The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 159 Leaf Claw Worm

Between the scattered earth and rocks, a pair of huge ferocious appendages broke out of the ground, four to five meters long, but its structure was a bit strange. It was long and curved inward, with three forks branching inward at the end. There was also a row of ferocious appendages on the inner edge. spikes.

To be honest, the shape is somewhat similar to the large jaw of a later stag beetle, but it is a pair of segmented appendages. With such a structure, it does not look like any terrestrial arthropod, but more like a giant holodont? !

For a moment, Lin Yi had a suspicion in his heart, thinking that the long-lost Anomalocaris nest had successfully landed on land, and had something to do with this terrestrial arthropod nest.

But soon, the other structures of the giant shadow allowed Lin Yi to dispel his last doubt - between a pair of ferocious sickle limbs like the appendages of a giant holodont, there was no iconic mouth cone structure of Anomalocaris. Instead, It is a hybrid chewing mouthpart composed of several pairs of small claw-like claws arranged in a specific manner, similar to those of horned spiders, and the mouthparts of arthrothoracic insects.

The earth and rocks continued to fly, and the full view of the huge figure soon appeared in the compound eyes of the saw-toothed saw ant - the body was as flat as a segmented worm, and on both sides of the body, there were also armor plates composed of exoskeletons growing outward like a segmented worm.

But this makes it look a bit more like a giant holodont - as a group related to Anomalocaris, they naturally also have iconic swimming leaves, but they are not often used.

Nowadays, these protruding nail plates are similar in shape to the structure of swimming leaves, although their functions must be completely different from those of swimming leaves.

At the same time, under his body, countless pairs of thick and short arthropods supported his body, which reminded Lin Yi of the velvet bugs of later generations. However, at the end of the arthropods, there were two thick and well-developed tarsal claws.

All of this combined makes it look like a land version of a giant holodont. But the size of this "giant holodont" reached an astonishing more than 20 meters, making the giant horseshoe crabs accompanying it look a bit small. The difference between small worker ants and specialized soldier ants.

Lin Yi decided to temporarily call it a leaf-claw worm. The leaf-claw corresponds to its appearance that is somewhat similar to a leaf-footed animal and has a tarsal claw structure. The worm describes its appearance similar to a giant holodont.

As soon as the leaf-clawed worm emerged from the soil, the mesoscythid spiders and giant horseshoe crabs immediately surrounded it, and the ancient web-winged cockroaches rose into the sky in a black mass, covering the sky above the huge body of the leaf-clawed worm.

Several long-winged divers flew past with ear-piercing screams, bending their abdomens, and biological rockets roared out, shooting towards the huge body of the leaf-clawed worm below.

Those dense swarms of ancient web-winged cockroaches risked their lives to intercept, but were pierced by biological rockets with semi-armor-piercing warheads, and then shot straight at the leaf-clawed worms below.

At the same time, a large number of Crazy-toothed Saw Ants also took advantage of the enemy's attention to be attracted by the tall-winged diver in the air, and rushed forward with their legs, fully demonstrating the speed and maneuverability brought by their six thick and long legs.

Immediately, the abdomen curved, and bursts of projectiles shot out, shooting from the sides at the slug spiders, giant horseshoe crabs, and the leaf-claw worms in the center. The projectiles were mixed with armor-piercing single-point bullets and semi-armor-piercing ones in mid-air. The rockets shot at the leaf claw worm's huge body.

There was a sound of chitin clashing, and the extremely penetrating armor-piercing projectiles and rockets only left a few shallow dents on the exoskeleton of the Leaf Claw Worm before being bounced aside.

Not to mention those shotgun pellets, they were bounced off one after another, and even the aftereffects of the bounces penetrated the bodies of some spiders that got too close, and exploded inside their bodies.

From this point of view, the thickness of the exoskeleton of the leaf claw worm is much stronger than that of the giant horseshoe crab, which makes it impossible for armor-piercing single-point bullets and semi-armor-piercing rockets to do anything. Upon seeing this, the Kuai-winged divers also gave up their futile attack, dumped out the remaining stores, flapped their hind wings, and turned on the jet propulsion system to return.

The large ancient net-winged cockroach equipped with a jet propulsion system circled in mid-air for several times. I don't know whether it saw the long-winged diver retreating or the propellant was exhausted. It slowly lost power and fell downwards.

And it was at this time that the second group of Kuai-Wing Divers who had been hovering outside for a long time arrived, and the bomb-hanging structures at the end of their abdomens were not ordinary biological aerial bombs or rockets, but instead, the bombs from the previous battle. A brand new type of ammunition that has never been used before.

Above the dense swarm of ancient web-winged cockroaches, the second batch of swooping swoopers screamed, their abdomens skillfully bent under their bodies, and from the hole at the end, a huge sac-like structure roared out, hitting them straight. Leaf claw worm below.

The group of ancient net-winged cockroaches still tried to intercept, but to no avail - above the group of ancient net-winged cockroaches, the bag burst open, and a large amount of liquid inside splashed out, and then, blazing flames rose and fell from the sky.

The scene was like fire raining down from the sky, with large swaths of burning liquid pouring down, along with the bodies of countless ancient web-winged cockroaches burning and falling, straight towards the astonishingly huge body of the leaf-clawed worm below.

Immediately, more bags roared and fell - although there was no precise guidance function, the huge body of the leaf claw worm made it almost impossible for these bags used as biological incendiary bombs to miss, and even if they were thrown miss, the splashing grease would not It is guaranteed to splash under the leaf-clawed worm and burn its legs.

Amidst the muffled sound, flames rose from the body of the leaf-clawed worm and spread wantonly among the nearby lichens and vascular plants. The mesoscythus, ancient web-winged cockroach, and even the huge giant horseshoe crab were all burning in the flames together. Struggled.

In such a scene like purgatory on earth, the leaf-clawed worm slowly raised its front half, as if those blazing flames were not burning on its surface.

A pair of appendages shaped like a giant holodont were waving, and the huge head slowly "looked" at the long-winged diver in the air. Although it did not have compound eyes or single eyes on its body, Lin Yi still had a kind of... The feeling of watching.

With just one glance, the leaf-clawed worm's huge body flattened again. The body squirmed, and the appendages underneath it quickly dug up the ground. Then, the worm-shaped body slowly sank into the soil, and once again drilled into the ground. .

In mid-air, in the view of the Kuai-Wing Divers, on the ground, from where the leaf-clawed worm drilled into the soil, an obvious trace of soil loosening moved quickly. That was the leaf-clawed worm's huge body continuing to move forward in the soil. Digging forward, heading straight towards the location of the Crazy Tooth Saw Ant colony.

Lin Yi's intuition was wrong, and he immediately controlled the swarm of wild-toothed saw ants to disperse in all directions, but the trail still quickly chased after him. Immediately, earth and rocks flew, and a huge figure burst out of the ground, with a bunch of ferocious appendages heading towards the wild ants. Tooth saw ants!

(End of this chapter)