The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 192 Meeting old enemies again

What appeared before the eyes was a familiar arthropod with four membrane wings, a pair of catching feet and well-developed jaws, like a later species called the Magnificent Golden Mantis. Moreover, there is a pair of smaller triangular armor plates in front of their forewings - a characteristic of the order Dictyoptera.

Everything illustrates their identity - ancient reticulata, one of the classes with the largest number of nests of terrestrial arthropods at that time.

Lin Yi's first reaction was that the terrestrial arthropod nests still existed and evolved further, changing the planted lichen to this strange carnivorous fern, using it as a defensive structure to resist more and more giants from the outside world. beast.

But soon, the specific appearance of the other party made Lin Yi change his mind - the appearance of these ancient net-winged cockroaches had hardly changed at all, but just behind their heads, at the joint between the head and the neck, there was a There is a short "mushroom" growing diagonally above!

In Lin Yi's mind, a name flashed - Ophiocordyceps hemiformis. But before I had time to think about it, these strange ancient net-winged cockroaches with mushrooms on their heads had already come to kill the saw-toothed saw ants that were still spraying chemicals.

As expected, these chemicals, which can easily kill plants, have no effect on animals and fungi as long as they are in contact with the body surface.

In the fern forest, swarms of ancient net-winged cockroaches all over the sky were as dense as black clouds, killing the saw-toothed ants in groups of two, like a boat in the green ocean. However, these crazy-toothed saw ants are highly specialized and do not have any means of group attack!

At this moment, from behind, a blazing orange-red fire pillar swept across the group of ancient net-winged cockroaches. The powerful jets gave those ancient web-winged cockroaches no time to dodge, and they rushed into the flames like moths to the flame!

The crackling sound of the exoskeleton being burned was endless, and the ancient web-winged cockroaches were falling all over the sky, trailing a trail of flames, like fireworks all over the sky, which was extremely beautiful.

Many dead vine structures were also ignited by the falling sparks, and the flames swept and spread, revealing the huge figure behind the Crazy Tooth Saw Ant colony - six thick limbs, shaped like a tiger beetle, and a back. The pair of axe-shaped claw blades are clearly the main battle armor that plays the role of a tank.

After the Crazy Tooth Saw Ant colony entered, Lin Yi produced several normal main battle armors just in case, along with a large number of more normal Crazy Tooth Saw Ants and Fire Breathing Saw Ants, just in case. , unexpectedly, it really came in handy.

The first batch of offensives were defeated by the sudden reinforcements, which finally gave Lin Yi some free time to study the relationship between the ancient web-winged cockroaches, mushroom-shaped structures and these carnivorous ferns.

The claws of the crazy-toothed saw ants were waving, cutting a clearing in the fern forest. In mid-air, a shadowfly slowly landed on the ground, gathered up its bladed tarsus, and slowly picked up a dead vine structure with the finger claws at the end of its tibia, and placed it in front of the compound eyes for a closer look.

Then, another bladed appendage slowly opened, and the structure at the end of the tibia and tarsus opened. With a gentle pinch, the sharp cutting edge structure immediately cut it off.

Afterwards, he cut the carnivorous plant vine structure with a knife at an angle, and the cross-section of the carnivorous plant vine structure was exposed to the shadow fly's compound eyes. Lin Yi suddenly discovered that there were some gray-white mixed with the once green plant fiber tissue that had now turned yellow. , obviously different from the structure of plant tissue.

For a moment, Lin Yi seemed to understand something. Thinking about it, the fungus blankets and brood nests behind them also began to analyze the absorbed gene sequences to verify his guess.

Soon, the analysis results appeared in Lin Yi's consciousness - these gray-white structures were indeed not plant tissues, but fungi!

Yes, these plants live in symbiosis with fungi, just like the lichens of the past. However, the structures of both parties have become countless times more complex. They are no longer the humble plants that could only crawl on the ground, not even as good as weeds. , but grew into an existence enough to change the world!

For a while, Lin Yi had a guess about the relationship between plants and fungi during the mass extinction at the end of the Devonian and the collapse of the Carboniferous rainforest - it was not that early fungi were unable to decompose wood and caused plants to sequester a large amount of carbon, but that fungi Achieved symbiosis with plants!

Perhaps it was the disordered proliferation and expansion of these symbionts that caused the imbalance of the carbon cycle and the nitrogen and phosphorus cycle, which triggered the Hangenberg Incident, taking away 70% of organisms such as placoderms. Speaking of fungi, they have actually evolved structures similar to muscle fibers. The swinging of those vine-like structures is driven by the symbiotic muscle fiber-like hyphae.

And these ancient web-winged cockroaches are also masterpieces of fungi.

In later generations, there was a fungus called Ophiocordyceps hemiformis, which was a close relative of Cordyceps sinensis, also known as Ophiocordyceps sinensis, and their other name is more widely known - "zombie ant fungus"!

They will parasitize the brains of ants such as black turtle ants and control them to perform various abnormal behaviors that are conducive to fungal reproduction, such as climbing to the top of trees that they would not normally reach and fixing petioles with their foreheads to facilitate the spread of spores.

At this time, these ancient net-winged cockroaches have become the opponent's puppets and are completely controlled by them.

I don’t know how the terrestrial arthropod nests became like this, but they were controlled. However, this also confirmed Lin Yi’s guess - anything that should not appear in this era is not a nest. It's about the nest group.

A bolder idea came to his mind - could these strange plants that live in symbiosis with fungi be the direct descendants of that special lichen? !

Perhaps the terrestrial arthropod nests were desperate and continued to use weapons for decisive battle. They thought of plants and fungi, and unexpectedly caused them to be parasitized and controlled in turn - killed by their own crops. Should I say it or not? The way it ended was a bit dramatic.

Lin Yi thought of a saying from later generations - did humans domesticate crops, or did crops domesticate humans?

This also triggered another speculation by Lin Yi - perhaps, these mixtures of plants and fungi have already possessed wisdom and planned all this?

They spread to the entire continent with the help of terrestrial arthropod nests and forest changes in the past, and then gradually evolved into more advanced forms, and deliberately destroyed the carbon cycle. They have achieved a certain purpose? !

Although such speculation was somewhat unfounded, Lin Yi's experiences still made him feel that it was not impossible to happen.

I thought that the era of chaotic demons had drifted away from me with the mass extinctions, but Lin Yi suddenly discovered that he seemed to be involved in a larger conspiracy.

Fortunately, the current nest is no longer what it used to be. He is confident that he can end the battle quickly and thoroughly find out all of this and the possible conspiracy behind it.

(End of this chapter)