The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 131 Land Warfare Level (2)

When healing, the extra body segment is located at the highest point of the thoracic segment, and the entire body serves as a back plate structure, covering the new level of shoulder and back.

The pair of appendages on the body segments also grow upward and obviously cannot play a stepping role.

And since what Lin Yi wants to produce is a land combat grade, not a flight grade, it is impossible to specialize these appendages into a wing-like structure. Therefore, what Lin Yi wants to specialize is a structure for attack.

These two pairs of appendages are only divided into two sections. The base section is a flat cylindrical normal joint shape, but the end of the other body section is curved like a hook, and there are several large sharp tooth-like protrusions on the inner edge of the rear. The blade-like structure is somewhat similar to the shape of the catching feet of later generations of mantises.

But the difference is that the mantis's catching feet have a limited range of movement, and their main function is to control rather than cause direct killing. And these blade-like appendages, under the action of two sets of internal muscle systems, can attack, whether it is chopping or stabbing. They can all cause real horrific damage.

In the imagination, this pair of claw limbs will be used as the main output method of the new level. It looks like a sword or halberd in ancient weapons. It can cause efficient damage to opponents smaller than or equal to itself through slashing, chopping, and pecking. For opponents larger than itself, it can use its tooth-like protrusions to inflict horrific lacerations on the opponent's body.

In order to achieve this goal, the claw blades on the inner edge of the claw limbs are made of the strongest exoskeleton material currently produced by Lin Yi, and are as strong as the blade spines on the sickle limbs of the Dreadnought.

The main means of attack have been determined, plus three pairs of legs similar to those of later generations of insects, divided into four segments: trochanter, femur, tibia, and tarsus, but equipped with a double-layer shell and a double-layer muscle system. The overall structure of the section is thus determined.

Among the structures imitating insects, the head is the most complex, so Lin Yi plans to heal the abdomen first.

The abdomen of ants is actually divided into three parts - the thoracoabdominal segment, the abdominal stalk (or tubercle) and the posterior stalk and abdomen. People have the impression that the oval-shaped abdomen of ants is just the posterior abdominal part of the stalk.

The posterior abdomen of the ant's stalk is only composed of five to six body segments. Therefore, Lin Yi planned to divide the more than ten body segments that were ready to be healed into the abdomen into two parts.

The first four segments healed into a whole, as thoracoabdominal segments, and the thoracoabdominal segments did not have an inner shell and developed muscle tissue. Their function was only to accommodate the well-developed book lungs, whose structure was adjusted by Lin Yi.

Three pairs of front and rear air holes are also installed on the thorax and abdomen. The internal muscle tissue pump derived from the water jet propulsion system continuously inhales and exhausts air at the same time. Its efficiency is second only to the air bag breathing system, which is a new grade. Brings extremely strong endurance and heat dissipation capabilities.

The ventral stalk, that is, the tubercle, has only one section, and there is nothing inside except the inner shell and the double-layered muscle system. The main function of this structure is to allow the posterior abdomen to have higher flexibility, so that the end of the posterior abdomen can The rest of the attack weapons come into play.

Many ants of later generations, like their wasp ancestors, possess venomous stingers that evolved from an ovipositing tube. The function of the abdominal stalk, that is, the tubercle, is to allow the sting needle on the back of the abdomen to be more flexible and more precise to pierce the target's weak point.

Later, more advanced ant groups degenerated their stingers and chose to eject the liquid in the venom glands directly. This resulted in the classic ejection posture of most ants - the abdominal stalk node is bent downward, and the entire posterior abdomen of the stalk is coiled in Bend your body, and then point your belly forward.

Lin Yi retains the function of the abdominal handle for the same purpose - to enhance flexibility, so that the new level can wrap the abdomen under the body, with the end pointed forward, so that the newly added organ structure in the abdomen can attack the opponent more flexibly.

The newly added organ is naturally a set of glandular structures that resemble air walking beetles and can produce explosions from the strange Arthrothoracic Insect.

Later generations of air walking beetles stored the two liquids hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone together and used special methods to inhibit their reactions, but these strange arthrothoracic insects stored the two liquids separately. Although there is no condition to test whether the two liquids are the same two types of Qi Bujia in later generations, Lin Yi is already familiar with the reaction process - when the two liquids are mixed, special enzyme tissue is secreted for catalysis, producing high-temperature and high-pressure gas.

The entire abdomen, except for the necessary life-sustaining organs, is occupied by two huge sac-like organs that store "propellant", and in the middle of the abdomen is a chamber that secretes catalytic enzymes to allow the two liquids to react.

The end of the tube connecting the reaction chamber and the propellant storage gland has a valve structure that can control opening and closing.

When the liquid is injected into the reaction chamber, it will slowly start to react. At this time, closing the valve structure and then injecting the catalytic enzyme will allow the two liquids to react violently to generate high-temperature and high-pressure gas.

The end of the tail, where the stingers should have grown on the ant's body, was replaced by a long, straight, seamless pipe with a smooth inner wall that connected to the reaction chamber.

This pipe is naturally its "barrel", which is one of the core components of the new biological firearm structure.

After some weighing, Lin Yi temporarily gave up the plan of installing rifling on the new grade "barrel", and instead temporarily equipped it with a "smoothbore gun".

Creating rifling-like exoskeleton patterns on the inner wall was not a problem for Lin Yi, but the overheating and wear problems caused by it were not easy to solve. In addition, there was currently no need to deal with large creatures from a long distance, so he gave up temporarily. This set of biological firearms was upgraded to a more advanced "rifled gun".

The abdomen, the front and upper part of the reaction chamber, is the structure designed by Lin Yi for the new level to store "ammunition".

Its structure is also a chamber and connected pipes. The end of the pipe has a valve structure that can be controlled to open and close. When the "ammunition" is inserted from the stored structure, the valve closes, and the preparation for launch is completed.

At this time, high-temperature and high-pressure gas is generated at the rear. Under the action of pressure, the gas will move toward the only opening, which is the barrel, pushing the warhead outward at an extremely high speed.

Taking into account the size and thickness of the exoskeleton of the spider, in order to make this structure more effective, Lin Yi temporarily designed the ammunition for it to be shotgun.

This ammunition bag is connected to the digestive tract. Therefore, Lin Yi did not install a structure for producing self-produced projectiles for the new grade. Instead, he swallowed the projectiles from the mouth, stored them in a bag-like structure, and squeezed them in through muscle movements when he needed to launch them. "gun chamber".

It is envisaged that the structure at the end of the abdomen of the new grade will fire five to eight spherical projectiles made of the same material as the exoskeleton each time. It is still unknown how powerful it is, but it is enough to deal with the spider.

After the abdominal structure is completed, finally, the more complicated head structure is healed.

(End of this chapter)