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The invincible insect legion Zhang Qingwen

Introduction to the speaker:

Zhang Qingwen, chairman of the Beijing Entomology Society, professor of the Department of Entomology of China Agricultural University. Born in 1956, from Yicheng, Hubei Province. He received his doctorate degree in 1987 and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Peking University from 1987 to 1989. He is currently a professor of the Department of Entomology of China Agricultural University, doctoral supervisor, vice chairman of the Chinese Entomology Society, and chairman of the Beijing Entomology Society. He has been engaged in teaching and scientific research in insect genetics, molecular entomology, plant insect resistance, and its genetic engineering and comprehensive pest control for a long time.

Content introduction:

In the vast Amazon jungle, a huge brown legion was rampant. Wherever the legion's front pointed, it would be gone everywhere, and all creatures would be dismembered into a pile of white bones in an instant. So, what exactly were they? What made them form such a huge legion, and what made them so invincible?

You may feel strange, how could there be an insect legion? There are indeed insect legion, such as social insects. Their activities are often grouped in groups or become legionaries. As a separate individual, they do not have much power, but when you see a legion composed of millions of such individuals, you will definitely shudder. Nothing will survive wherever they go, they plunder everything and devour everything. They are the marching ants living in the Amazon jungle in South America.

This legion has a complete command system and a smooth communication system. In addition, they have tacit cooperation between individuals, excellent organizational discipline, and they also have a spirit of selfless sacrifice.

(full text)

You may feel very strange, how could there be an insect legion? There are indeed insect legion, such as social insects. Their activities are often grouped in groups or become legionaries. In this regard, before this lecture, I will tell you a story.

This story takes place in South America, a farm called Bolivia by the Amazon River. There are more than 300 employees in this farm. His farm leader is Simon. One summer morning, a policeman suddenly came to the farm and hurriedly found Simon and told him a message that a brown legion, about five kilometers wide and ten kilometers long, will arrive at his farm within three days, hoping that he will prepare as soon as possible. This brown legion is a marching ants. Then march.

The ant will arrive at his farm within three days, so he must prepare as soon as possible. The police told him that the marching ants are very powerful and will be swept away wherever they go. All creatures and crops will be destroyed by it and transported away by it. All creatures will be killed by it, dismembered by it, and transported back to its nest as food. After the police left, Simon held a meeting of the captains of various production teams in time, immediately conveyed the news brought by the police, and asked the captains to prepare in time. First of all, he

We cleaned the canal around the farm, about ten meters wide, so that it flows smoothly, then checked the wires and the pump, and filled the canal with water at any time. This was the first preparation work. In the second preparation work, they prepared an oil storage ditch about two meters wide and one meter deep within a small range from the team headquarters, so that the ditch was closely connected to the oil storage tank, and were ready to use fire attack to fight against the marching ants whenever they had no choice.

He also made the final preparations, that is, a large gate, which is a main gate in the dam of the Amazon River embankment. Once this main gate is opened, the entire farm will be flooded with water and become a vast ocean. After he made these preparations and arranged the tasks, all the captains returned to each team and returned to their respective posts to prepare. After a day, all the preparations were prepared, everyone quietly breathed a sigh of relief and slept peacefully.

On the morning of the third day, when the day just started to brighten, the air began to be filled with a tense atmosphere, a silence, a terrifying atmosphere began to appear. Various birds in the sky flew out of the tropical rainforest, then passed through the farm and flew to the opposite bank of the Amazon River. Then these birds were frightened and screamed very sadly and very panicked. In addition to birds, there were many flying insects, which also flew to the opposite side of the river, followed by some animals, including jaguars, monkeys, wild boars, and many wild animals. They all ran out of the tropical rainforest, ran towards the Amazon River, and then swam across the river to Asia.

