The shell lang and the butterfly enjoyed each other's delicious meal without disturbing each other, but they didn't expect that the delicious meal in front of them was actually just a bait, and the trap had been activated......

The dung shell lang, the scientific name dung beetle, also known as the dung beetle, belongs to the family of coleoptera dung beetles. The dung beetle has a black or black-brown body, a nearly round shape, short elytra, an exposed end of the abdomen, and a length of 5~30 cm, which is a large and medium-sized insect.

Dung beetles can use the phenomenon of moonlight polarization to locate to help feeding, and have a certain phototaxis. Most dung beetles are dung-feeding and feed on animal feces, earning them the title of "nature's scavenger". Dung beetles were also scarabs in ancient Egypt.

Dung beetles are commonly known as dung shells because they use their shovel-like heads and paddle-like antennae to roll their droppings into a ball, sometimes as large as an apple. In early summer, dung beetles bury themselves and their dung balls in underground dirt and feed on them. Later, the female lays eggs in the dung ball, and the hatched larvae also feed on it.

However, in this world, there are no large animals that provide dung beetles with feces for food, and most dung beetles have changed to scavenging, and a few still live on insect dung.

And that butterfly is actually a dead leaf butterfly.

The dead leaf butterfly, whose scientific name is the dead leaf butterfly, belongs to the lepidopteran butterfly family, is a world-famous mimicry species, a typical example of natural camouflage.

The reverse side of the wings of the dead leaf butterfly is the color of dead leaves, and when the wings are resting on the branches of the tree, it is difficult to distinguish them from the dead leaves of the broad-leaved tree that is about to wither.

The wingspan of the dead leaf butterfly is 70~80mm wide, and the back of the body is black. It prefers to live on mountain cliffs and lush woods, and feeds on plant sap, while larvae feed on plants such as horse orchid and knotweed.

When the two insects finished eating, they left separately, and by this time they were already stained with dozens of hyphae, but they were unaware.

The dung beetle and the dead leaf butterfly, two different insects, are simultaneously targeted by the larvae of the silk parasite, which the protagonist did not expect.

According to previous information, the protagonist has always thought that these silk thread parasites only parasitize ants.

If the protagonist is right, the mycelial larvae have stuck their heads into the bodies of dung beetles and dead leaf butterflies, and they do not want to use insects to spread long distances, as is the case with Xanthus, but as new hosts.

The protagonist doesn't understand why these silk worms can parasitize other insects, and they haven't seen this before.

But reality has already appeared, and the protagonist needs to consider the impact of this information.

Flying insects such as dead leaf butterflies have a very large range of activities, so the silk parasites that parasitize its body may be spread far away, no longer limited to a corner of hilly areas, and the threat will be greatly increased. Even in the vicinity of "Dongyang Castle", new infected people will appear.

The protagonist decides to return to Dongyang City immediately and formulate a corresponding defense plan.

The protagonist rides Xiaoqing and continues to fly above their heads at a height of half a meter, following the route traveled by the parasitic ants, and continues to observe while returning.

After flying for a while, the protagonist suddenly has a strange reaction in his heart, as if he is being stared at by something.

He immediately let Xiaoqing circle in place, and looked around himself, looking for the source of this sense of gaze.

Soon, in the direction that the protagonist ignores at first, he finds his target.

It was a huge parasitic ant, her abdomen was extremely bloated and swollen, and her back was densely packed with dozens of silk thread parasites.

The protagonist recognizes her, the queen of parasitic ants she had seen while reading the captive's memories.

Generally speaking, the effective field of view of worker and soldier ants is one decimeter, and that of male and female ants is three decimeters. And the protagonist is flying half a meter in the air at the moment, that is, five decimeters, and theoretically even the queen ant can't see the target so far away.

And the focus of the pair of compound eyes of this parasitic ant queen has always tracked Xiaoqing hovering in the sky, and the protagonist does not think it is a coincidence, and the other party can obviously see himself.

As soon as the queen makes eye contact with the parasitic ant, the protagonist feels a surge of hostility.

At first, the parasitic ant queen only thought that the fly above her head had a strange path, and she kept flying and hovering over the parasitic ants' heads, and there seemed to be something on her back.

But as soon as the protagonist makes eye contact with her, an innate hostile instinct makes both sides clear about the identity of the other and that there is no possibility of peace between them.

The parasitic ant queen suddenly gave some kind of signal, and the guards around her suddenly became alert, guarding him closely, and making a threatening gesture towards the sky - though they didn't see anything.

The protagonist takes a meaningful look at the parasitic ant, pulls up the reins, increases the flight altitude, and continues to fly towards "Dongyang City".

After that glance, he had a feeling that the parasitic queen seemed to be the actual ruler of the parasitic nest.

So, is she the one behind the scenes?

- I'm the dividing line -

The protagonist who returns to the main nest gives an important directive after an urgent consultation with the males.

The directive requires that all members of "Dongyang Castle" must take their companion to a designated isolation site for examination by male ants after discovering the presence of silk parasites on their companions (with morphological diagrams of parasites at each stage).

Silk parasites have the ability to make other healthy ants ignore their presence in the early stages of parasitism.

However, this command from the protagonist is the highest priority, higher than the ability of the silk parasite and other ants to hide their abilities.

The directive quickly paid off.

After a series of heavy rains, the sky quickly cleared, and the summer temperature jumped up a lot.

With moisture, temperature, and light, this is the best time for plants and fungi.

The protagonist has good news - the field where the grass seeds were sown begins to sprout dense leaf buds.

This is a good start, as the protagonist has the worker ants who take care of the farmland to take care of them, especially to be sure to drive away and kill the pests before they harm the crops.

Roll with most of the Divine Envoy King's legion has re-settled in the Southern Fortress, and there have been no reports of parasitic ants infestation.

According to the protagonist's multiple investigations, the waterhole on the south side of the fortress still exists, and this waterhole has a lot of water, and it will not be steamed dry for a short time.

To the west of the waterhole is a large area of mud swamp created by heavy rains, which stretches for an estimated number of kilometers and shows no signs of drying up for a short time.

The water level of the large lake to the east of the waterhole has risen a lot recently, and it is approaching the location of "Dongyang City" for dozens of meters. The new shore of the lake is only a short distance of more than 100 meters from this large pond.

In other words, even if the parasitic ants attack again, if they don't want to struggle in the mire, they will have to go east around the shore of the lake and come back again.