The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 5 pupa, second nest

This was Lin Yi's first time seeing a real "original" feather-winged horseshoe crab. Its appearance is exactly the same as the brood version. The one-meter-long scorpion-like body is equipped with ferocious sickle limbs and sharp tail spines. It is also a ferocious predator.

Seeing that the blow missed, the opponent's body turned around, and the well-developed sickle limbs covered with slender spikes opened wide. A pair of smaller sickle limbs in front of the head opened and closed like the jaws of later insects, and the scorpion tail was raised above the head. He swung his body closer to the nerve-enhanced feather-winged horseshoe crab controlled by Lin Yi, trying to scare him into retreating.

Lin Yi was also unwilling to be outdone. He opened his scythe limbs, shook his scorpion tail, and assumed a threatening posture. He confronted the opponent on the surface, while secretly observing the opponent's movements and looking for flaws.

Finding the right opportunity, Lin Yi suddenly took action. The flat, fan-shaped tail at the end of the feather-winged horseshoe crab's body swung, its body turned at an angle, and its well-developed sickle limbs pinched hard at the connection between the opponent's chest and abdomen.

The opponent's one-meter-long body struggled violently, but it was already too late. The ferocious spikes on the sickle limbs penetrated the exoskeleton of the opponent's body. The insect blood spread among the blue waves with the violent puncture and tear, filling the olfactory organs with the fishy smell of copper ions.

Unlike vertebrates, the blood of horseshoe crabs, like existing horseshoe crabs, uses cells containing copper ions instead of iron ions to transport oxygen. This gives their blood a blue color that makes them inconspicuous in the sea.

However, the large amount of azure worm blood still made the nearby sea water become turbid. In the thick waves of blood, Lin Yi controlled his body to bend the scorpion tail, and the sharp tail thorn stabbed the opponent's head accurately. The strength of the feather-winged horseshoe crab's struggle gradually weakened, and finally stopped completely.

The nearby Sakaban turtle discovered a new target and slowly swam in with its small inverted triangular mouth open, swallowing the debris floating in the waves.

At this time, Lin Yi didn't want to pay attention to them. He just waved his sickle twice to symbolically drive them away before continuing to eat.

But killing a common feather-winged horseshoe crab that came close only temporarily ensured safety.

This huge carcass will continue to attract more opportunists, but with the primitive mouth structure of the feather-winged horseshoe crab, it is impossible to swallow it up quickly. The huge body of Cornerstone makes it impractical to drag it back to the nest.

But Lin Yi was not alone now - thinking about it, another individual of the feather-winged horseshoe crab set off from the mother nest and rushed here quickly, leaving only one individual to guard the mother nest.

After some time, a second individual Erythropus arrived at the scene. Immediately, Lin Yi controlled the two individuals and started eating with a clear division of labor.

The nerve-enhanced feather-winged horseshoe crab, which had been eating for a while, used its two pairs of sickle limbs, one large and one small, to tear the soft tissue of the corner stone into small pieces of suitable size.

The other individual feather-winged horseshoe crab on the side eats these torn off residues with all its strength, swallows them into its belly, and stores them.

But Lin Yi is still not satisfied with this efficiency. He couldn't help but think of the efficiency of the mother's nest. If he could move the entire mother's nest here and digest and absorb the corpse, then Lin Yi would be sure to completely monopolize this massive amount of nutrients.

But alas, the brood does not have any structure for movement. If you want to move the whole thing such a long distance, it would be easier to study how to create a new mother nest. But since the origin of this thing is unknown, it is very likely to be unique. Lin Yi could only think about it.

But suddenly, as if he understood Lin Yi's thoughts, the instinct in his genes emerged in his consciousness, which made him feel happy. Thinking about it, the horseshoe crab speeded up its eating speed again, devouring Cornerstone's soft tissue as fast as it could.

During this period, another adult horseshoe crab came to grab food, but it wisely fled the scene under the ruthless mixed doubles. At this time, Lin Yi had accumulated enough nutrients and was ready to take the next step.

At this time, the digestive system of the individual feather-winged horseshoe crab that had been eating was already full, making people wonder whether it would be starved to death by food.

But Lin Yi is not worried about this issue. With a thought, the body of the ordinary feather-winged horseshoe crab that he controlled slowly lay on the soft tissue of the corpse, and then slowly stopped all life activities, and a large number of tissues in the body began to dissolve.

Yes, dissolve. The body tissues and swallowed food are dissolved together into viscous tissue fluid, and the cells begin to reorganize and gradually merge again into a new structure.

The original exoskeleton of the feather-winged horseshoe crab squirmed as the underlying tissue grew and merged, and was gradually stretched out of shape.

Soon, sensing that the change was complete, the sickle limb of another feather-winged horseshoe crab on the side completely broke open the exoskeleton that was about to burst, revealing a honeycomb-like structure below that was completely different from the original feather-winged horseshoe crab. If it weren't for that It has turned into an empty exoskeleton. No one will believe that this life form that looks like a miniature version of the mother nest was transformed into an individual feather-winged horseshoe crab.

That's right, this another honeycomb-shaped life form is the second mother nest that Lin Yi subconsciously controls. Through the special part of the genome, this individual feather-winged horseshoe crab went through a pupa stage similar to the metamorphosis of later insect larvae, and developed into a completely different life form, that is, a second mother nest.

The previous mother nest was most likely transformed into a mutated individual feather-winged horseshoe crab using a method similar to insect pupation.

This also explains why it can directly produce individuals of the same hive mind as the mother nest, but even if it absorbs the genetic sequences of other organisms, it cannot produce individuals under the same consciousness in the same way. individual. Because in a sense, the mother nest is also a giant feathered horseshoe crab that has mutated beyond recognition.

Thinking about it, he controlled the nerve-enhanced feather-winged horseshoe crab guarding the surrounding area to tear off large pieces of the soft tissue of the corner stone and stuff it into the holes on the surface of the small nest for it to digest and read the corner stone's genes. sequence.

At the same time, Lin Yi also had more bold ideas. He looked at the nearby short-winged horseshoe crabs that still refused to disperse with a pair of huge compound eyes, and fell into deep thought.

The sickle limbs swayed, and he slowly approached a short-winged horseshoe crab that was boldly approaching. Lin Yi suddenly became angry, closed his appendages, and fiercely trapped it between the long spines of the sickle-shaped appendages.

Immediately, the pair of shorter sickle limbs clamped the trapped short-winged horseshoe crab's body, and the tail spine skillfully lifted up and stabbed the short-winged horseshoe crab, killing the short-winged horseshoe crab on the spot.

The other horseshoe crabs nearby immediately fled in panic, never having the courage to approach Cornerstone's body again. But Lin Yi didn't even look at them. He turned around and slowly put the corpse into the hole on the surface of the mother's nest. His goal has been achieved, and the genetic sequence of the short-winged horseshoe crab is about to be absorbed by the mother's nest.

(End of this chapter)