Going across the Mason River. After more than an hour, a pregnant jaguar staggered out of the tropical rainforest. Its body was covered with brown ants. When it ran to a place thirty meters away from the farm, it suddenly fell down. Because these jaguars were not only their mouths, but their mouths were very long, making the animals painful, and they secreted a venom at the same time, so many animals could not withstand the stings of marching ants. Then, because this jaguar was pregnant, its movements were not particularly convenient, so it ran to the back and was caught by the marching ants, and then the marching ants in the gang followed. All the farmers were stunned. In an instant, one

The jaguar suddenly turned into a pile of bones, and all the flesh was dismembered and transported away by the marching ants. At this time, a farm worker shouted in surprise: Oh my god, it took only four and a half minutes. Simon woke up at this time. From his surprise, he looked at his watch. It was indeed only four and a half minutes later that the jaguar was dismembered by the ants into a pile of bones. How scary and terrible. Then he immediately issued an order, and everyone took their place and immediately prepared for battle. At this time, water had been put in the canal. After the marching ants had dealt with the jaguar and some other insects, they quickly rushed to the edge of the canal on the farm. Then, after the ants in front stopped,

The ants behind quickly caught up again. Because there was water in the canal, their ants gradually piled up one by one by one, and then formed a two-meter-high pile of ants. Then the ants jumped into the river from a two-meter-high height, hoping to jump into the river. However, after countless attempts, they were rushed to the Amazon River by the water from the canal. This situation was very spectacular, because the canal around the entire farm was filled with two-meter-high pile of ants, and then many ants jumped down from above. After a period of continuous progress, these ants began to retreat near noon, and they retreated to the place where they had come out, which was the edge of the tropical rainforest.

After they retreated, after a few hours of rest, that is, when the sun just started to go west in the afternoon, they appeared again. At this time, it appeared another scene. They had several ants carrying a leaf, and the leaves were loaded with ants, and then they held the leaves to the edge of the canal, and then gradually put them in the water. The ants wanted to use a small boat to gradually carry the ants through the canal, and then enter the farm. However, this attempt was carried by Simon and his comrades on the farm to rush the ants and their leaves to the Amazon River with a more intense flow of water. However, this struggle continued, until this evening, when the ants' attack began to stop and retreated to the edge of the tropical rainforest. The battle was very, very tense, of course at night

Later, these workers felt very tired. The Amazon River Basin is also a very unique field, because it is often stormy and rainy during the day. It may be stormy at night, and it may be stormy and stormy at night. After two nights, two days later, there was a sudden strong wind on the second night. In the early morning, heavy rain and strong winds broke the wires. When everyone got up the next morning, when the ants first started attacking, they suddenly found that the wires were broken. At this time, the pump could no longer start and the ants had reached the edge of the canal. However, there was only a little water left in the canal. The ant jumped into the water quickly, jumping into the water and began to swim. There were also many leaves carrying the ants, crawling across the canal, that is, towards the farm.

At this time, Simon had to start the second plan, that is, to open the oil storage tank, drain oil into his oil canal, and notify the captains to ignite the oil canal. When a large group of ants rushed to the edge of the ant fire channel, that is, the ant fire canal, the ant fire canal was already in a big fire, and the ants dare not approach, so they were stalemate for a whole day. In this case, Simon suddenly thought that we were stalemate with the ants, but our oil storage was limited. If this lasted for a long time, not only would our farm be destroyed by the ants, but all our workers would die under the ravages of the ants. In this case, he had to start the third plan, that is, to open the Amazon River embankment gate. Once this gate is opened, the entire farm will be turned on.

It turned into a vast ocean, of course they would suffer great losses. After everything was ready, everyone had to board the boat and board the motorboat, waiting for the fire to be put out at any time before the ants entered. When the oil in the oil storage tank burned out, the ants quickly entered the farm. At this time, the water had also flooded. At this time, the ants were washed away by the flood, and Simon and his farm workers finally took a deep breath. This story is indeed very, very shocking, and may be incredible to many of us, but in fact, the ants are so powerful that they are almost invincible. All animals or creatures that dare to fight against them and dare to face them will be torn to pieces by them and completely destroyed by them as food.

After we talk about the insect legion, we will naturally think that this legion must have a good command system, a good contact system, and there must be good cooperation between individuals, good organizational discipline, and they also have a good spirit of sacrifice. So this is the characteristic of our biological society. There are several characteristics of biological society: First, it has strict social division of labor, that is, each performs its own duties. Then the marching ants have this division of labor. First, it has a king, that is, ant king, or we call it

As a queen, its main responsibility is to maintain the unity of the ant colony, and the second is to lay eggs. The entire ant colony is reproduced by it and is its descendants. The ant colony is divided into military ants and workers. Military ants are fighting, but in fact, in the ranks of military ants, military ants only play the role of maintaining order, and sometimes play the role of transporting major prey. In the other part, the worker ants are the "workers" who work, that is, they specialize in daily work. In the marching ants' ant nest, in addition to finding food and fighting with the enemy, they also need to

Raise the next generation, that is, their sisters, raise young ants, and then prepare the ant nest. The ant nest of the marching ants is still very special. It is not like other ants or other social animals. They have fixed nests, while marching ants do not have fixed nests. Then marching ants often build nests from them, all temporary nests, all are workers, all through their six limbs, that is, their legs, their feet, and the secondary claws on their feet are hooked on certain objects, that is, objects closer to the ground, and then they are put together one by one to form a long chain of ants.

