginning of spring, although the land on both sides of the river received a short spring rain, which allowed plants to begin to sprout, the rainfall was not heavy. In addition, although the winter is cold, surprisingly no snowflakes have fallen. The entire land is now in a relatively dry state, which is suitable for the massive reproduction and rapid growth of locusts.
When the number of locusts is insufficient, locusts are usually timid and like to live alone, so their damage is limited. But sometimes they change their habits and like to live in groups, eventually gathering in large numbers and migrating collectively, forming a terrifying locust plague.
This is because when locusts are touched on a certain part of their hind legs, they will change their solitary habits and become gregarious.
Scientists from the University of Oxford conducted experiments on desert locusts in their solitary stage, repeatedly touching multiple parts of the locust's body to find out whether there are certain tactile factors that cause the locust to change its habits. It was found that when a certain part of the locusts' hind legs was stimulated, they suddenly became gregarious, but touching other parts of the body, such as the antennae, mouth or abdomen, had no such effect. Scientists believe that the hind legs of locusts that accidentally gather in a certain natural environment touch each other, which may cause them to change their habits and start living in swarms. Their members will increase in the same way, thus forming a locust plague.
The locusts form an orderly local swarm and have the ability to act in unison, enter neighboring habitats, and allow more and more locusts to join in, eventually becoming a huge swarm.
Scientists placed increasing numbers of locust swarms in a circular arena, recorded their behavior, and used computer software to track their movements.
At medium densities (25 to 62 locusts per square meter), the locusts will line up and start moving in the same direction, or even suddenly change direction in unison. In the experiment, when the number of locusts per square meter exceeded 74, the orderly advance of the locust swarm stopped changing direction and continued to move in the same direction for 8 hours. These observations confirm the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's definition of locust nymph swarms. At this defined density, locust swarms can easily cross the "tipping point" and trigger a locust plague.
Ants are no strangers to locust plagues. Every ten years, there will always be one or two locust plagues in the local area. In terms of the life span of the queen and male ants, they will encounter one or two locust plagues on average in their lifetime, leaving unforgettable memories. memory.
For humans, locust plagues only mean crop damage, food failure, and famine. Ants are even more afraid of locust plagues.
Migrating locust swarms will eat up all the vegetation in a place, and the spread can be so wide that it can cover the entire flat land on both sides of the river.
When locusts eat all the plants they can eat, other insects that have lost their food will also starve to death or be forced to move away. But ants cannot leave the nest and fly away. At this time, there is no prey and no plants. The ants have lost their food source and will starve to death in large numbers.
According to the memories of older male ants, in the most miserable years, up to 80% of the people in the Big-headed Ant Kingdom starved to death, and those who survived could only survive on the corpses of their companions until a new batch of plants grew up a few months later. , the emergence of new arthropods can alleviate famines.
For ants, another scary thing about the locust plague is that locusts are not just vegetarians!
Vegetarianism here is literally what it means!
Although locusts feed on vegetation, they also eat meat and can be extremely aggressive when food is scarce.
Observers once saw about 40 locusts gnawing on the remaining skin and flesh of chicken feet discarded by humans in Xinjiang. Some observers also confirmed that captured locusts that had not been fed for several days attacked and ate the spiders around them.
In this world, locusts have few natural enemies, and swarms of locusts are almost invincible. Imagine that if hundreds of thousands of wolves that are not afraid of death launch an attack, even a human army with modern weapons would be overwhelmed to deal with it. While locusts are so numerous, fearless of death, and able to fly and escape, ants have no advanced weapons and only have bodies of flesh and blood.
When there are too many locusts and the local vegetation cannot satisfy the appetites of these greedy bugs, and the swarms have not yet begun to migrate, the locusts will hunt other arthropods.
Even ants, also known for their collective strength, cannot resist the predation of these locust swarms. Locust swarms can easily break up the dense formation of ants and then feast.
Even if the ants are hiding underground, the locusts will dig out the soil and launch an attack. Nothing can stop these monsters who just want to eat.
"Dongyang City" and the surrounding areas are located in the northern part of the hills. This area is relatively drier and has always been the birthplace of locust plagues, which have been devastated every time.
It is precisely for this reason that the Big-headed Ant Kingdom did not devote itself to developing into the southern hilly areas. Instead, it painstakingly expanded northward, fighting endlessly across the river with the Pavement Ant Barbarian Kingdom.
The painful memory of the locust plague has been passed down by the male ants from generation to generation. The older male ants at the "Transit Station" have noticed the signs of the locust plague, so they can't wait to report to the protagonist.
Ants have never been able to stop locust outbreaks, and the older male ants just did their duty.
After the locust plague, it is hard to say how many ants will survive in the entire Big-headed Ant Kingdom. However, in the small and weakly defended "transit station", the older male ant and his team are trapped in the hinterland of the locust plague, with almost no chance of survival. of.
But as long as the protagonist doesn't give an order, these dedicated ants will never evacuate this dangerous place.
