Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 18 Cultivation
The reason why Zero decided to designate an area near the brood to domesticate aphids instead of using reeds on the riverside to solve this problem is not complicated.

One is the distance from the brood.There are tens of meters away from the riverside to the mother's nest. Moving food from there in the future will consume a lot of labor costs for the ant colony.

The second is the issue of food quantity.On the grassland here, the number of weeds far exceeds that of the reeds by the river.If they can be bred on grassland, it means that aphids can be domesticated anytime and anywhere on this grassland, which means that ant colonies don't have to worry about food wherever they go.

Of course, due to the proximity to the southern part of the nest, the ant colony there will take the lead in domesticating aphids in the reeds by the river.

Ling asked the worker ants to place the surviving aphids and their eggs on the grass blades. For several days, Ling watched the group of small insects closely.

What makes Ling a little strange is that these aphids have no symptoms of discomfort on the grass blades, but live a very leisurely life.The eggs also hatched one after another, and they even laid eggs again during this period.

"It seems that aphids can't survive on grass, so why didn't I find them on grass leaves before?" Zero was a little strange. According to the habits of aphids, as long as they can survive, they will not let go of such a large piece of fat. Area.

But soon, Zero found the answer.

Flying ants outside the ant colony reported that they found several green bugs with wings that were rarely seen before.

This time, Zero did not order the ants to swarm up and turn them into food for the ants, but let them in on purpose.

Because in the previous predation process of the ant colony, this kind of insects were rarely encountered, but now they are coming here with a purpose, there must be something attracting them.

And most likely, these rapidly multiplying aphids.

Sure enough, these green insects with transparent wings came straight to the grassland where the aphids lived as if they were equipped with radar. After landing, they waved their forelimbs and mouthparts to the aphids lying on the leaves There was a massacre.

"This should be the lacewing, right? Is this the reason why the aphids don't breed here?" Zero recognized this kind of insect, which explained the reason why the aphids don't live in the grassland, but another question followed.

"Then why can they survive on the reeds? Are there no lacewings there?"

"Perhaps, there may be natural enemies of lacewings there." Without being entangled in this issue, Zero quickly ordered the ant colony to come forward and clean up the slaughtering lacewings, turning them into accumulations in the ant nest food.

After figuring out the reason, Zero didn't hesitate any longer, and the army of ants quickly dispatched. Except for leaving enough aphids for the southern part of the nest, they moved all the aphids that could be seen in the field of vision to the grass near the ant nest.

Soon, the group of aphids began to live and reproduce.They can lay eggs in four or five days, and these eggs will hatch after two or three days. Such a reproduction speed makes even an ant colony feel ashamed.

Still, it's certainly a good thing for Zero.

With the help of the ants, in just half a month, the aphids have almost covered the grass within the sphere of influence of the ant colony.

The ant colonies helped them get rid of their natural enemies, and the grassland without threats became a paradise for aphids.

They wantonly absorb the sap from the grass blades, rapidly, and reproduce from generation to generation.

However, the ant colony did not clean up the lacewings outside the sphere of influence for them, and the aphid ant colony who went there would not care about it any more, allowing them to survive on their own.

But for the interior of the first batch of divided nests, faced with the aphids that have almost covered the entire grassland and reproduce wantonly, in order to prevent them from destroying the entire grassland and destroying Zero's plan, the ant colony is very concerned about their density. and quantity are strictly controlled.The number of aphids on each blade of grass is not allowed to exceed ten, which is the basis for ensuring the survival of the blade of grass and continuously providing nutrition for the aphids.

Once this number is exceeded, the ant colony will dispatch in large numbers to kill the excess aphids and turn them into their own food.

In addition to this purely carnivorous breeding, the ant colony also deliberately separates ant colony worker ants to "graze" the aphids.

The aphids absorb the sap from the grass leaves, and the queen ants will produce a honeydew containing a lot of sugars. This honeydew is also one of the most important targets for the ants to raise aphids.

For quite a long period of time in the future, in the sphere of influence of the ant colony, as long as there is grass, it will all be aphid breeding grounds and pastures for the ant colony.

Aphids have nothing to do with ants that are much larger than themselves, they can only choose to suffer.

On each leaf are worker ants that graze the aphids and wait for them to produce honeydew, which they then transport back to the nest.

In order to speed up their production, ants sometimes beat their bodies with their forelimbs to urge them.

At the same time, under the instruction of Zero, the ant colony carried out a special cleaning for slow-growing or small aphids.It was also a first-of-its-kind attempt, as the aphids reproduce so quickly, which means their gene transmission cycle is very short.

Therefore, Zero wants to selectively force aphids to evolve in the direction they need through this artificial selection, weeding out the bad and choosing the best.

Of course, this is just an attempt, and there is no way to be sure whether it will be successful. I can only say that I will try my best, and it will be the best if it succeeds naturally, and the ant colony will get a better and better food source.It doesn't matter if you can't succeed, this attempt will not cause any loss to the ant colony.

Zero also thought about using the same method on earthworms, but compared to aphids, the reproduction speed of earthworms is too slow, and it takes years to see the effect.

Of course, this is still worth trying, through this directional artificial selection, to direct the offspring of earthworms to the direction that an ant colony needs.

For example, eat and be lazy, stop running away, focus on growing meat, etc.

This has already started after the construction of the earthworm domestication field, but because the number of earthworms is too small.Therefore, they cannot be selected by killing them, but can only be domesticated from generation to generation in the passage of time.

If one day, the ant colony finds a way to raise a large number of earthworms without spreading too much cost, it will no longer have to be so cautious. On the basis of a large number of samples, there will always be a few unique earthworms that are delicious, lazy and unwilling to move. , to selectively leave them to combine to lay eggs, and kill other earthworms, so as to prevent them from having the opportunity to leave offspring.

Through this generation-by-generation selective condition, they are forced to evolve towards a qualified food provider.

　Ask for collection! !Ask for a monthly pass! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)