The protagonist leads the accompanying team and, under the guidance of Nobita, heads to the pasture near the "Transit Station".
In fact, Nobita has never been to that pasture, but he has hunting experience with a hunting team nearby and is already considered the most familiar guide with the nearby terrain.
At the beginning, the team walked through a broad-leaved woodland, where the trees took the upper hand, blocking the sunlight firmly in the upper levels. The bottom of the forest was dark, with sparse herbaceous vegetation. Except for ferns, there were only a few trees that could be seen everywhere on the ground. Dead branches and leaves. There haven't been any locust infestations around here yet.
But as the playground got closer, locusts began to appear frequently.
Scattered locusts began to appear on nearby tree trunks, branches, shrubs, and ferns. Most of these locusts were individuals that spontaneously spread out due to getting lost or hungry in highly competitive pastures. This is not a good phenomenon. Before the locust swarms reach adulthood on a large scale, they have already shown an urgent need to migrate.
The protagonist commanded the ant-hunting scout team to capture several locusts of different sizes within the field of vision. This is a familiar path for the predatory ants that are good at hunting. However, the wings of the locust are not fully developed and they are small. It is difficult to escape from the hunting ants that move in groups by just jumping.
The protagonist looked at the bodies of several captured and killed locusts. These locusts ranged from small to large. The small ones were about the same size as ordinary soldier ants, while the large ones were almost close to the size of adult locusts in the protagonist's impression.
The protagonist can guess that the larger the locust is, the closer it is to adulthood. In fact, the nymphal stage of locusts is generally 5th instar, some species are 4th or 6th instar, and some nymphs in the family Grasshopper can reach 7th instar. In some species, females are one year older than males.
During the development process of locusts, in addition to the continuous growth of the body at different stages, some morphological characteristics are also quite different.
First, the number of antennal segments increases with age.
Second, the wing buds gradually increase in size with age. Moreover, the tips of the wing buds of young locusts in the younger stage are usually downward, and the front and rear wing buds of the last two older stage locusts are folded upward. The hind wings cover the front wings and do not change until they emerge into adults. This can Distinguish between young, old and adult stages.
Third, the size and shape of the pronotum are different.
The protagonist only intuitively knows that the age of a locust can be judged from the two most eye-catching features of body shape and wings. Within the range of vision, most locusts are still in the medium-sized stage, and there are not many particularly large and small locusts. .
This shows that it will take some time for locust swarms to develop before they become a widespread locust disaster. The number of prematurely mature locusts is too small and they may not necessarily change their habits and start migrating, and even if they migrate, they will not cause much harm.
Locusts born too late face pastures that have been eaten clean by other locusts, and it is difficult for them to have enough food to grow to maturity. The locusts themselves lack the ability to migrate and fly, so they can only be trapped and die on this land.
A few locust corpses were discarded and the team moved on.
When he turned around by chance, the protagonist suddenly discovered a horrifying scene.
I saw several abandoned locust corpses, and several locusts rushed over after smelling the smell, and began to lie on the corpses and feast.
These locusts gnawed from the soft abdomen of the corpses of the same kind, biting off the skin, flesh and internal organs and eating them bit by bit, as if they were not eating the flesh of the same kind, but plump and juicy grass leaves.
The protagonist didn't know about the carnivorous properties of locusts before, so he was a little surprised, and felt creepy when he thought about it.
These locusts on the outer edge of the pasture have difficulty surviving in the fiercely competitive core area and have escaped due to hunger. The outer edges lack the food that locusts need. There are too few delicate leaves of herbaceous plants, and the leaves of trees and shrubs are too hard and difficult to digest. Locusts rarely eat them, and occasionally they only eat some new leaf buds.
Therefore, these hungry locusts will naturally not let go of the corpses of the same kind. In comparison, the corpses of the same kind (including other meat) are rich in nutrients and easier to digest.
What the protagonist is worried about is whether the same scene will happen over there in the pasture.
If so, although the number of locust swarms that can eventually reach adulthood will decrease due to fierce competition and mutual cannibalism, the group of locusts that finally begin to migrate must be the strongest and most bloodthirsty locusts, and they will sweep everything away. No matter whether it is plants or animals, they will not escape the disaster!
The meadows are getting closer and closer, and the blades of grass are getting denser and denser. There is no need to look for it now, there are locusts everywhere you look.
Even though locusts have a green protective color, they are difficult to spot as long as they remain still in the grass. But there are so many locust swarms that are constantly moving, jumping, eating, fighting, and chasing, and they cannot hide their bodies.
Although the locust swarms cannot fly yet and cannot cover the sky and the sun, the word "mountain and plain" is enough to describe their number.
The protagonist and his party climbed on the branches of a tree. The protagonist suppressed the shock in his heart and retracted his gaze to look at the grassland. He looked back at the ants around him. These ferocious ants, including male ants like Nobita, had much worse eyesight than the protagonist. From this position, they could not overlook the scene of a large area like the protagonist, nor could they understand the scene. the dangers contained in it.
Sometimes, the protagonist will also envy these ordinary ants. They just need to live their daily lives simply and don't have to worry about the future. Even if the enemy comes to your doorstep, you just need to fight hard. For them, there isn’t much in the world to worry about or plan ahead for. But for the protagonist, it is difficult to survive in this world and live better.
The protagonist made an estimate. Based on the number of locusts counted on a small piece of grass and multiplied by the area of the playground, he estimated that there were tens of thousands of locusts here. Taking into account the error, the protagonist's worst estimate is that there are more than 100,000 locusts.
This number is very terrifying, already more than ten times more than the number of soldiers in the Divine Envoy King's legion.
Fortunately, the locusts are not very aggressive at this time. Even when they are hungry and want to eat the corpses of their companions, these locusts will never dare to come forward until the ants leave.
But it won't take long, it won't take a few days or at most a few weeks, when these locusts become adults and their temperament changes drastically, the protagonist can't guarantee whether they will become aggressive and bloodthirsty.
Now is the best time to hunt locusts, the protagonist makes a judgment.
Afterwards, the protagonist immediately returned with his team. He wanted to go back to supervise the construction of the "transfer station" and start the attack starting tomorrow.
The protagonist has a faint worry in his heart. He doesn't want to waste a day, and these locusts must be eliminated as soon as possible!