Later, each ant finds its own position in this long chain, and then blends in to form a temporary nest. Inside this nest is the queen of ant, ant eggs, and some young ants. Their nests are like this, so these worker ants are selfless and have a spirit of dedication. There are also levels. Worker ants are at the lowest level, and there is also military ants. The top one is the queen of ant, or there is a called ant king. Therefore, it has a strict social division of labor, a strict social hierarchy, and there is information exchange, and we humans also have information exchange.

We know that the same is true for human social division of labor, because we may not understand the insect society very much, but it is easier for us to understand our human society. Since ancient times, our human society has divided the labor, with 72 lines. In fact, the current industry is far more than 72 lines. So all walks of life are doing work, and their work is serving other people. For example, our doctors are mostly treating patients; our construction workers are building houses for others; our car workers are building cars or repairing cars for others. Similarly, our artists and athletes are exercising, and they are performing for others and for the audience. Therefore, this is an altruistic behavior. Of course, if they want to survive, they have to get their rewards, so this is a characteristic of social division of labor. The hierarchy of society is also the division of labor of society, and the hierarchy is only about degree of difference. For example, in feudalism, in slave society, slave owners are the highest, and in feudal society, they are the highest. In feudal society, slave owners are the highest, and in feudal society, this is a characteristic of social division of labor. The hierarchy of society is also the division of labor of society. The hierarchy is just a degree of difference. For example, in feudalism, in slave society, slave owners are the highest, and in feudal society, the hierarchy is the highest.

The emperor and kings are the highest leaders. Many bureaucracies are second-level managers, and the grassroots are farmers, workers, and ordinary people. They also do their own things, so this is all an organization with a level and a hierarchical characteristic. In addition to these, biological society has communication, first of all information exchanges, such as communication between people, communication between neighbors, communication between neighbors, through language, actions, and sound. At the same time, our human society, because it is a society, is not just an activity between individuals, and often transmits some information through meetings, group gatherings, and group gatherings. In addition to this, we humans have developed high-tech, including our telephones, our BP machines, and our current Internet, all of which are transmitting information. Similarly, insect society also has these characteristics and must also transmit social information. Insect society also has hierarchies, the same division of labor, and the same need to transmit information.

After hearing this social division of labor of this insect, we will naturally think that it is strange that we humans have social division of labor, so why do insects have social division of labor similar to humans? That is, what is the reason for the social nature of insects? In fact, we also think that the reason why we humans can form social is actually related to environmental pressure. When our environment becomes harsh and it is difficult for us humans to survive alone, we have to rely on collective power to survive. For example, when we humans are still in the state of apes, when the entire earth is densely covered with forests and fruits are everywhere, orangutans will not evolve. Then when there was a drought in the old continent, that is, from northeast China to central Africa, such a drought zone, is a plateau zone, when there is a drought, the forest begins to degenerate. At this time, when the forest degradation area appears in the old continent, that is, the area where the arid zone, is a plateau zone, when there is a drought, the forest begins to degenerate. At this time, the forest degraded area appears in the old continent, that is, the area where the forest degraded is located.

Some apes or orangutans do not move southward with the degraded forest. These individuals stay and these families stay. If they want to survive, they must survive through the joint efforts of society and groups. In this way, they will gradually progress and evolve, and we are today. The social nature of insects is also a cruel and direct struggle to survive. After their evolution forms social insects, as a large-scale social group with division of labor, it is equivalent to an organism, with hands, feet, mind, eyes, and ears. They can have more advantages, that is, first of all, they are many people and powerful. Secondly, they take unified actions on various things, can better monopolize resources and better dominate the environment. Therefore, due to their sociality, their survival is easier, and easier than other solitary insects.

