The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 40 Waiting for stinging insects

The water-spraying motherfly swings its five pairs of paddling legs, and the water-jet propulsion system operates at full strength, pushing the floating mother nest, which has multiplied to nearly five meters in diameter, to advance slowly through the water.

The three pairs of feeding appendages of the female larvae and the downward-hanging feather-like structures on the sides of the floating mother's nest work together to filter the plankton on the upper layer of the water. The worker larvae uses its chelicerae to fix itself to the downward-hanging filter-feeding structure of the mother's nest. while scanning the bottom with your compound eyes.

This time, the floating mother nest is driven along the shallow sea by the filter mother fly, looking for possible species that can provide gene fragments for new templates.

During the Ordovician period, Gondwana had not yet broken up and had a long coastline. Lin Yi's goal was at a corner of this long coastline, a place where a large number of fossils were discovered during later research.

According to later studies, in the Middle Ordovician meteor event, apart from the small fragments that were disintegrated by impact and scattered all over the earth, the main body of the meteorite also fell into the atmosphere, and finally hit a corner of the east coast of Gondwana, which is what later generations A place in North America.

In later generations, the location was called the Dikla Crater, and research shows that at that time, the Dikla Crater was filled with seawater and became a coastal harbor isolated from the outside environment.

The diameter of the Dikla crater is about 5.6 kilometers, and according to later research, due to its relatively closed environment and the inflow of rivers, its salinity is low and it is not suitable for the survival of various types of organisms common in the Ordovician.

Therefore, a large number of biological fossils that are very different from the times and can even be said to be unprecedented in shape have been discovered. Among them, Lin Yi's goal was included.

Now, what Lin Yi is looking for is the location of the Dikla crater. Multiple floating brood nests are driven along the coastline in multiple directions, searching for their possible locations along the way.

After a period of searching, Lin Yi had a feeling that he was about to find it - several small arthropods swimming in front of him were somewhat similar in appearance to shrimps of later generations, which Lin Yi had never seen in other sea areas. of.

But unlike later shrimps, their head shells are large and round, covering the entire front half of the body. If Lin Yi remembers correctly, they should be a group called leaf shrimp.

Later leaf shrimps were tiny zooplankton, but during the Ordovician to Devonian periods they were more diverse and larger. At this time, those in front of Lin Yi were doing the classic work of benthic organisms - picking up garbage in the sand on the seabed.

If he really found the right place, what appeared in front of him should be a kind of leaf shrimp called Vanessa pod shrimp. In later studies, they were found to be at the bottom of the food chain in the Dikla Crater and Vanessa Shale.

Thinking about it, under Lin Yi's control, several workers broke away from the floating mother nest and swam toward the leaf shrimp group below with their claws open. No matter whether they were the target or not, it would not hurt to catch two first to extract the genetic sequence.

But just as the worker approached the leaf shrimp group and opened his chelicerae to catch one, the shrimp group that was obsessed with picking up garbage suddenly scattered in all directions and fled in panic.

Lin Yi hadn't realized what was going on, he just thought it was the arrival of the workers who were discovered by them, causing these pod shrimps to escape. But the next second, he discovered something was wrong.

The other workers hung upside down on the drooping whisker-like structure of the mother's nest with their chelicerae. Looking down with their well-developed compound eyes, Lin Yi discovered what was behind the worker below - one was only a little over ten centimeters. , a small insect that looks somewhat similar to a leaf shrimp.

But even though its stature was very small compared to Gong Hao, it still swung its appendages and hit the Gong Hao in front of it. Even though Gong Hao had already reacted, turned around, and swung its claws to attack it, it did not evade it at all.

A sharp pain came from the place where Gong Hao was attacked, and Lin Yi discovered that the pair of appendages in front of the opponent were surprisingly large. In terms of proportion to the body, they were no less than the sickle limbs of the feather-winged horseshoe crab. Obviously Not something that leaf shrimps can have. These appendages are long and curved, and their shape is somewhat similar to the sickle limbs of the feather-winged horseshoe crab without the exaggerated spines, but they are curved upward and covered with spine-like protrusions. Moreover, the shrimp-shaped body is completely wrapped by an extremely huge translucent shell, making it look like a giant dumpling.

There is a long thorn extending forward from the front of the "dumpling", which is somewhat similar to a smaller version of the swordfish-shaped head shell of Hurd shrimp. But below, most of the appendages have been specialized into paddling feet.

Lin Yi was startled. This seemed to be a type of arthropod called isospinians. However, in later studies, isospinians did not live past the Cambrian period, but were related to the strange order Orthodontida of the order Laodinophora. The predatory shrimps of the suborder Anomalocaris went to meet the seven old blacks early together.

Unexpectedly, another relic of the previous dynasty appeared in the water near the suspected Dikla crater.

As for the stinging insects, Lin Yi was somewhat interested. The specific points of interest are related to the current situation of the industry.

The pain came from half of Gong Hao's body. It was definitely not caused by the stinging insect's appendages that were not small in proportion to the body, but were actually not very big. This reminded Lin Yi of a speculation or rumor from later generations - Wait for stinging insects, which may have venom glands!

Based on his reaction and the sensory signals sent back from the worker's body, Lin Yi felt that this was probably true, and the venom secreted from his venom glands was probably not weakly toxic.

This gave Lin Yi the idea of ​​capturing them and extracting their genetic sequences.

Currently, Binghao is still using a poison sac structure that secretes digestive juices. However, in the face of enemies that are getting larger and larger and whose flesh and blood tissues are becoming more resistant, its role is becoming more and more limited.

At this time, if a real venom gland-related gene fragment can be obtained and integrated into the soldier's gene sequence, the soldier's combat effectiveness will be raised to a higher level.

Thinking about it, Lin Yi controlled a soldier to swing its tail and paddling feet from above the floating mother nest, killing the stinging insects.

At this time, Gonghao has been completely killed by the toxin of the stinging insect. The tiny body of the stinging insect is swimming next to the huge prey, without any idea of ​​the fate it will face next.

The soldier's sickle limbs suddenly closed together, and the clusters of blade thorns clamped down hard. The stinging insect's weak exoskeleton burst open on the spot, and it twitched and died on the spot.

The soldier used a pair of smaller sickle limbs to clamp the carcass of the stinging insect, swung its tail, swam upwards, skillfully stuffed it into the hole on the surface of the mother's nest, and began to absorb the genetic sequence.

Absorbing the genetic sequence of the isospinalis, the floating mother nest continues to move forward driven by the filtering mother flies. The corpses of workers were also recovered to avoid waste.

And ahead, more strange creatures have appeared in Gong Hao's compound eyes. While thinking, Lin Yi controlled a large number of workers to leave the floating nest and began a raid like a Japanese army entering the village.

(End of this chapter)