HBWnovel Chapter 2: Three pheromones that made the ant colony work for me...
Chapter 2: Three pheromones that made the ant colony work for me...
The plan is simple: since the ant colony's operating mechanism is like a sophisticated algorithm, we will find a way to generate a bug that causes the algorithm to malfunction and temporarily fall into chaos.
This is not a difficult thing. After all, since ants evolved social behavior, they have never considered the situation of "an individual in the colony being occupied by the consciousness of a human." There are quite a few loopholes to exploit.
While pondering, Ye Zhi returned to the center of the nest chamber, looked at the still restless "brothers and sisters" nearby, shook his abdomen, and began to emit pheromone signals.
His chimeric abdomen is mostly worker ant-like – which is a good thing. The weaver ant's other weapon – its formic acid-filled venom glands – is completely preserved, and its other glands that secrete pheromones are also in the form of worker ants.
A small amount of pheromones was released, and the reproductive ants that had just quieted down nearby immediately became restless again. Whether it was the female reproductive ants that were nearly twice the size of Ye Zhixian, or the male ants that were similar in size to him, they all stretched out their six limbs and launched another attack.
"Go back, go back..."
The pheromones from the large worker ants guarding the gate, representing the drive away, were emitted again. But at this moment, Ye Zhi, who was mixed in with the ant colony, moved again. This time, he did not simply secrete pheromones, but slowly secreted a drop of formic acid from the end of his abdomen!
Another pheromone scent was released, quickly mixing with a slight formic acid aroma—a signal in the leaf-weaver ant's pheromone "language" that meant "danger. Enemy attack!"
The worker ants, which were originally trying to drive them away, immediately became alert. Their fighting instincts, buried deep in their genes, made them respond immediately. The part between their thorax and abdomen called the stalk or tubercle quickly rose up, and their entire posterior abdomen was raised like a scorpion's tail. Their scissor-like mandibles then opened wide, a standard intimidating posture for a weaver ant.
However, in Ye Zhi's view, this "battle stance" that represents deterrence is just like watching Hakimi activate his Spinosaurus form and exhale when he is stressed, which has no effect whatsoever.
As if the scene wasn't chaotic enough, he moved again amidst the ant colony—this time not with pheromones, but by slightly raising his lower abdomen and tapping on the "ground" woven from ant silk in a specific rhythm.
This is also a warning signal for weaver ants. This specific frequency of tapping can easily spread throughout the nest and be detected by the keen senses of other weaver ants.
Before long, the same rhythmic knocking sounds came one after another. Instinctively, after receiving the alarm signal, they continued to relay the sound, and letting more people of the same kind know in the shortest possible time was the optimal solution in all situations.
It seemed to trigger a chain reaction, with countless worker ants entering a state of collective stress. Fortunately, the pheromones did not become chaotic, preventing the situation from escalating into infighting. The size of the ants also ensured that no fatal trampling incidents would occur, so there were no casualties.
With multiple factors combined, the scene had become chaotic. Driven by instinct, large numbers of worker ants began to swarm out of the nest, adopting the same intimidating posture to deter the non-existent enemy.
Amid the chaos, Ye Zhi slightly turned his body so that the side of his body that looked like a worker ant faced forward, adopting the same alert posture, and slowly walked out.
This time, the worker ants did not stop Ye Zhi. He easily crawled through the entrance, and before him lay a more spacious compartment made of ant silk. A ray of sunlight shone from one direction—undoubtedly the exit of the nest.
A large number of worker ants waved their antennae and patrolled around, while Ye Zhi continued with his previous tactics, slowly approaching the outside of the nest.
Some blinding light shone into his compound eyes, making Ye Zhi instinctively want to raise his hand to shield them—then he realized that he was now a leaf ant, and his delicate appendages were hardly effective.
Before "escaping," Ye Zhi had already planned his next move. Although staying deep inside the nest was tantamount to waiting to die, leaving the territory rashly was also tantamount to courting death. The best option was to stay near the nest, not getting too close to other worker ants, and not leaving the "protected" area of the colony.
As he pondered, he crawled out of the nest and examined his body in the sunlight for the first time. His exoskeleton, not yet fully hardened, was half pale yellow and half grayish-white, still quite strange.
With a soft sigh, he turned his head and looked around. The compound eyes of the leaf ant are extremely developed among ants, and the environment within a few meters was clearly visible to him.
As expected, this was a dense tropical rainforest. The leaf nest I was in was located in the tree canopy, swaying gently in the breeze along with the canopy.
Although his wings were mostly intact, he dared not gamble on whether he could maintain control at this altitude; if he were blown eight hundred miles away by the wind, he would be doomed. Therefore, Ye Zhi simply crawled forward like an ordinary worker ant.
Behind the tarsal segments at the ends of its six limbs is a suction cup-like structure, somewhat similar to a gecko's toe, called a "claw pad." It then uses these claw pads to firmly adhere to the surface of the leaf nest, climbing step by step towards the branch.
He had already locked onto his target – a branch located inside the tree canopy, where the leaves were slightly withered and yellow, which seemed unusual, and some worker ants were crawling up and down.
As they climbed upwards step by step, Ye Zhi saw the situation clearly through his compound eyes, confirming his guess—countless tiny, emerald-green insects, no bigger than the heads of leaf ants, were climbing on the back of the leaf stalks, while the worker ants were swatting at the insects in front of them with their antennae.
These tiny insects have pear-shaped bodies, long antennae, and occasionally squeeze out a few drops of glistening liquid from the end of their abdomens—they are undoubtedly aphids. Clearly, this is the aphid "farm" of the weaver ants.
Grazing behavior is widespread among ants, and weaver ants, which live in the tree canopy, are naturally adept at it. And this is Ye Zhi's current plan—to infiltrate this "aphid farm" and freeload off the worker ants in a location slightly away from the colony.
Most of the ants foraging outside the nest were older worker ants. Along the way, without Ye Zhi taking the initiative to approach, no worker ants showed the kind of rejection that an immune system would show towards diseased tissue.
He slowly approached a leaf where there were fewer aphids, but still a few gathered there. He imitated the actions of his fellow aphids by gently tapping the aphids' abdomens with his antennae. Soon after, the aphids secreted a drop of clear, amber-colored liquid.
Since pupating, he had been rejected and hadn't eaten a single thing. At this moment, he naturally didn't care what the honeydew of the aphid was all about. Instead, he quickly moved forward and extended his mandibles, which were specially designed for licking.
As members of the order Hymenoptera, ants, like their close relatives bees, have a sweet tooth. A drop of honeydew filled his mouthparts, bringing Ye Zhi a sense of satisfaction. He didn't care about anything else and continued swatting at the other aphids, his heart pounding with excitement:
"Let's go, brothers!"