The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 10 Heir of Poseidon
  As the core node of Lin Yi's consciousness, the genome of the Brood is quite complicated. He did not dare to mess with it. Instead, he violently pieced together the newly acquired Ringo gene sequence into the Brood's genetic sequence, trying to directly Let the ringo-shaped derivatives grow on the surface of the mother nest.

What Lin Yi didn't expect was that after all his hard work, he actually succeeded.

It seems that due to its particularity, unlike other templates that cannot be "upgraded" to new ones after being created with the original template, the Brood itself is completed directly after embedding Hailingo's genetic sequence. After upgrading, it began to slowly proliferate.

Between the gaps in the exoskeleton on the surface of the mother nest, granulations began to grow slowly, and after a while, they began to take on the appearance of Hailingo.

The gene fragments related to the tail stalk of Helingo were modified by Lin Yi. The interior contains a pipe modified from the gene fragments related to the digestive tract. One end of the pipe leads to the mouth of Helingo itself, and the other end leads to the main body of the mother's nest. , to transport the nutrients filtered from the sea to the mother nest body.

At the same time, these modified caudal stalks can also spread horizontally like vines, branching out to grow more kelp plants in the middle to form a nutrient delivery network connecting multiple kelp trees to the mother nest, just like in later generations. The root network between some plants propagated by divisions.

……

While the Brood version of Hai Lin was growing, Lin Yi also continued to develop.

In the following days, no Poseidon Helmet Shrimp visited this place anymore. He had no choice but to resume his daily life of eating trilobites and fishing for Sakaban soft-shelled turtles. At the same time, he controlled the caudal stalk of the sea forest that connected the mother nest to spread all around with all its strength.

At the same time, the first brood also absorbed the genetic sequence of Ringo and began to multiply.

But at present, the clusters of ringworms connected to the mother nest can only offset the daily consumption of nutrients by the mother nest. Even due to their full proliferation, they sometimes consume additional nutrients. The nutrients needed to produce new individuals still need to be hunted to obtain.

But Hailingechuqun's success lies in sustainable development. Moreover, you can obtain more nutrients by expanding the range and accumulating quantity.

As time goes by, its benefits will gradually exceed its consumption, becoming one of the main sources of nutrients for the brood.

A few days passed in the blink of an eye. Under the bright sunshine at noon that day, in the upper waters, Lin Yi's familiar huge figure swung the fins on his side and cut through the water, once again casting a large shadow on the seabed - it was Benmera Poseidon Helmet Shrimp again.

But this time, they came together. A huge Poseidon Helmet Shrimp swam with several smaller individuals. The strange figure actually showed a bit of elegance, presenting a spectacular sight like a pod of whales in later generations.

But this time, Lin Yi was not in a hurry to take action. On the one hand, the swarms of Poseidon Helmet Shrimp made it a little inconvenient for him to start. Another reason was that he wanted to confirm one of his guesses about why the huge Poseidon Helmet Shrimp frequently visited this not-so-rich waters. .

Sure enough, in the following days, more and more Poseidon Helmet Shrimps gathered towards this water area, their huge bodies casting shadows. Although they were just docile filter-feeding giant insects, they still brought a lot of trouble to Lin Yi. Feeling of oppression.

As the number increased, the Poseidon Helmet Shrimps gradually gathered toward the inner bay farther back, where Lin Yi's first brood nest was located. The large number of huge figures made the small inner bay seem a bit crowded. This created an opportunity for Lin Yi. He immediately controlled the individual feather-winged horseshoe crabs to hunt down two lone Poseidon helmet shrimps to replenish the nutrient consumption of the mother nest.

And one day later, the individual feather-winged horseshoe crabs who were spying with malicious intentions finally observed the special behavior of the Poseidon Helmet Shrimps in the inner bay.

On this day, the largest individuals shook their abdomens and discharged a large number of light yellow translucent spherical objects in the water. The fins on the trunk flap to make these spherical objects float evenly in the water.

Some spherical objects were washed out of the inner bay by the current and were immediately recovered by the individual short-winged horseshoe crabs controlled by Lin Yi.

Their translucent shells are also wrapped in a ball of darker color, which, combined with the way they are excreted, illustrates their identity - the eggs of the Poseidon Helmet Shrimp!

Then, the smaller individuals swam above the eggs, also shook their abdomens, and discharged a large amount of indescribable white liquid, which was combined with the eggs discharged by the larger ones before, which should be female Poseidon shrimps. Apparently, In carrying out the most important mission of biological instinct - reproduction.

Some Sakaban turtles saw the opportunity and came over, opening their small inverted triangle mouths to suck in the liquid containing a large number of cells floating in the sea water. Some larger individuals aimed at the shrimp eggs.

It is obvious that the Poseidon Helmet Shrimp adopts a reproduction strategy based on quantity. Their huge bodies can discharge a large number of shrimp eggs at one time, and once the eggs are discharged, they have nothing to do with them. Let these Sakaban turtles, which are quite small for them, swallow the eggs.

In the next few days, a large amount of eggs and indescribable liquids were continuously discharged, which also fed many Sakaban turtles who were eating and drinking.

This grand occasion lasted for more than ten days. During this period, Lin Yi also found the opportunity to hunt down several lone Poseidon Helmet Shrimps.

Later, it was discovered that these Poseidon shrimps did not react much to the death of their own kind. They simply rushed to the edge of the shrimp group and targeted the largest female shrimps.

He now knows that this water area is not the daily life environment of the Poseidon Helmet Shrimp. The temporary gathering here is most likely just the annual breeding period. The next time we want to hunt these gentle filter-feeding giants in large numbers will have to wait until an unknown amount of time.

Therefore, Lin Yi must hunt as many Poseidon shrimps as possible during this period of time to obtain enough nutrients so that the clusters of Poseidon shrimp connected to the mother nest can grow to a size large enough to supply the mother nest and other individuals.

A few days later, I don't know whether it was Lin Yi's increasingly crazy hunting that finally made the Poseidon Helmet Shrimp group realize something was wrong, or whether the annual breeding season was indeed coming to an end. The huge figures waved their fins and split the water waves. , gradually fade away. Just as they came, only the shrimp eggs scattered throughout the inner bay are left floating in the water, waiting for the day they hatch.

These children of Poseidon are not very big, and they will not be much bigger when they break out of their shells. Of the thousands of shrimp eggs, perhaps less than one percent can grow into the behemoths of their parents, and the rest will die in the long process of growth and become food for other creatures. What's more, this time, a brand new predator is eyeing them.

　The reproductive habits of the Poseidon shrimp in this chapter are purely my guesses, and there is probably no fossil evidence)
  　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)