This huge ant has a very distinctive appearance. It is not any kind of ant that the protagonist knows, nor does it exist in the past knowledge of the three tribes of big-headed ants, pavement ants and sickle-hunting ants.
These ants are huge in size, with large, approximately round heads and thick, sickle-shaped jaws. This kind of large jaw is very unusual. Ants rarely have such long, curved jaws that are as sharp as a sickle. This kind of jaw is very suitable for fighting and can easily pierce the enemy's carapace. But it would be a hindrance if used for work, and even structurally speaking, ants with such jaws would not be able to forage on their own.
In the protagonist's memory, there is only one kind of ant with this kind of big jaw, and that is the tough ant, which is famous as the "slave-keeping ant". The giant jaws of the fierce ants have been specialized as weapons for fighting. They plunder slaves and rely on the slaves to obtain food and feed themselves. Without slaves, these tough ants would even starve to death due to being unable to eat.
So, could this giant ant also be a kind of "slave-keeping ant"? Did they attack the Pavement Ant Barbarian Kingdom just to obtain slaves?
The protagonist stopped thinking and continued to observe the appearance and behavior of this mysterious ant from the information package.
The carapace of these giant ants is a metallic color glowing black and blue. The carapace of the ants is made of chitin. Although it is smooth and shiny, it is still different from the color of metal. But the color of this ant's carapace is a distinct black metallic color.
Among insects, the scarab beetle's carapace color also has a metallic luster, and its carapace does contain a high proportion of metal elements. If this is the case for this ant, then the metal-rich carapace defense of this huge body must be amazing.
In addition, these carapace are also covered with spikes. These spikes are distributed on the chest, back, abdomen, and even on the nodules. There are more than ten thick or thin spurs all over the body. In this respect, its carapace resembles that of the genus Spiny Ant.
The giant Japanese ant is as big as the Japanese ant, the jaws are like the giant ant, and the carapace is like the spiny ant. Just from the appearance, you can see that this ant is unusual, and its fighting ability is obviously good.
The protagonist initially thought that these ants were the enemies of the paving ant barbarian kingdom in the northern mountains that King Fuye mentioned before. But after sending the flying knight to consult King Fuye who was far away in "Southern City", he gave a negative answer.
King Fuye carefully described the image of the original opponent of the Pagoda Ant Barbarian Kingdom. In the information package he passed back, the protagonist confirmed that the large ants on the mountain that repeatedly fought against the Pagoda Ant Barbarian Kingdom were Japanese ants, and It's not the mysterious giant ant currently attacking the main nest of the Pavement Ant Barbarian Kingdom.
Japanese ants were first discovered and named in Japan, so they are called "Japanese ants". However, they are also widely distributed in most parts of China. When you go out to the mountains, you will encounter ants that are much larger than urban ants. Black ants are most likely Japanese ants.
Although these Japanese ants are similar in size and color to the mysterious ants, they do not have the terrifying jaws and barbs of the mysterious ants. The Japanese ant has a black body, a large head, nearly triangular shape, a thick mandible, a flat front and middle thorax, sharp lateral flattening of the thorax and abdominal segments, and fine mesh carvings on the head, ventral thorax and nodes, which have a certain luster. The dots on the back abdomen are more detailed. Divided into two types of worker ants, large and small. The body length of large worker ants is 12-14mm, with 5 teeth on the upper jaw. The front of the cheek, lip base, palate and feet of a few individuals are reddish brown; the body length of small and medium-sized worker ants is 7-11mm, with a small head, longer than wide; the body length of the queen is about 17mm , with wing bases.
After understanding that these mysterious ants are not the old enemies of pavement ants, where these mysterious ants come from has become a mystery.
Judging from the march route, the mysterious ants come from the north, but the northern mountains of the Pavement Ant Barbarian Kingdom are the territory of Japanese Campoback ants. According to King Fuye, these Japanese Campoback ants do not have a unified kingdom, but are divided into There are many tribes, but due to their size advantage and amazing fighting power, they will frequently go down the mountain and enter the territory of the Pavement Ant Barbarian Kingdom to plunder every spring, summer and autumn. The pavement ant barbarian nation had to struggle to deal with it, or organize an expeditionary force to invade the mountainous areas in a preemptive strike to eliminate the Japanese ant tribes that were close.
If these mysterious ants indeed come from the north, then they must have defeated the numerous Japanese ant tribes that have been unable to be pacified by the pavement ant barbarians for hundreds of years before they can safely go south.
This is not good news. A balance has been formed between different ant races on both sides of the river for thousands of years. The protagonist originally planned to use this balance to expand his power little by little and eventually unify both sides of the river.
But now a powerful mysterious ant force has emerged. It defeated the Japanese ant at first, and then almost defeated the once-prominent pavement ant barbarian country. This is not the script planned by the protagonist.
The flying knights didn't bring much information back. They tried to stay on a shrub close to the ground and observe these mysterious ants, but unexpectedly they were discovered by the mysterious ants.
Although ants have compound eyes, they do not have pupils, so it is impossible to judge where their gaze falls based on the focus of the pupils. But the compound eyes of ordinary ants have a kind of look, the look of life, but this look is not visible in the huge compound eyes of these mysterious ants.
As soon as the flying knights landed, they discovered that a small group of mysterious ants quickly changed their target, surrounded the shrub, and climbed upwards. This was obviously not a coincidence, and the flying knights flew away immediately.
From this point of view, the eyesight of the mysterious ant is very good, at least no worse than that of the male ant of the big-headed ant, and it can at least clearly see moving objects within half a meter.
The flying knight carried limited supplies and only stayed near the main nest of the Pavement Ant Barbarian Kingdom for half a day before being forced to return. In this short period of time, they did not observe a field battle between the paving ant barbarian army and the mysterious ants, and they were unable to observe the performance of the mysterious ants in the battle.
The flying knights actually observed the mysterious ants attacking a sub-nest of pavement ants. They saw these mysterious ants burrowing into the ground while expanding the entrance and exit of the nest, and then continued to pour in and out. The mysterious ants that came out had all kinds of things in their mouths. The spoils include both ant pupae and ant eggs, as well as dead pavement ants and the corpses of their own companions. Some of these corpses are complete and some have been dismembered.
If ant eggs and pupae are conventional trophies that can be used as food or hatched as slaves, then what does it mean that the mysterious ants have to carry away even the broken bodies of both parties?
Generally speaking, unless there is an extreme shortage of food, ants will not regard the corpses of their enemies as trophies. Could it be that this mysterious ant is out of food and wants to feed on the corpses of ants?
