The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 129 The Mother Nest on Land

According to later research, the arrival of lobe-finned fishes was at least a Devonian event, and the prosperity of amphibians was a matter of the Carboniferous Period.

In other words, at least during the tens of millions of years in the Silurian period, Lin Yi could ignore any paradox and just mess around on the land at will.

Due to the particularity of the terrestrial environment, the structures of the mother nest on land and the mother nest in the water will inevitably need to be modified a lot.

According to Lin Yi's analysis of the mother's nest gene sequence during the millions of years of mass extinction, he has learned that the complex gene storage and editing functions of the mother's nest are all achieved by the unique microbial clusters in the body, rather than the organ structure. .

Lin Yi is not yet clear about the operation and control mechanism of these microorganisms, but he knows that these microorganisms are not part of the mother nest itself, nor are they symbionts. Instead, they can be regarded as a grade of the nest group, which exists in the form of microorganisms. grade.

The hive mind of the hive can perform limited control over the special microorganism levels in the tissue fluid of the mother hive. The specific method is unknown. This is the essence of gene editing capabilities.

This makes the macroscopic structure of the mother nest itself quite simple. The only relatively complex thing is the hole structure that can simultaneously digest and absorb and produce new individuals.

The mother's nest uses an open-tube circulation system, and these structures exist relatively independently. The transportation of nutrients and gene sequences relies on a large number of special microorganisms. That is, its arrangement can be changed at will.

In other words, the shape of the mother's nest can be changed to a large extent without affecting the arrangement of its internal organ structure, thereby affecting its production efficiency.

After all, in terms of shape, the hemispherical quasi-hemispherical honeycomb structure of a traditional mother nest with a cross-sectional height greater than its width is not suitable for land. Without the buoyancy of water, a mother nest without complex skeletal structures and other supports cannot support a larger structure. body.

Therefore, in the end, there is a load-bearing skeleton made of chitin in the middle of the new terrestrial nest, supporting the center of the body, and surrounded by curved skeletons radiating from the center, making the overall structure look like a tent. shape.

The flesh and blood tissue was attached to these skeletons, and the hole-like structures were enlarged by Lin Yi and placed on the sides and bottom of the new nest, in the gaps between the thick skeletons.

Without the buoyancy of water, an individual that is temporarily unable to move when it is first produced will definitely fall directly to the ground. This requires that the position of the hole where the individual is produced cannot be too high and must be almost touching the ground.

The larger diameter is to produce larger grades - considering that the structure of the pupal sac mother nest for producing large grades will not be moved to land for a while, the complex double-layer shell and composite armored exoskeleton, etc. Black technology also prevents individuals from molting normally, and the size of the produced individuals will be limited by the holes on the surface of the mother's nest.

In addition, it is a matter of allowing the mother nest to survive on land. The body surface of the mother nest is completely covered by an exoskeleton to isolate moisture.

But even so, all terrestrial organisms have a need to supplement water. Plants can absorb it directly from the soil through their roots, while animals need to obtain it from the outside world.

Since the mother's nest was built on the bank of the river, Lin Yi chose a simple and crude method - letting a hose with muscle tissue attached to the inner wall extend from one end of the mother's nest, and the other end of the hose extended directly into the river.

As for how to solve this problem after going deeper into the land, Lin Yi said that it would be too late to think about it later, and it is not impossible to make do now.

Similarly, how to continue to absorb biological genetic sequences and nutrients is also a problem. The digestion principle of the mother's nest is also to use the special microflora in the body to quickly decompose it and convert it into nutrients and store them in the tissue. Therefore, the holes for digesting food and the holes for producing individuals can be used in common.

But now, Lin Yi plans to further specialize it - in a circle of holes under the mother's nest, one with a special shape is specially designed by Lin Yi to digest food and extract genetic sequences, while the rest are used to produce individuals. .

In this way, the new terrestrial mother nest, which looks very different from the water mother nest, has completed gene editing and is ready to start production at any time, which is the beginning of Lin Yi's real foothold on land.

After editing the genetic sequence, a special grade began to be produced at the mother's nest in the water.

It is an improved version of the nesting plant. It retains the appearance of a crab-like horseshoe crab. At present, it has simply changed the three pairs of paddling legs into five pairs of walking legs, and installed the same inner shell and dual muscle system as the exploration workhorse, allowing it to barely drag. The heavy body climbed ashore and walked to the place where it was ready to pupate into its mother's nest.

This terrestrial version of the nesting worker was quickly produced. It slowly climbed up the river bank with its five pairs of weight-bearing feet, and began to pupate into the mother nest in the open space that the exploration workers had already opened.

In the river, the pioneering mothers stretched out the hose structures connected to the core supply bag. The exploring workers clamped them with their chelicerae and connected them to the bodies of the nesting workers, injecting more nutrients into them and starting. Provides the huge structural development of its mother nest towards the ground.

On the other side, the terrestrial arthropod nest seemed to understand what Lin Yi was planning to do, and it was obvious that they couldn't sit still.

But they have no way to deal with the terrestrial nest on the other side of the river. Although the mesoporus has certain amphibious combat capabilities, it is no match for the soldiers in the water. The strange arthropods' range could not reach the mother's nest on the other side, so they could only watch Lin Yi build a mother's nest under their compound eyes.

The soldier swarm patrolled and blocked the river to guard the safety of the mother nest on the ground. At the same time, the underwater mother nest recovered the remains of the previous flying reconnaissance fly and produced several brand new flying reconnaissance flies.

The body structure of this batch of flying reconnaissance drones has been improved by Lin Yi, and their flying capabilities are slightly stronger than the previous ones. At this time, they flapped their thin hind wings and flew into the sky, hovering near the mother nest to detect the movements of the other's nest.

The strange arthropods also wanted to operate the jet system and spray out high-temperature liquid to attack the flying reconnaissance insects. However, this time, the strong water flow from the water cannon mother insects quickly knocked them down from the top of the mound.

Without the help of the height of the mound, it is already quite difficult to hit the flying reconnaissance aircraft flying at a higher altitude with the high-temperature liquid sprayed on the ground.

After several rounds of shooting, the strange arthropods not only failed to injure the flying reconnaissance insects again, but also lost several of them, and had to retreat under the control of the opponent's hive mind.

While the two sides were waiting and fighting, the huge figure of the land brood finally completely completed its pupation, which also meant that Lin Yi had truly established a firm foothold on land for the first time.

(End of this chapter)