Aphids, commonly known as honey bugs, belong to the order Hemiptera and are polymorphic insects.
This creature generally lives on plant leaves, tender stems, and flowers, feeding on plant juices. Its feeding method is passive, because once the sieve tube of the plant is pierced, the plant juice will be released under high pressure.
Automatically enters the aphid's esophagus.
Plants contain nitrogenous substances used for protein synthesis, which requires aphids to ingest a large amount of juice exceeding their own volume to meet their nutritional needs, and the excess liquid will pass through the aphid's rectum and anus as "honeydew"
” way to discharge.
This "honeydew" is rich in sugars. When dropped on plant leaves, it will destroy the physiological functions of the leaves and cause plant mold diseases.
For plants, these "honeydews" are the culprits that cause plant fungal diseases, but for ants, this "honeydew" is indeed a rare delicacy.
Because it contains a lot of sweetener, ants love to eat this honeydew.
Thousands of years of long evolution have allowed ants to reach a mutually beneficial contract with these creatures, that is, the ants provide safe protection for the aphids, and the aphids provide the ants with the nutritional honeydew they need.
In order to always get delicious "honeydew", smart ants learned to raise and herd this creature.
Every year in late autumn and early winter, ants will go out to look for aphids and move their eggs to the ant nests for the winter.
Sometimes in order to speed up the hatching of aphid eggs, ants will move the aphid eggs out of the ant nest to bask in the sun on sunny days.
When the flowers bloom in the spring of the following year, the small aphids hatch, and the ants move them to the weeds and tall trees with young leaves to graze them.
In order to prevent aphids from escaping when they become adults, selfish ants will bite off the wings of aphids so that they can only crawl on their feet.
Aphids have many natural enemies, such as seven-spotted ladybugs, lacewings, mantises, hoverflies, etc. To prevent them from being plundered by these creatures, ants are very vigilant when grazing. They will send out extremely powerful soldier ants to act as protectors of aphids.
Guard near the pastoral areas and try your best to prevent them from being harmed.
Whenever aphids are in danger, their abdomens will release a special smelling chemical gas called an alarm pheromone.
After receiving the alarm message, the ants responsible for protecting the safety of the "livestock" will swarm forward and bravely fight the aphids' natural enemies.
In order to better protect their "cows", ants will even build a "cow fence" for aphids when grazing outside.
This kind of "cattle fence" is built on plant stems in pastoral areas. If you are careful enough, you will find that ants use soil to build "cattle fences" for aphids on the big trees in the wild.
When the plants in the "pastoral area" are eaten up and the aphids cannot obtain fresh plant juices, the ants will move to the pasture area and drive the aphids from the withered plants to healthy plants.
When moving pastures, the ants held the "little livestock" firmly in their jaws. The aphids also cooperated very well. They obediently contracted their legs to avoid hanging on the branches.
In return, the aphids must always prepare the "nutritional honeydew" the ants need.
As long as the ants are in need, tap their bellies with their tentacles, and the aphids will secrete a large amount of "honeydew" containing sweetener for the ants to enjoy.
A very interesting symbiotic relationship.
The sight in front of him completely shocked Lin Shuhang.
In the huge pasture cave, giant aphids the size of trucks were kept in "cattle pens" by ants, quietly eating the grass stored in the cave. The painting style is quite strange.
"These ants are really smart. They can actually raise livestock like humans." Lin Shuhang was amazed by the scene in the cave.
"Drip..." A system prompt interface popped up in front of me: "Giant aphids, commonly known as honey bugs, are a polymorphic insect creature of the order Hemiptera. This creature feeds on plant juices. After sucking plant juices, it can produce honeydew.
Known as the 'ant's cow'."
"Honeydew?" Lin Shuhang asked curiously, "What is that?"
System reply: "Honeydew is a kind of excrement produced by aphids after sucking plant juices. After eating it, it can help you quickly recover your strength."
"Isn't it right? Insect excrement can be eaten?" Lin Shuhang was a little surprised.
"Yes, and because honeydew contains a lot of glucose, it tastes very sweet."
"It's fine if it comes out of the mouth, but this is what they pull out of their butts!" Lin Shuhang still found it difficult to accept.
"Aphids have been raised in captivity by ants since they were young. The food they eat is fresh plant sap. Their excrement is not ordinary excrement. It is clean and edible."
"Uh... let me try..."
Lin Shuhang walked up to a huge aphid and squatted there waiting for it to capture the honeydew.
After waiting for a long time, there were still no aphids expelling honeydew. Lin Shuhang became anxious and asked depressedly: "System, I've been waiting for a long time, why aren't they expelling honeydew?"
System reply: "Collecting honeydew requires special techniques to press the abdomen of aphids to stimulate their intestinal peristalsis and help them secrete and excrete honeydew."
"Prostate?" Lin Shuhang asked.
"It's not the prostate, it's the abdomen."
"oh!"
Under the instruction of the system, Lin Shuhang stretched out his hands and gently pressed the abdomen of the giant aphid.
"Hey, this bug's belly feels good to the touch!"
The caressed aphid seemed to enjoy Lin Shuhang's massage very much, lying there quietly, its huge belly growling.
"This bug's belly is screaming, it seems like it's about to... climax?"
"Damn it, host, you made that bug cum!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the aphid's abdomen suddenly shrank.
The aphids and chrysanthemums bloomed, and with a "gurgling" sound, a basketball-sized honeydew droplet was discharged from the body, and it fell into Lin Shuhang's hand.
The honeydew beads excreted by aphids are as big as a basketball and weigh more than ten kilograms. They have a crystal clear appearance and look like a piece of jelly when held in the hand.
Lin Shuhang put the aphids' honeydew under his nose and smelled it. There was no strange smell as expected, and there was even a faint milky smell.
This made him completely relieved. Lin Shuhang was extremely picky about food. If it had an unpleasant smell, he would not try it no matter what.
I gently took a sip of honeydew with my mouth. It tasted like herbal tea and was very sweet.
This made Lin Shuhang extremely surprised: "Hey, I didn't expect this stuff to be quite delicious!"
With just one mouthful, the aphid's honeydew completely conquered Lin Shuhang, and he sucked the entire honeydew into his stomach in two or three mouthfuls.
The honeydew produced by a toothworm is limited. Lin Shuhang is 12 meters tall. Of course, such a small amount of honeydew is not enough to eat. Fortunately, there are hundreds of aphids in the entire cave, so these aphids are still capable of satisfying Lin Shuhang, a giant.
of needs.
Lin Shuhang, whose appetite was aroused, once again stretched out his hand to squeeze the aphid's belly.
With a "gurgling" sound, another large ball of jelly-like honeydew was discharged from the aphid's belly.
“What a delicious meal!”
Lin Shuhang took big gulps of the honeydew in his hands, enjoying the taste very much.
After swallowing hundreds of kilograms of aphid honeydew, Lin Shuhang was full.
"Thank you, little ones, for your hospitality!"
Looking at the aphids with flat bellies that he had squeezed, Lin Shuhang burped and stopped squeezing and exploiting the aphids.
People tend to feel sleepy after eating sweets. Lin Shuhang was no exception. Due to his gluttony in eating hundreds of kilograms of delicious honeydew, Lin Shuhang's blood sugar level rose rapidly. After a while, tiredness came over him.
"Get some sleep first!" Lin Shuhang yawned, touched his round belly, used a giant aphid as his pillow, and hid in the animal cave and fell asleep.
At this time, Lin Shuhang didn't know that a group of "milking ants" collecting honeydew for the queen were on their way...