The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 18 The second pioneer female

the other side.

The group of horned stones that had completed their reproduction retreated deeper like the ebbing sea water, while the huge body of the pioneering female followed closely behind with countless workers and soldiers.

In the distant Ordovician period, cephalopods did not adopt the fast-growing and quick-death reproductive strategy. After one reproduction, they did not die like squids in later generations.

Moving forward, Lin Yi found that he was wrong. In front of me, the seabed seemed to be split in two, with the middle sinking deeply, like a terrifying huge wound. The length could not be seen to the end, and the width could reach hundreds of meters. It was a large trench.

The bag-corner stones dived toward the trench and disappeared into the darkness. It is also unknown how they overcome water pressure problems and "migrate" between deeper seas and shallow seas.

Immediately, the originally large group of corner stones dispersed, ending their short-lived cluster life and returning to their normal state.

With a thought, the workers and soldiers stayed at the edge of the trench to wait, while the huge pioneering mother flapped its paddle-like paddling feet and began to slowly fill the air chamber with water and dive downwards - Lin Yi wanted to test it out to open up the water. How deep the water pressure of the mother's exoskeleton can withstand determines whether to place the mother's nest near the trench.

……

Diving down, before it was completely dark, a strange corner stone appeared in sight.

Compared with those large congeners with straight shells, these cornerstones, such as stacked hornstones and tafei hornstones, have begun the life of curling kings. The shells are curled inward, forming a shape that is somewhat similar to later ammonites and nautiluses.

On the rock walls on both sides of the trench, strange flower-like creatures bloom in the gaps. If you look closely, you will find that the petal-like structures are composed of a main pole and extended whiskers, which are somewhat similar to the sea. Ringo's wrist. These were probably the crinoids, the Paleozoic relatives of later crinoids.

Using the three pairs of chelicerae that open up the female's mouth, Lin Yi suddenly felt something was wrong.

The water beneath the pioneer mother's body was swaying, as if some big creature was approaching quickly. He immediately controlled the mother's violent exhaustion of the water stored in the air chamber, and at the same time quickly swung its paddling feet and tail to push its huge body upwards.

But it's still too late. The body of the pioneer mother suddenly sank, and the thing below clamped hard on one of the three pairs of feeding appendages on the head of the pioneer mother, and pulled with it.

Like the Gong Hao and the Soldier Hao, the Pioneer Hao also inherited the Winged Horseshoe Crab's compound eyes that face upwards, making it unable to see what creature is pulling under it.

But based on the tearing sensation coming from the appendages, Lin Yi was certain that it must be a ferocious predator.

Previously, Lin Yi's soldiers were on standby in the sea above, and now they are rushing towards the position of the pioneer mother. The defenseless pioneer mother can only resist the attacks of the predators below as much as possible. The three pairs of chelicerae near the mouth were waving wildly, trying to drive each other away.

Although the strength of that thing is not as strong as the pioneer mother with a water-jet propulsion system, it is still not small, and no one can do anything between them.

Lin Yixin hesitated, and simply used his chelicerae to clamp hard on the clamped appendage. The blue blood spread, and the body of the pioneer mother suddenly lightened and floated upward.

After floating up to the brighter sea area, Lin Yi controlled the pioneering mother to turn its head, and finally glanced downwards. The thing seemed to have given up the pursuit. The body was looming in the darkness and could not be seen clearly. Only a pair of huge eyes could be seen. Flash past. With just a glance, Lin Yi could see that it was the compound eye of an arthropod. But this pair of compound eyes is not the normal pitch black or dark brown, but a deep red color like the blood of vertebrates, which is particularly ferocious.

The pioneer mother withdrew her gaze, and the thing completely disappeared into the darkness, as if it had never appeared before. Only the appendage of the pioneer mother that was still bleeding azure worm blood showed that everything before was not an illusion.

Soon, after joining the soldiers, Lin Yi controlled the huge body of the pioneering mother and slowly landed on the seabed.

Lin Yi decided to pupate into a mother nest near the trench to fight against the mysterious predators in the trench until they are killed and the genetic sequence is extracted. He had a deep intuition that the identity of the mysterious predator that attacked the pioneer mother was not simple.

……

And while all this was happening, behind, in the inner bay where Lin Yi regained consciousness.

Among the swaying sea turtles, another pioneer mother slowly swam out of the inner bay with its huge body, swinging five pairs of paddling feet, and headed towards the previous pioneer mother under the protection of groups of soldiers and workers. He was swimming in the opposite direction.

Judging from the direction in which the sun rises, the direction the last pioneer female went was roughly north. This one naturally sets out to the south, moving along the coastline, looking for fertile sites, and preparing to expand the territory of the nest to a wider area.

But this time, in addition to the ordinary workers and soldiers, there is another brand-new grade following the pioneering mother.

These individuals are slightly larger than the soldiers modified from the feather-winged horseshoe crab template, and have a similar shape to the Gonghao, that is, the short-winged horseshoe crab template. However, they do not have the two additional pairs of claws installed by Lin Yi. Instead, they have three pairs of pincers. Curved appendages similar to the feeding appendages of a pioneering female.

At the same time, their hind abdomen is disproportionately enlarged and very wide, making their appearance somewhat similar to a crab-like horseshoe crab.

There are three pairs of paddling feet on the wide and enlarged hind abdomen, allowing their bodies to swim better and keep up with the pace of the mother's exploration. However, their abdomens were filled with fat, causing them to resemble a moving piece of fat in the perilous Ordovician ocean without the protection of soldiers.

This brand new level was created specifically for the transformation of pupae into mother nests. Its huge size and the fat stored in its body allow the mother nest that emerges from the pupa to have a larger size and can directly produce workers and even soldiers.

Therefore, Lin Yi calls it a nesting worker, and it still exists as a subdivision of the worker class.

With the existence of nesting workers, the mother nest that emerges from pupae will further speed up its early development, and can even complete its development completely independently without the need to develop the mother and workers. The group of soldiers will stay to help it survive. Weak development period.

Among the team that set out this time, there were quite a few nesting workers. They can use the three pairs of appendages on their heads to filter plankton in the sea just like pioneering mother flies. They do not require additional supplies, so they can set off in large numbers with the fleet, allowing this "expedition fleet" to expand more efficiently.

When the second pioneer mother took off and swam in a new direction, Lin Yi turned his gaze back to the first pioneer mother and once again cast his gaze towards the abyss below.

(End of this chapter)