The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 27 Nomadic Life, Mobile Nest

Only one adult Orthospermum patrolling the periphery of the coral reef remains, while the other evacuated earlier with most of the larvae. The water jet propulsion system was operating at full capacity, driving the nearly nine-meter-long body to slowly disappear from sight.

But Lin Yi didn't do nothing. The adult Heliconia left with its larvae, but did not notice that among the coral reefs, a tiny figure slowly swam out with its paddling feet and quietly attached itself to the shell of the Heliconia.

The appearance of the little thing is similar to the template of the short-winged horseshoe crab, the predecessor of the workhorse. But its size is even smaller than the original short-winged horseshoe crab, only less than ten centimeters long. An arthropod of this size would not have been too eye-catching even in the era of Lin Yi's previous life.

But in the gene sequence of this special small worker, Lin Yi integrated the gene fragments related to the gastropods of the broad-angle snail, forming a structure similar to the claw pads of later generations of insects, allowing their entire abdomen to be tightly adhered to the surface of hard objects. on the surface, just like the broad-angle snail adsorbed on the calyx-shaped body surface of Ringo.

The swimming speed of the Helical Stone is not slow, and when the water jet propulsion system is operating, it is even faster than it is for its size.

The strong current came towards him, forcing Xiao Gonghao to lower his body as much as possible and cling tightly to the corner stone shell, trying his best to prevent himself from being washed away by the current.

Fortunately, the compound eyes of arthropods are also wrapped in a chitin exoskeleton, so there is no need to worry about being blown open. The little gong's pair of compound eyes are disproportionately developed compared to its body, making its head look like a large fly. It can see countless ways and silently observe the surrounding environment.

Because Lin Yi's consciousness is connected to all individuals in the nest, he can easily obtain the real-time location information of this "spy" worker through the consciousness network.

It is as if a precise locator is installed on the Helical Stone. If it returns to the concentrated area of ​​the nest group, the subsequent army of the Helical Stone Nest Group can easily determine the location of the Helical Stone Nest Cluster.

……

After following the straight spiral horn stone for some distance, other horn stones appeared in the compound eyes. The huge figure, one size larger than a straight helical stone, opened its tentacles. There was a special mantle between the tentacles, and the fine tooth-like protrusions on the inside of the tentacles were elongated to form The fine whisker-like structure indicates that it is a filter-feeding organism.

The Orthogonal Orthogonal Stone glanced at these huge filter-feeding hornstones, but continued to move forward without paying any attention to them, and did not show any desire to attack. When the other party saw the spiral stone approaching, he didn't panic and had no intention of avoiding it.

With the attack power of the Helix, it is not a problem to take down filter-feeding creatures of the same size.

Such behaviors that do not interfere with each other, as if they are accustomed to each other, indicate that the other party is also an individual in the nest group to which the Orthogonal Stone belongs.

In Lin Yi's previous life, because no fossils of soft bodies and beaks were preserved in large hornstones, the feeding habits of hornstones and other large hornstones are unknown. But the most popular theory is that they are docile filter-feeding giants similar to Poseidon shrimps.

But at least what Lin Yi had seen was that the giant tentacled beast that was supposed to be the Cornerstone was a benthic trilobite-eating predator, but he didn't expect to see the giant filter-feeding Cornerstone in this way.

Continuing forward, more filter-feeding hornstones spread out ten tentacles connected by mantles to wrap a large amount of seawater together with plankton, and then squeeze out the seawater to filter out the plankton. Many horned stone larvae surrounded its side, swimming nimbly.

Moving forward, more helical stones of various shapes appeared in sight. Lin Yi simply called those with a body length of less than two meters as juveniles, those with a body length of two to four meters as young adults, those with a body length of four to seven meters as sub-adults, and those with a body length of more than seven meters as adults.

It seems that it is approaching the core territory of the Orthostricus nest group. From time to time, huge adults and sub-adults can be seen returning carrying large pieces of prey.

There are also eggs floating in the water below. The larvae are using their tentacles to adjust the position of the eggs and continue to drive the water flow to maintain sufficient oxygen content in the seawater near the eggs.

Among the corner stones, a huge thing floating in the water is particularly conspicuous.

Its core is a honeycomb-like object with a shape that is very familiar to Lin Yi, while six huge conical shells radiate outward from the periphery, each of which is the same as the shells of right helical stones and those filter-feeding horned stones. .

There are also several tentacles of adult helical stones that are wrapped around the honeycomb-shaped object. Water spurts out of the funnel, dragging this strange six-pointed star-shaped object slowly through the water like a tugboat.

A large number of Orthogonite larvae were walking around the object, stuffing a large amount of meat torn from the corpse of an unknown creature into the holes on the surface of the object, and huge eggs were also produced in the holes on the surface of the object, and then they Wrapped up by the tentacles of the juvenile hornstones, they were carried away.

There is no doubt that this familiar object is the mother's nest! The nests of the right spiral hornstones seem to have modified them by violently adding hornstone shells containing air chambers, so that they can float in the water.

This also led Lin Yi to speculate on the lifestyle of the nest group to which the Orthogonal Stone belongs - they are probably a species with nomadic habits.

Perhaps due to their excessive size, the fixed territory cannot support the nest colony. These right helical stones may drag the mother nest to wander in various sea areas, temporarily stationed in the fertile sea areas and sweep them for a period of time, and at the same time during this period lay eggs.

And when all the eggs hatch, the food resources in a sea area are also consumed by this group of corner stone devils who sweep into the village, and then continue to drag the mother nest to the next sea area, and the cycle starts over and over again.

This also means that Lin Yi and them will fight to the death. The locust's transit-style sweep will definitely not let go of a target with such a large nest size. There is bound to be a war between two hives that have evolved far beyond their times.

In any case, Lin Yi needs to gather enough troops to at least repel the Straight Spiral Stone Nest Group and allow it to change the direction of its sweep. Moreover, he was also somewhat interested in the floating mother nest of the Orthogonal Stone Nest Group.

He had a feeling, which seemed to be an instinctive desire deep in his genes. If the mother nest of his own nest group absorbed the mother nest of the right spiral stone nest group, there might be some changes - or in other words, evolution.

Thinking about it, from behind, the "mixed expedition fleet" composed of mother and soldiers changed direction slightly and headed straight for the mother nest of the Straight Spiral Stone Nest Group.

With the soldiers holding an absolute numerical advantage, Lin Yi was confident that in a battle with the Zhiluojiao Stone Nest Group, he would at least make the opponent retreat and march in other directions. And if you can tear off a piece of the floating nest and have it absorbed by your own nest, that would be even better.

(End of this chapter)