The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 140 Fire Breathing Saw Ant

In the river, the huge body of the pioneer mother half-surfaced from the water. On its back, the figure of the saw-toothed saw ant clung tightly to it. It was clearly reinforcements transferred from the mother nest on land elsewhere.

These reinforcements were transported along the river by the pioneer mother. After arriving at the target location, they jumped onto the river bank and joined the original army of Crazy-toothed Saw Ants.

Now, with the addition of a brand new powerful grade that is slightly modified and improved on the basis of the Saw Ant, Lin Yi is no longer afraid of those flying insects.

However, it is inappropriate to simply call them flying insects. Therefore, he simply called them ancient Dictyoptera based on the characteristics of both the ancient Dictyoptera and later Blattida.

Seeing the Crazy-toothed Saw Ant again, it had dispersed in all directions. The swarms of ancient web-winged cockroaches searching for traces surged in once again, surrounding the Crazy-toothed Saw Ant from all directions.

But this time, Lin Yi no longer immediately controlled the saw ants to shoot, but controlled the saw ants to gather in one place, so that the ancient web-winged cockroaches could also gather in one place to facilitate the next attack.

Several special individuals slowly walked out of the ant colony. From the appearance, they were no different from other ants. Only Lin Yi knew that their abdominal structures were completely different from those of their kind.

The air holes suddenly began to inhale, and the entire abdomen bulged slightly. Then, a spark flashed past the nozzle at the end of the abdomen.

The end of the abdomen of these wild-toothed saw ants is not a thick "barrel", but a thin spray hole, and there are a pair of short raised structures on both sides of the spray hole. The previous sparks flashed from the raised structures on both sides.

Then, I saw a crimson streak sweeping out from the end of the abdomen of this special crazy-toothed saw ant, which turned out to be a pillar of orange-red blazing fire!

The end of its abdomen rotated, and the jet of blazing fire pillars also swept across it, like a wall of fire appearing in the path of the ancient web-winged cockroaches. They had no time to dodge, and like moths flying into the flames, they plunged into the blazing orange-red flames. among.

There was a crackling sound, which was caused by the deformation of chitin under high temperature.

Immediately, flames trailed all over the sky, like a figure with a bolide spinning and falling diagonally. The smell of burning protein came out, accompanied by another special smell.

Breathing fire seems to be an attribute that is completely incompatible with living organisms. Unless it is a fantasy set, even in various fantasy works, creatures with the ability to breathe fire rarely appear.

But in fact, compared to the representative insect swarms in similar works, which can easily erode through steel and even special alloys, breathing fire is easier for Lin Yi to achieve. .

Of course, this flamethrower uses the principle of a later flamethrower, spraying flammable liquid and then igniting it at the nozzle.

As for flammable liquids, grease is the best flammable material. The ignition process occurs outside the body and does not increase the temperature in the body to the point where it will be cooked. The only problem is that the ignition structure is a bit troublesome.

In the end, Lin Yi chose the best way to achieve it - electric ignition, which uses biological current to generate a small arc, and the instantaneous temperature is enough to ignite oil and grease.

Compared with breathing fire and discharging electricity, it is probably the most realistic ability among various magical creatures. After all, in reality, there will be species such as electric eels and electric rays in later generations, which can use electric current to attack or defense.

The electric eel's electrical discharge seems to rely on pure muscle structure. Moreover, every living thing has bioelectricity in its body. As long as it is improved and utilized, it does not require a high voltage. It is enough to generate a igniting arc. After all, relying solely on electric discharge to attack is somewhat useful in water, because the resistance of water is very small. As long as the structure of the water is specialized, it will not be so easy to electrocute oneself.

But since the destruction of the Straight-Helical Stone Nest Group and the disappearance of the Strange Shrimp Nest Group, Lin Yi has never seen another nest group, which means that Lin Yi has no opponents in the water for the time being and no longer needs to upgrade his combat power in the water.

On land, it is not very realistic to rely on electricity for long-range attacks - using the resistance of the air to discharge electricity directly into the air has no other use than electrocuting yourself.

In other words, if electric discharge is used as an attack method on land, the only way to cause damage is to bite the opponent first and tear open the exoskeleton to ensure that the discharge part is in contact with flesh and blood.

It's like a knife quenched with poison, but the poison can only take effect when the knife penetrates the heart, and it has already penetrated the heart. It is much easier to just cut it twice than wait for the poison to be released.

In the same way, the flesh and blood have already been torn apart. Regardless of injecting venom into it or tearing it directly with claw limbs, it is easier and more reliable than discharging electricity.

Therefore, Lin Yi has no plans to improve this current structure for the time being. It is only used as the ignition structure in the fire-breathing system.

The rest of the structure is even better to say.

The essence of a flamethrower is a high-pressure water gun that sprays flammable liquid. As for the spray part, Lin Yi already had a reference template - the structure of the Water Cannon Motherfly, which he just improved slightly.

Although the flammable liquid is grease, in order to have a lower ignition point and higher combustion temperature, Lin Yi also used existing methods to improve its composition as much as possible, and finally achieved an effect similar to napalm.

As long as it is ignited by these greases, the flame will be like a gangrene attached to the bone, no matter how it rolls; it will not be extinguished even if it is beaten, until the flesh and blood under the exoskeleton is roasted alive.

This makes the removal of these fire-breathing saw ants even more expensive. The oil they spray consumes a lot of nutrients. They are somewhat stronger than the ordinary crazy-toothed saw ants. Even when dealing with the ant, it is enough to kill them. Roasted alive.

But obviously, there is no need to do this when dealing with something like the ancient web-winged cockroach, which is easy to use and is destroyed as soon as it is burned. Therefore, Lin Yi controls the fire-breathing saw ants to atomize and spray these liquid fuels as much as possible to cover a larger area.

In this era when there are not so many combustibles and there are no natural disasters like wildfires, this may be the first fire since the Phanerozoic.

As for these ancient web-winged cockroaches, there are two theories as to whether the hive mind of the hive behind them knows what fire is.

Therefore, more ancient web-winged cockroaches did not know what was happening, but they continued to charge forward stupidly, as if relying on their numbers to break through this deadly wall of fire.

But soon, more fire-breathing saw ants whose abdomens had changed structures, no longer equipped with biological shotguns but replaced with biological flamethrowers, moved their six limbs forward to meet these ancient web-winged cockroaches!

(End of this chapter)