Similarly, solitary insects do not have these characteristics, or solitary animals do not have these characteristics. Because of their own activities, they can only rely on the limited resources and temporary resources they encounter. Even their reproduction must be very rapid and rapid to keep the population alive. Therefore, it is very difficult for this solitary animal to survive. For example, if a jaguar we just told in the story, if it is a large group, it will not be afraid of these brown ants and marching ants. However, it acts alone, such a large individual, under the knife of a very small ants that we humans think is very ferocious, and dies under the knife of an ants that is smaller than a fingernail. So it is an incredible situation, which also proves that the power of the solitary animal is limited.

Let's further dissect the characteristics of marching ants. marching ants are different from other sexual insects, so they are called marching ants. As the name suggests, they like marching. We call it marching ants, which is a more literary saying, or it is called nomadic ants or "nomadic people". We know that when our history, such as the Mongolian people, when it rose, she swept across Asia and half of Europe, and no country could resist it at that time. marching ants, unlike most other ants, do not build nests, while other ants like to build fixed nests and have fixed nests. So, the ant king lives in a fixed nest. There are some worker ants in the palace to feed it and plant mushrooms for it.

Mushrooms plant crops, even herd cattle, and then feed them. There are also many worker ants to feed their offspring. Therefore, the ants living in fixed ant nests are very stable, very comfortable, and their range of food is also very limited. However, marching ants are not like this. They do not have fixed nests. They are like nomadic peoples. They often establish campsites in one area. After establishing campsites, they form guerrilla ant colonies, group of guerrilla groups, spread to the campsites, search for food, and then plunder the surrounding resources frantically. That is, when the surrounding resources are exhausted, they change the campsite and migrate to another place, so they are called marching ants or "nomadic peoples".

Another characteristic of marching ants is that their activities have two cycles: one is the stability period and the other is the hunting period. The stability period generally lasts for about three weeks, that is, after a temporary camping nest is built in a certain place, that is, after a campsite, the ants start to stay in the same place. Of course, the accommodation time is short, that is, three weeks. The nests that are accommodated are built by the worker ants themselves, and after connecting them, they build a temporary nest. At this time, when the nest is built, many worker ants’ abdomen are squeezed, and some things similar to honey dew appear. At this time, the queen ants suck the honey dew secreted from the abdomen of these worker ants, and then

Its abdomen swells rapidly. Because when it first left the ant nest and became a queen, it mates with the worker ant. It has stored enough sperm in its body. When it sucks these honeydew, its body begins to expand, and its body is filled with eggs, and the eggs have been spered. Then, in a very short time, in less than a week, it will lay 250,000 eggs, quickly filling the nest with eggs. When the eggs are laid, the ant colony is very quiet at this time, which means that it is now a stable period. Then once the eggs hatch, the entire ant colony will be excited because many

In fact, during this stable period, in addition to the queen of ant, there are other larvae. The teenagers are also in the pupation stage. At this time, they do not eat. After several weeks of laying the eggs, when they start to hatch, new larvae appear when the eggs hatch, and the original larvae peels off and turns into new adults and becomes an ant. At this time, hundreds of thousands of lively adults appear in the ant nest, and hundreds of thousands of newly hatched young ants appear, the entire ant nest begins to be excited. This excitement leads to its restlessness, their restlessness, and then begins to expand around, and immediately sends many such ant colonies to investigate around,

Look at where there is food around, where there is food, where there is prey, and then start looking for prey. Of course, in response to this problem, some experts believe that the expansion of the ant colony causes the excitement of the ant colony. Some experts believe that it is because of the expansion of the ant colony that its secretions have increased, that is, its information is getting stronger and stronger, which leads to its emotional expansion, emotional excitement, and starting to wander around, and a turbulent period, that is, the hunting period. Some people believe that because there are so many ants, new young ants, and new adult ants suddenly grow in this ant nest, they are very hungry and hungry. Because of their hunger, they quickly go out to find food, so at this time they have a hunting period.

During the hunting period, it usually lasts for two weeks, two to three weeks. At this time, they keep changing camps and changing constantly because they are not fixed in one place, because their ant nests are temporary ant nests built by workers' ants themselves after they are connected by their own bodies, so they can move at any time. When they encounter various creatures, they will destroy them at all costs. Therefore, they have great lethality, because their palate and mouth are not only a very pointed clip, but also secrete some venom while they clamp, which makes many animals unbearable, and after being secreted by venom, it will cause the animals to be stung. After being stung by ants, they will faint immediately. Therefore, these ants have great lethality, and they are almost invincible. Almost all animals that run slowly, or animals that dare to fight against them, will be torn into pieces by them and become their meal on the plate.

