Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 47 Variation of Aphids

Speaking of sweet potatoes, there is an interesting thing.

At the very beginning, Zero didn't realize that the sweet potato seeds needed to be sown in spring, just like fruit trees. After they matured in autumn, he buried them in the soil and fertilized them.

But in the second year, there were not a lot of sweet potatoes growing, and only a few plants survived, which made the propagation speed of sweet potatoes very slow.

Zero was quite baffled, and he hadn't been able to react until a chance two years ago, when he discovered that the germination rate of sweet potato seeds would be higher in the coming year if the sweet potato seeds were stored underground in winter!
Presumably, most of the original seeds were frozen to death in the cold winter, and only a few survived the winter to germinate and grow in spring.

Since then, the ant colonies have the habit of actively collecting sweet potato seeds and storing them every autumn. They used to store them in the granary of the ant nest, but now they have a cellar and put them directly in the cellar.

Although the efficiency of the builders in transporting sweet potatoes is not high, Zero has only bred a small amount to meet the current demand, and at the same time seeks the possibility of having more powerful builders.

Nevertheless, after having a cellar, it is foreseeable that even if the builders no longer strengthen it, the food problem of the ant colony will gradually be solved with the increasing storage of sweet potatoes.

Coupled with the annual increase of fruit trees and berries as a food supplement, the situation will be more optimistic.

If the ant colony didn't make any big moves and the external environment didn't change drastically, Zero even felt that he could lead the ant colony to live on this small island forever.

Of course, if you think so, you still have to have a sense of urgency.

Zero is still working hard to promote another mutation of the queen ant. At the same time, out of curiosity, he also wants to see if he can make the aphids mutate as well.

If possible, He would also like to see how this group of little aphids would mutate.

At that time, the mutation of aphids was abandoned because of the zero judgment that even if they mutated, they would not provide any contribution to the ant colony.

However, after the mutated earthworms caused the queen ants to mutate again, Zero had more powerful builders and diggers, and was able to barely complete the task of storing sweet potatoes, initially solving the food problem that the ant colony might face in the future, so he also I started to feel leisurely, and I couldn't help but want to see what kind of aphids can mutate into.

Curiosity about mutation prompted Zero to carry out this experiment. At the same time, because the queen ants started to mutate again after eating mutant earthworms, if aphids can also mutate, then Zero also wanted to do an experiment to see if it is only by eating different earthworms. Mutations can prompt the queen to mutate again.

After several years of screening and grazing by the ant colony, the current aphids are completely different from the previous ones. Among them, there are no individuals the size of gravel, and all of them are fat and strong. , and the sugar yield is very high.

To this day, the honeydew they produce is still one of the ants' favorite foods. The rich energy can support the ants' long-term activities, and if it is used to feed the larvae, it can also accelerate the growth rate of the larvae.

However, with the skyrocketing number of ant colonies, their production has gradually failed to keep up with the consumption of the ant colony. Until now, with the addition of sweet potatoes, the output of aphids has only accounted for a very small part of the consumption of the ant colony, which is better than nothing.

The direct result of this situation is that the status of aphid pastures has plummeted. They originally occupied the mainstay of supporting ant colonies. With the rapid development of ant colonies, they have gradually been marginalized or even about to withdraw from the stage of history.

However, perhaps this experiment can bring about a turnaround in their status, and of course, it may also be a crisis.

It is the time when the autumn wind is bleak, and the aphids have finished their one-year labor and are preparing to lay eggs and reproduce, so that the next generation can survive the winter with the help of the ant colony.As for them themselves, they must be ready to become food for ants.

Under Zero's order, hundreds of fat aphids were brought into the cave by the soldier ants, and there were also hundreds of small, ordinary white sand-like aphid eggs.

After placing them directly under the gemstones, Zero no longer paid attention to them. He still hoped that the queen ants who were still eating mutated earthworm meat would respond.

Of course, if there is any change in the aphid, he, who is in the void space and has a full view of the island, will still find it immediately.

It's a pity that the logistics queen that Zero focused on didn't change in any way, but the battle queen who ate more and more mutated earthworm meat became more and more disturbed.

Zero is not sure if this is a sign before the mutation, but this does not affect his continuous feeding of insect meat to the fighting queens - there are only a few queens left and right, and even if they are lost, they can breed more at any time.

However, as if fighting against Zero, as time went by, the battle ant queen ate more and more earthworm meat, and she had no other reaction other than becoming more irritable.

Zero didn't care, and kept cultivating mutated earthworms for them to eat.

"Maybe it's still not enough." Zero thought.

Five days later, the fat aphids were still unresponsive, but their eggs hatched quickly.

Unsurprisingly, this group of hatched small aphids did have the characteristics of mutation.

As soon as they hatched, they pounced on the chubby aphids that were close at hand, as if they were reincarnated from starvation.

Zero watched this scene with great interest, the newborn little aphids actually lay down directly on the surface of the adult insects, and at some point their heads stretched out with thin needle-like organs, piercing the aphids' bodies unceremoniously and sucking with.

The aphids, who were defenseless against them, were obviously taken aback, shaking their plump bodies and desperately trying to shake them off, but all this was doomed to be useless.

As the larvae suck, the plump aphids quickly become shriveled until they lose their life characteristics.And the mutated larvae expanded several times in size in this short period of time!
Obviously they are sucking the nutrients in the aphids to meet their own developmental needs!
After sucking up the aphids, this group of larvae was obviously not satisfied, and they rushed straight towards the guards surrounding them, and the speed was not slow!
You know, judging from the size of the aphids, compared to them, the guardians are undoubtedly the size gap between the big fat orange cat and the mouse cubs. How dare this group of aphids pounce on them directly!

"Could it be that this mutation will make the insects become irritable?" Zero is unknown. Judging from the current two samples, it seems to be the case, but only two are too small to be representative.

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(End of this chapter)