Sorry, there will be more things at the end of the year, so I may not be able to guarantee the frequency of updates. I will try my best to update twice! The second update is expected to return to normal after the Spring Festival!
——I am the dividing line——
After the protagonist got the news, he rode Tempest back to "Dongyang City".
After seeing the iron worm eggs, the protagonist thought of a way to use the iron worms to deal with the locust swarms.
Ironworms grow rapidly and only one or two eggs can kill a locust. During the parasitism period, they will also significantly affect the behavior of locusts. A single ironworm can lay thousands of eggs.
In fact, if these iron worms that mate and lay eggs near "Dongyang City" had not found a suitable breeding ground with water and died too quickly, they could have left more eggs.
Although wireworms alone cannot completely eradicate locusts in grassland areas, it is never known that wireworms have wiped out any species or community.
As a parasite, iron worms always carefully maintain a balance unconsciously. After all, if the host community is destroyed too hard, it will not be conducive to the reproduction and replacement of its own species in the future.
But now that locusts are raging and their numbers are increasing dramatically, these parasites can at least reduce their numbers. As long as the number of locusts is controlled within a certain level, they will not turn into terrifying swarms of locusts wandering around.
The protagonist asks the ants to take good care of these ironworm eggs. Although the ants are not the hosts of the ironworms, the protagonist is used to the knowledge and unexpected mutations that often occur in this world, so it is better to be careful.
But soon, the protagonist realized that he was worrying too much. Experiments have shown that when stored dry, these iron worm eggs are extremely stable and do not hatch at all. Only after contact with water will the eggs hatch quickly and visible to the naked eye.
So, after some preparations, the protagonist set off with a team the next day.
They are going to a stream not far from the pasture. This stream winds down from the southern hills and eventually flows into the large lake in the east. On this side of the stream is the territory of the big-headed ant kingdom, and on the opposite side is the territory of some indigenous ants. The stream It has become a natural barrier for these indigenous ants to avoid the invasion of the big-headed ant kingdom.
Streams will form pools with calm water at some bends. These pools are the homes of some aquatic insects and are also places where insects such as locusts can replenish water. Insects also prefer to choose places with calm water to drink water, so that they will not be inattentive. He was caught in the waves and died.
As an insect whose main food is plants, most of the water required by locusts can be obtained from fresh plants. But in today's fierce competition, many locusts have to eat meat, grass stems and roots that do not have that high water content. Therefore, they also need to add some extra water.
This waterhole has been discovered by the ant-hunting ant scouts of the Divine Envoy Army before. The protagonist once wanted to use this as a hunting ground to hunt locust swarms, because the density of locusts here is very high.
But some commanders persuaded the protagonist to give up this plan - the stream is not as tame as it seems, and once there is a rainfall, the stream will swell and flood both banks.
When the time comes, the locust swarms can jump and escape quickly, but the ants have no way of running through the flood.
This easily ravaged mountain stream has resulted in the absence of any ant nests on both sides, making this place a paradise for wild arthropods.
But now, the protagonist is ready to turn this paradise into a land of locusts.
After a half-day trek and arriving at the waterhole, the protagonist shook his tentacles dissatisfiedly.
There are indeed a large number of locusts gathering near this pool, and the vastness and calmness of the water are also very suitable for the breeding of ironworm eggs.
However, there are obviously a large number of aquatic insects such as dragon lice in the water pool. They eat meat. How many ironworm eggs can escape from the mouths of these ferocious carnivorous insects?
But now that they are all here, the protagonist still orders the ants to drop a hundred eggs for the experiment.
Sure enough, a small number of eggs were eaten by some small aquatic insects or dragonfly larvae, but what made the protagonist happy was that the dragon louse, which was the largest and most voracious, did not eat these eggs.
The protagonist soon learns why - these dragon lice have better food options.
Dragon louse, commonly known as water turtle, also known as Zelao, black shell bug, water turtle beetle, water turtle bug, ejaculation turtle, small turtle beetle, etc. It belongs to the class Insecta, order Coleoptera, suborder Carnivore, family Trichopodidae, and is an aquatic insect.
In southern my country, dragon lice are medicinal and edible insects and are known as "water ginseng" with unique flavor and rich nutrition. However, even if the protagonist is still a human, he does not dare to eat these black beetles.
Adult dragon lice have a body length of 13-45mm, with an egg-shaped or long-ovate body, slightly narrow front end, black or dark brown; the head is slightly flat, and the head is retracted into the prothorax; the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the body are arched, and the compound eyes are prominent; the antennae are threaded Shape, 11 segments, short lower jaw; 3 pairs of legs, small front legs, flat back legs with long hairs. The hind feet are swimming feet. The posterior basal segment and posterior thorax and abdomen occupy more than half of the ventral surface. There are no needles on the ventral surface of the thorax.
There are two openings for exhaust pipes on the abdomen of dragon lice, called spiracles. The trachea is a tissue that runs through the body.
In order to facilitate living in water, air is stored between the elytra and abdomen of dragon lice. The oxygen in the air is supplied to various tissues in the body through the trachea. There are a lot of steel wool on the mouth of the valve, which acts like a "filter" to let the air pass through and filter out impurities.
Not only does the air enter the trachea, but some of it remains in the space between the underside of the elytra and the abdomen, forming a bubble. When the dragon louse dives deep into the water, it takes this part of the air with it, as if it were carrying an "oxygen tank."
When the oxygen in this "oxygen tank" is exhausted, the dragon louse will stop on the branches and leaves of the underwater food, slightly tilt its long hind legs, and squeeze out a bubble from under the elytra, and the bubble will get bigger and bigger. , dragged at the end of the abdomen, is another "oxygen tank" used by the dragon louse to breathe. In this bubble, the oxygen has been consumed very thin. However, because there is a lot of oxygen dissolved in the water, and due to the pressure, the oxygen in the water will seep into the bubbles.
The trachea of the dragon louse is connected to the air in the bubbles, and the oxygen that penetrates into the bubbles will continuously flow to the trachea for the dragon louse to breathe.
When the dragon louse needs to swim, it retracts the bubble, and when it stops, it squeezes out a new bubble.
Dragon lice are mainly carnivorous and are good at catching small organisms, organic matter and aquatic plants in the water. Even the larvae will feed on small fish, tadpoles, etc.
In this world, dragon lice obviously don't have fish and shrimp to feed on, so they focus on another larger, calorie-rich food - locusts that drink water.