Then marching ants also have languages, and their language is very special. First of all, it has a very important gathering language, that is, it is in the ant nest, and it emits a smell near the ant nest of this marching ants. Many experts believe that this smell has the smell of musk, a musk smell. That is, once you smell this smell in the tropical rainforest, you must be careful, that is, there must be marching ants around. Then the smell it emits, this smell covers the entire ant colony and the environment around the ant colony. In this way, it plays a role in gathering this marching ants, which indicates that their ant king is in this place.

Square, their ant king is worthy of their struggle and dedication to it. Therefore, they gather together, and the ant king also maintains its prestige and authority through this smell. Of course, all the individuals in the ant colony are descendants of the ant king. In addition to this information, ants also secrete many pheromones, such as its ant colony. When they have passed the rest period and start to enter the hunting period, they will send many scouts to detect prey in all directions. When they go to detect prey, they secrete odors along the way, secrete their pheromones, that is, the secretion of ants.

Therefore, we often see ants walking on the ground, and like to walk the path they had taken. Then these are secretions. They continue to walk along the path they walked along the path they walked in front of them, so they also come back along this path when they come back. When it finds prey in front, the scouts in front of them quickly return to the ant nest and tell their brothers and sisters along the way that there is prey in front. Therefore, a large number of ants flock to the prey along the path they had walked, so they are walking a very shortcut. Because the prey they encountered was walking along the path they had walked along and walking along the other line

The prey passing by will follow this original path, so the shortcut it finds is the closest path. Therefore, in addition to this information exchange, most ants have a sound during their journey, a very low murmur sound. This is also the same to make the ants feel that their group is next to it, and the second makes it feel that its group is encouraging it. Therefore, they keep murmuring with this sound. When a tropical rainforest is very quiet, you will hear the murmur sound. This is the sound of the ants, communicating through this sound.

In addition, touching the body by gently patting and then, in this way, is also a way to touch the body. For example, when two ants meet opposite each other and are in the same ant colony, they will not fight. They will use their tentacles to touch each other, or even touch their palates, and their big clips touch each other, then pass by, and then work on their affairs. This is also a kind of information exchange or a kind of emotional exchange. Of course, we can't say whether ants have this feeling, but in the case of social insects, we can completely describe them as emotions.

The reproduction of marching ants is also very distinctive. It has similar places to the reproduction of other ants, but also has different places. What is very different? It is when it is during a rest period, that is, during the rest period, within two or three weeks, it lays a large number of 250,000 eggs. At the same time, it can lay about 6 eggs and finally hatch to become new ant kings, new or queens are female, but it also produces more than a thousand ants that can develop into male ant kings, that is, ants that are the ant kings. Finally, they will produce wings after they develop into them. In order to avoid brothers and sisters, male ants

The female mates are mate and inbreeding. The male ants fly away as soon as possible and fly to other ant colonies to find the virgin ant king in other ant colonies to mate. The remaining females are the ants kings, that is, the virgin ant kings. In this ant nest, after a while, when the march begins, the old queen leaves the nest with a large number of worker ants and the original soldier ants, and then find a new campsite. Then several other ants kings also take some worker ants away, and the other takes some worker ants away. The last ant king stays in the nest with the remaining worker ants. At this time, if there is one

After the worker ants came in from outside, they began to mate with it. During this mate, all the remaining worker ants served it. In fact, these worker ants were their brothers and sisters, and perhaps even their elder brothers and sisters. But these worker ants did not reproduce, and after the mate was completed, the worker ants left, because it only had one mate in its life, after mate, it began to block various intersections and exits, and after the surviving worker ants, the worker ants serving it could not exit from each mouth, and finally, these ants

They all starved to death. In the end, because it had already reproduced in large quantities in its body, it had already harbored eggs in large quantities, and then began to lay eggs and lay its offspring. Later, this ant colony was basically its offspring, and the new ant colony developed was basically its offspring. This is the reproduction of the marching ants, which is very unique. Therefore, each ant colony actually brought all the ants to the descendants of this ant king. It has no other ants. Of course, some ants also rob slaves, and some ants specifically rob other ants of ants to their own nests as slaves to help them work. However, there are no other species of marching ants, and no other species of ants are with it.

(Source:cctv-10 "Baijia Forum" column)

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