3 years ago, the motherland of bullet ants.
In a tropical rainforest that is hot and humid all year round, hundreds of bullet ants are constantly walking through a very huge tree.
This tree is the location of a nest in the bullet ant's homeland. There are thousands of nests in the entire bullet ant homeland, most of which are built in the lower part or roots of this unknown tree.
Follow the Bullet Ant Warriors and you'll understand why they favor this tree so much.
A bullet ant emerged from the nest entrance located at the lower part of the tree trunk and quickly climbed up. The rainforest is humid. It rained not long ago. Even the continuous high temperature cannot evaporate all the water vapor. The surface of the tree trunks is wet, and the dark backside is covered with slippery moss, which can easily slip off if you are not careful.
The bullet ant warrior is very good at climbing. Humidity and slipperiness do not seem to have any effect on it. She follows the path on the trunk with ease and climbs to the high canopy. Then she leaves the trunk, walks towards a branch, and then walks into a smaller tree. The branches are divided, as if they were going all the way from the thoroughfare into the alley, and did not stop until they reached a leaf.
There is a gland on the petiole of a leaf, where it connects to the branch. The bullet ant leaned over and sucked it gently with his mouth, and a drop of sweet liquid immediately poured into his mouth.
These are glands that secrete nectar, a gift from this tree! No wonder the bullet ants chose this place as their settlement. There is an inexhaustible supply of sweetness here. Although the taste is not strong enough, it is enough to make the ants happy and allow them to replenish their precious sugar.
After eating a sweet breakfast, the bullet ant warriors began to patrol different areas in the tree. She will attack any insect that dares to appear on the tree, especially caterpillars and borers that hide and chew the leaves and bark.
Bullet ants get their prey and nectar from the trees, and the trees get the ants' protection from pests, a win-win strategy.
Soon, the bullet ant warriors captured a small caterpillar. The caterpillar's careless mother seemed to think that the lush tree was a good nursery site, and laid her eggs on the back of a certain leaf, but failed. I don’t know that I have sent my descendants into a desperate situation!
The bullet ant used its mandibles to cut off the caterpillar's nerves cleanly and neatly. The other party's soft burrs were unable to do anything to the bullet ant. The bullet ants then move it into the nest granary.
Not long after, a piece of caterpillar meat was chewed into shape by the bullet ant workers responsible for caring for the young ants, and sent to the exclusive nursery of this nest. In the nursery, there were two ant larvae waiting to be fed.
This nest is just one of countless nests in the entire bullet ant homeland. The colony is medium in size and contains about a few hundred bullet ants. It is led by a bullet ant queen and assisted by three female ants.
In the nursery, the only larvae currently are a female ant and a male ant. The bullet ants were as rough as ever in their treatment of the young ants. They simply threw the caterpillar meat balls aside, and the two young ants moved over to eat according to the smell.
In some sophisticated ant tribes, nurse ants will feed the young ants mouth-to-mouth, and the food they feed is also specially prepared, rather than what the adult ants eat and the young ants eat.
These two young ants are the hope for the future of this nest. As usual, they will participate in the wedding flight ceremony of the main nest when they reach adulthood.
However, these two young ants are different from the previous ones that the Bullet Ants saw every year. Their heads are very yellow, but their bodies are normal yellow and white. Rao is the longest-living queen in this nest, and she has never seen young ants with such color.
Even if the two young ants are both born to the queen, the queen does not like these two special guys. Fortunately, the common bullet ant workers still take care of them dutifully, bringing them back worm meat balls and occasionally feeding them some plant nectar.
The two young ants grew up rapidly and began to form pupae. The head color of the pupae was still relatively dark yellow.
When the two new generation bullet ant breeding ants emerged from the pupae, the queen ants and female ants in the nest breathed a sigh of relief. Their heads did not appear strange colors, but they each had a deep ring around their compound eyes. traces of color.
This unique "birthmark" makes the two newborn bullet ants ("Female Doctor" and "Doctor") still rejected by the queen mother and female elders in the same nest. They are not allowed to be intimate and can only mix in ordinary people. Among the warriors, they struggled to learn the skills they should master as bullet ants, and waited for their trip to the main nest to participate in the wedding flight ceremony in a few months.
The "Female Doctor" has a strong personality. She never succumbs to any ant. She often follows the bullet ant warriors in hunting and bravely challenges other female ants!
In the bullet ant colony, not all female ants are eligible to give birth. Those female ants that fail in the nuptial flight will be castrated, and the surviving individuals will become the de facto leaders of each nest, managing the nest in place of the less mobile queen.
There are also hierarchies among female ants. These female ants are also powerful warriors, their size and strength are still higher than ordinary worker ants. They usually win their status by single combat, and they need to constantly deal with the challenges of other female ants.
The "female doctor" who was not yet married did not know that she had to participate in the wedding flight before launching a challenge. She only learned about this custom from ordinary worker ants with insufficient IQ, and then boldly challenged other female ants. Not only did she lose the battle, but she also suffered injuries. , and limped back to the nest with plenty of taunts from other female ants.
In the nest room, the injured "Female Doctor" lay weakly and embarrassed on the floor. The "Doctor" leaned forward gently, licked the "Female Doctor's" wounds with his mouth, and gently touched her body with his tentacles.
As male ants, they are much smaller and not powerful fighters. It seems that their fate is to wait for the nuptial flight ceremony to be selected by the strongest unmarried female ant.
If it weren't for the fact that the queen of bullet ants can mate many times in her life, I'm afraid that after the wedding flight, all these statusless male ants would be expelled. Even so, the bullet ant homeland still expels hundreds or thousands of male ants every year, leaving only the healthiest individuals to live there.
There are no old male ants in the nest where "Doctor" and "Female Doctor" are located. The queen ants here only mated two years ago and there is no demand for the time being. The previous male ants may have died in this area after being driven away. Somewhere in the rainforest.
The "Doctor" still doesn't know his fate, but he is naturally attached to the strong. This huge, strong, and sexy female ant in front of him is undoubtedly attractive in his eyes.
However, the injured "female doctor" was extremely sensitive, and the "doctor's" intimate contact made her furious for some reason.
The "female doctor" suddenly bit the "doctor", turned over and pressed him under her, and stared at her twin brother fiercely!
