The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 147 Biotank

Lin Yi has long determined that the latest general appearance reference, which is positioned to be similar to later generations of tanks, will be similar to later generations of Coleoptera insects.

In the end, the appearance reference prototype of this grade was determined to be a tiger beetle - to be precise, it was a type of tiger beetle called the six-spotted green tiger beetle. For some reasons, Lin Yi was familiar with this type of tiger beetle.

The reason why the tiger beetle was chosen as the prototype instead of the larger vegetarian beetles such as the stag beetle is because the experience of later generations of using tanks has shown that this thing's firepower, mobility, and protection are A trade-off must be made and a balance must be maintained.

Compared with stag beetles, stag beetles and other large beetles whose structures will inevitably become bulky when enlarged, the tiger beetle, as a predatory insect, perfectly combines mobility with defense and attack power, allowing its structure to meet Lin Yi's current needs. .

Of course, even an almost perfect reference prototype cannot be copied.

Firstly, he can only make it according to his own memory, and there is no way to copy it. Secondly, like the saw ant and the mortar spider, enlarging a small species to such a size requires significant changes in the overall load-bearing structure. Revise. Thirdly, some of the tiger armor's body structures are not suitable for use at new levels.

Therefore, Lin Yi had to make more or less modifications to some detailed structures in order to achieve the expected parameter indicators.

The structure of the tarsus at the end of the six appendages of the new grade is different from that of the mortar spider - the tarsus of the mortar spider needs to be used as both a walking foot and a hoe, while what the new grade needs is pure and can support itself. Fast running feet.

Therefore, for the shape of the tarsus, Lin Yi referred to the shape of the tarsus of the giant horseshoe crab and further improved it to increase the ground contact area, improve the claw pad structure for cushioning, and adjust the hydraulic muscles, fibrous muscles and inner shell structure The proportions and thickness allow the six limbs of the new grade to easily support its body.

At the same time, the heavy armor of later Coleopteran insects was mainly composed of a pair of hard forewings called elytra. Their main function was to protect the fragile hind wings and hindthorax, and also provided a small amount of lift during flight.

And with the new level of body shape, he will basically say goodbye to flying in this life. Therefore, Lin Yi did not find a way to evolve the elytra structure together, but simply and crudely strengthened the back exoskeleton to integrate the entire chest and back exoskeleton.

For this reason, Lin Yi simply canceled the differentiation of the chest and back, and directly integrated the four body segments that make up the thoracic segment with the more than ten body segments that make up the abdomen, which also facilitates the installation of the inner shell part.

The new grade of exoskeleton is still a composite armor-type exoskeleton with multiple interlayers, and the arrangement of the multi-layered chitin, calcium, horny, etc. is slightly different from that of large underwater combat grades such as the Dreadnought Soldier, making it more suitable. Terrestrial environment.

The overall shape and structure is still slightly streamlined like its prototype - the six-spotted green tiger armor. This shape and structure can maximize the role of the tilted armor of later tanks, deflecting enemy piercing attacks.

Although Lin Yi thought about it and found that the opponent did not seem to have this kind of attack method, but for biological structures, growing such a structure does not pose a problem of processing difficulties.

At present, the level that "tanks" need to deal with are mainly giant horseshoe spiders, and their chelicerae are long under the body, making it difficult to attack targets larger than or equal to themselves. For them, those chelicerae are also long like those of later generations of spiders. The Terror Spider in front is more of a threat.

But judging from the current situation, it is difficult for chelicerae to cause damage to new levels of appendages and exoskeletons, unless they can inject venom like later generations of spiders.

As for the venom, in order to prevent the opponent from reorganizing this structure, Lin Yi also dealt with the new-level circulation system. The new grade uses a closed-tube circulation system to prevent toxins from spreading on a large scale after entering the body. At the same time, Lin Yi also applied a new structural system to prevent the spread of toxins as much as possible.

The specific structure is probably to install an openable and closable valve structure at the connection between the circulatory system of each limb and the main body circulatory system. At critical moments, the circulatory system can be cut off by closing the valve to block the spread of toxins.

In the future, this system will also be installed on the saw ants to prevent them from evolving a level that uses toxins as a means of attack.

The defensive structure is roughly like this. Before solving the offensive structure, Lin Yi first needs to solve the observation and perception structure.

Later generations of tiger beetles had compound eyes that were so huge that they protruded upward.

But now, Lin Yi does not need such a pair of exaggeratedly large compound eyes. Therefore, he does not intend to directly copy the shape of the compound eyes, but slightly modify them.

The extremely developed and forward-protruding compound eyes are to ensure binocular vision and improve the success rate of hunting. The new grade sacrifices this ability, and their compound eyes will be distributed in an arc on both sides of the head to gain a wider field of vision.

In order to assist in vision, Lin Yi installed three specialized monocular eyes for the new grade. The one at the bottom has low-light night vision capabilities, while the other two do not have similar functions and are only used as auxiliary eyes. See things.

In order to obtain a wider field of vision, real-life tiger armors often raise their front bodies to scan around, but new grades do not. Under normal circumstances, they will stay close to the ground to stabilize their center of gravity as much as possible.

But their steps are still long enough to adapt to more complex terrain. After all, there are no roads these days, and strong off-road capabilities are the foundation for ensuring mobility.

This allows the new class to have considerable speed when its expected body size is over six or seven meters, comparable to the land version of the Dreadnought.

Although they are large and bulky, and wearing heavy armor inevitably affects their flexibility, their speed can still allow them to launch deadly charges like heavy armored cavalry or armored troops, crushing all enemies in front of them.

The scene of a large number of new levels charging with an army of Crazy-toothed Saw Ants like a tide could not help but appear in Lin Yi's mind, accompanied by the roaring fire of the mortar spiders from behind, shattering everything in front.

Although the current opponent, that is, the terrestrial arthropod nest, can be solved with saw-toothed saw ants alone, and there is no need for such extravagant and wasteful play, such an imagination still makes Lin Yi's blood boil - even though it is blue Colorful copper-containing blood is enough.

Of course, if you want the new level to truly possess the imagined combat effectiveness, the last remaining attack structure must not be stretched. But for this aspect of the structure, Lin Yi naturally already had a solution.

(End of this chapter)