Ants generally do not eat the corpses of their own species, and the reason is very simple.
First, corpses of the same kind often have germs that can infect them. Since these germs can infect or lurk in dead ants, they can also infect the ants that eat them. Especially when the ants eat raw food, most of the germs cannot be killed.
For example, the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom was forced to retreat after the pavement ant barbarian army launched a counterattack. When the nests were short of food, they had to feed on ant corpses, which caused serious epidemics and a large number of soldiers died from the disease. .
Secondly, obtaining ant carcasses as food is too cost-effective. Whether they are of the same race or a different race, the wars between ants are often very fierce. Compared with easy-to-obtain insect prey, the corpses that can be obtained as food by specifically attacking an ant nest or tribe may not be worth the losses caused by the war. Ants will naturally not choose such uneconomical food.
Therefore, only under the special predicament of the Northern Expeditionary Army at that time, and corpses were readily available, would there be a large-scale phenomenon of feeding on the same kind of corpses.
This is not only true in the ant world, but also in the human world. Most ethnic groups regard eating the same kind of corpses as a heinous crime. This is a warning from genes, elevating the harm of eating the same kind of corpses to a moral level.
The only cannibals are often those races that have difficulty obtaining enough animal protein. Due to environmental reasons, these races have to use the flesh of their own kind as a necessary nutritional supplement.
For example, some tribes living in inland areas on the island of New Guinea have no livestock and lack suitable prey on the island. Their food is mainly potatoes. These tribes are severely lacking in protein sources. The protein content of potatoes ranks at the bottom among staple foods. They lack prey and livestock to provide animal protein. Even these people cannot even absorb enough plant protein.
Therefore, these tribes, which are called "cannibals" by the outside world, have evolved some strange customs. For example, the bodies of some deceased people will be eaten at funerals. Women and children will eat the brains, and men will eat the flesh. They believe that this method is used to commemorate the deceased. In fact, this is also a tradition that has to be done due to lack of protein.
But this tradition has also brought disease. Laughing disease, also called Kulu disease, is a mysterious disease that only occurs in the Fore tribe of New Guinea. The characteristic of this disease is that patients will laugh suddenly. Regardless of men and women, people suffering from this disease will shake their limbs. The symptoms will be relieved after resting for a while. However, after 1 to 3 months, the patient will start to sway and walk hobbled. He was unsteady on his feet, had squinting eyes, had incoherent speech, and finally died. Moreover, the infected are mainly local women and children.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health found in autopsies of the deceased that the cause of death was the sudden appearance of small holes in the brain, and the entire brain became like "Swiss cheese."
No one in the local area knew why this strange disease occurred, until scientists discovered that local villagers had the custom of eating the bodies of their dead relatives, causing the virus to spread throughout the village. This virus lurks in the brains of the deceased and is harmless if cooked and eaten. However, before cooking the brains of the deceased, locals often put raw brain pulp in their mouths and suck it, and the virus enters the patient's body. .
Since most of the people who come into contact with the brains of the deceased are women and children, this disease is more likely to affect women and children. The proportion of adult men suffering from the disease is very low because they rarely eat brain plasma.
With the efforts of the local government, these tribes obtained other meats, the bad habit of cannibalism disappeared, and the laughing death also disappeared. It was recorded as a typical case of the impact of cannibalism on epidemic diseases.
So, looking back, the protagonist is thinking: Are the mysterious ants really "anteaters" that feed on the corpses of the same kind?
Since the mysterious ants can defeat Japanese ants and suppress pavement ants, and their combat effectiveness is very impressive, they should not be short of meat in this prey-rich area, and there is no need to eat ant corpses as nutritional supplements.
Eating corpses of the same kind often brings diseases that are difficult to eliminate, which in turn will limit the development and growth of this race. So if the mysterious ants really do this, it is almost impossible to be so powerful.
These questions haunt the protagonist.
——I am the dividing line——
The "world situation" on the north bank of the river is undergoing tremendous changes, but fortunately there is a big river across from the protagonist's territory.
As long as there is a river blocking it, no ants can easily cross it, and the protagonist's territory is safe. Even if this suddenly powerful force seizes the hegemony of Hebei that originally belonged to the Paving Ant Barbarians, it will not be able to threaten the Divine Envoy King's army.
In comparison, the information returned from the southern hilly area requires the protagonist's attention in the near future.
In the previous military operation against the staid king, the Angel King's army discovered signs of the resurgence of the parasitic fungus. Then the protagonist asked the sickle-hunting ants of "Southern City" to form an army and enter the south, which had been plagued by parasitic fungi. Explore the depths of the hills.
The one who was ordered to organize the troops was a male hunter ant. Although he was not very effective in combat, he surrendered early and proved his loyalty for more than a year.
This reconnaissance operation requires a commander with an online IQ, and it is difficult for the Big-headed Ant male ant to command these Sickle Ant warriors. The protagonist finally decided to use this Sickle Ant male ant.
After naming him "Kite", the protagonist asked him to organize a small army with three teams, and then set out from "Southern City" to pursue the route along which the parasitic ants retreated.
This force will inevitably pass through the territory of some ant-hunting tribes, but the size of more than a hundred ant-hunting warriors is enough to make most of the ant-hunting tribes retreat.
The southern hilly area was previously cleared by the Angel King's army, which once killed or expelled almost all the local indigenous ants.
However, the local products were poor, and the Divine Envoy King's Legion did not completely occupy this place. Instead, it built several bases as a peripheral defense circle with "Southern City" as the center, and adopted point-to-area control methods.
After the God-Emissary King's army retreated, ant races that migrated from elsewhere soon took control of the vacuum created by the withdrawal of the God-Emissary King's army, and the majority of them were still ants that hunted for sickles.
Fortunately, these tribes had just relocated and were all small and medium-sized tribes. Facing Kite's small army, they only dared to bluff intimidation and did not dare to actively provoke conflicts.
From this point of view, the hunting ants are still very aware of current affairs.
Kite's troops arrived at the big lake where the parasitic ants fled, and finally found some clues.
