Chapter 8: Evolutionary frenzy, the rise of the ant tribe

Although the individual strength of the rat clan is far inferior to that of the python, it can only become the mouth food of the python clan in the past.

But there is one ability that the python family is far from matching, and that is the ability to reproduce!

When the rat people reach adulthood, if they have enough food, they can breed a litter of cubs almost every month, and a litter can range from a few to a dozen.

That is to say, an adult female mouse can reproduce an average of dozens or more than 100 newborn rats in a year.

In contrast, the python family, which can only reproduce once a year on average and has a low survival rate, is weak.

It was fine before the evolutionary frenzy set off.

These rats will only survive in ignorance and instinct, and no matter how many they are, they are just a meal on the plate of the python clan.

However, there are also many spiritually awakened individuals in the rat group, and they have become the leaders or high-ranking members of the group by virtue of their spirituality far beyond the same kind.

Things are different.

Having spirituality means having wisdom, and naturally we are not willing to let people go on anymore.

Led by these spiritual individuals, the rats soon launched a frenzied revenge on the ferocious python clan that had oppressed them for countless years.

So the pythons were stunned to find that what used to be food on plates and in their mouths had now turned into their most vicious opponents.

If you fight alone, the small and weak rats are naturally far from being the opponent of the python.

But the heroes can't stand the crowd.

This principle is also common in nature.

Under the leadership of the leaders of the awakened spirits, the rat colony began to gradually overcome their fear of the python as a natural predator.

When a snake is spotted, it gathers a large number of its own people to rush to it.

Although the python is much more powerful than the rodents, this strength can play a limited role in the absolute numerical superiority of the rat colony.

It is often impossible to take care of the front and the back, and in the end, it is inevitable that the rats will peep out the flaws and die under the rats.

Although every python will almost cause a lot of damage to the rat colony before it dies.

But this kind of loss is completely within the tolerance of the rat people who are super reproductive.

So after decades of hunting each other, the number of pythons is getting smaller and smaller.

On the contrary, the number of rodents is increasing.

Until the last underage python was also found by the rats from the underground burrow, dragged to the ground and killed by thousands of rats.

At this point, the species of snakes has been extinct in the world of mountains and seas.

The fourth day is the fourth hundred years after the Spiritual Rain descended.

The rat clan has developed to the extreme in the Shanhai continent, greatly squeezing out the living space of other species, and more species have begun to die out one after another.

For example, frogs, rabbits, badgers, etc.

Some of these species are either not aggressive enough or are not as reproductive.

Affected by this or that deficiency, they lost to the rat clan one by one in the cruel survival of the fittest and were eliminated.

However, just when the rat clan was about to dominate the Shanhai Continent, they unexpectedly encountered a strong challenge from another species............

That's the Ant Clan!

Compared with mammals such as rats, the life form of the ant tribe is obviously more low-level, and it is more difficult to open the mind.

This does not mean that ant groups have a lower growth potential than these mammals.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

After being baptized by the spiritual rain to open up the spirituality, this small and humble ant clan burst out with a staggering terrifying potential.

Unlike other insects such as mosquitoes and flies, ant groups are one of the most social species of insects.

Queens, males, soldiers, workers............ There is naturally a clear division of classes and social division within ethnic groups.

Each ant has its own job, like a screw on a huge machine, which together supports the rise and fall of the entire ant clan.

And if any ant leaves the colony, it will not live long.

This strong sociality ensures that once the ant clan begins to evolve, it will be the collective evolution of the entire population.

It is not basically based on individual evolution like other species.

Only when the number of individuals who evolve reaches a certain proportion can the whole group evolve together.

This attribute of collective evolution is not obvious in the early stage, but the later it goes, the more prominent the effect becomes.

It's like the situation in the mountains and seas today.

In the first three hundred years of the evolutionary frenzy, although the ant tribe also opened up spirituality, it was simply inconspicuous among many species.

However, it was only after entering the fourth century that the Ant Clan truly revealed its terrifying potential.

After hundreds of years of evolution, the ant tribe has divided and evolved into four distinct populations according to their different living environments.

One of them is keen to dig underground, feeding on plant roots, rotting corpses, earthworms, eggs left by other insects, etc., and almost no longer shows its head on the ground.

Years of life as a miner have made this ant extremely powerful, and an average adult ant can grow to the size of an adult's finger.

And in order to better adapt to the underground survival, this ant even evolved a scorpion-like chelicera.

However, according to the division of labor, the chelicerae morphology is also different.

Among them, the chelicerae of the soldier ants are like two sharp scissors, which are obviously used to attack and injure the enemy.

The chelicerae of worker ants have evolved to be wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, with a round and blunt head, which at first glance looks a bit like the digging bucket of later excavators.

It is obviously more suitable for digging earth and burrowing.

As for the male ants and queens.

As long as you stay in the nest and enjoy the food collected by the worker ants, you don't need to be vigilant against other species like the soldier ants, but none of them have evolved chelicerae.

This ant was named the Ground Walking Ant by Pan Long.

The other species of ants like to nest in trees, and live mainly on nectar and sap from trees.

At the same time, the entire population has evolved bee-like wings and sharp and venomous tail pins, but the size is similar to that of later hornets.

Hence the name Bee Ant by Panlon.

The third ant is close to the sea and feeds mainly on algae and plankton in the sea.

As a result, some of the limbs and feet evolved into webbed palms, and became beings that could both glide on the surface of the water and survive in the water.

Later, even the nest was relocated from the land to a shallow bay near the coast, so the ant was named the water ant by Pan Long.

The last ant did not change its habitat and still lived on the surface of the land.

However, it has also evolved to be much larger than the original, not much smaller than the ground walking ant, but the population size is much larger than the ground walking ant, and it is extremely aggressive.

It feeds mainly on insects on land as well as some small animals.

Once they find food, they will attack like a tidal wave without fear of death.

With super discipline and fighting will, he will never give up until he tears his prey to pieces, and he is even more brave and iron-blooded than the most fierce and warlike army.

Therefore, this ant was also named by Panlong as the land war ant.