Chapter 1277: Hover Flies

This insect's size, color, and stripes are all the same as a honeybee's, but its abdomen is a bit more shriveled than a honeybee's, and the shape of its eyes is different from a honeybee's, its hind legs don't have pollen baskets like a honeybee's either, and its strength is much greater than a honeybee's.

What the heck is this thing? Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Third Brother, are you there?"

Zhang San, sitting at the dining table, was still immersed in the joy of finding a live female Yi Snake, and his voice was still fairly kind. "Speak."

Xia Qing explained the unusual activity of the bee colony in her territory, then asked for help. "I opened the hive intending to pluck out two bee larvae for testing, and I caught an insect that looks a lot like a honeybee. It's very strong, it should be an evolved insect. I can't tell what this thing is."

Hearing Xia Qing use such an unprofessional term like "pluck out," Zhang San's good mood dropped a great deal, and he replied coldly. "An insect that looks a lot like a honeybee but isn't a honeybee might be a hornet, a hummingbird hawk-moth, or a hover fly. Take a clear photo and send it over."

"Okay." Xia Qing took a photo and sent it to her idol, and explained to her idol that this insect was making the nurse bees in the hive nervous, and had made the wolfdog Wolf Lao Er think it was a threat.

Seeing Xia Qing's description, Zhang San immediately took it seriously and quickly replied over the walkie-talkie. "Xia Qing, what you've discovered is a hover fly. This insect deceives natural enemies by mimicking honeybees. Ordinary hover flies don't harm bee colonies, but the aggressiveness of evolved ones is unknown. Hand it over to Zheng Chen, I'll run a test."

"Okay, thank you, Third Brother." The name hover fly—Xia Qing felt like she'd heard it somewhere before.

Before she could remember, someone from Territory One came online. "Hello, Third Brother. I'm Ma Shuying, a member of the Azure Dragon team in charge of beekeeping in Territory One. I have a situation regarding hover flies that I'd like to report to you."

Zhang San could tell from the voice that the other party was no longer young, and replied politely. "Alright, please go ahead."

"The honeybees in Territory Three were split off from hives in Territory One, and the bees in Territory One were purchased from the Hui-6 Base Breeding Center. When the bees were purchased, there were a few hover flies in every hive. Because hover fly larvae feed on dead bees, discarded combs, and rotten pollen in the hive, they help the bee colony clean up waste, so Hui-6 raises these two kinds of insects together."

Ma Shuying gave a detailed explanation. "I also thought the hover flies in the hives looked a bit different from ordinary hover flies, so I removed them. The hover flies appearing in the hives in Territory Three should have hatched from eggs that weren't cleaned out thoroughly."

After hearing Ma Shuying's words, Xia Qing also remembered that Yang Jin had mentioned this kind of insect in passing before!

"Received." Zhang San acknowledged.

"I remember this batch of bees was something Hui-6 had no choice but to trade to the Azure Dragon team in order to get their military helicopter back, right?" Tang Huai came online. "Sister Ying did the right thing. Dealing with the people from Hui-6, you have to be extra careful. Sister Qing, could there be hover flies in my hives too?"

Xia Qing wasn't sure either. "I'll send you the picture first, then come over later and we'll check together. Sister Ying, you'd better check your side too."

The beekeeper Ma Shuying came online again. "Understood, I'm in the middle of screening now."

Although Wolf Lao Er was no longer baring its teeth at the beekeeping greenhouse, Xia Qing was still uneasy. She took the brood frames out of another hive and put them into a new hive, then crouched beside the hive and carefully checked.

Sure enough, she caught five more hover flies!

Half an hour later, Xia Qing handed her territory over to Peng Jian, a Level-5 visually evolved member of the Hu Feng Squad, and asked him to continue screening for hover flies in the beekeeping greenhouse, while Xia Qing hurried to Territory Two.

"Sister Qing, come in quick!"

Tang Huai, waiting for Xia Qing under the Territory Two signpost, was unusually excited. "We've been neighbors for two years, and Sister Qing hasn't come to my place even once!"

"Please come in, Sister Qing. Watch out for the pebbles, don't hurt your feet." Liu Jing, the agent of Territory Two's agent Tang Huai, was even more attentive than Tang Huai.

Actually, this wasn't Xia Qing's first time entering Territory Two. During the crisis three months ago when the passage's dagger grass became aggressively evolved, Xia Qing had passed through the temporary passage at the edge of Territory Two several times.

However, Xia Qing, who was used to keeping a blank expression and speaking little, didn't correct the two of them. Silently following them into the flower-filled beekeeping greenhouse, Xia Qing took the sampling tube containing the hover flies out of her satchel and showed it to Tang Huai. "This is the insect."

"Oh my goodness!" Liu Jing stared with wide eyes in surprise. "It really does look too much alike!"

"Not alike." Tang Huai, who had rich experience raising insects, immediately spotted the differences. "Although this insect has evolved to look more like a honeybee, its abdomen is slightly shriveled, it has no stinger, and its hind legs don't have pollen baskets. Sister Qing, let me listen to its call?"

Seeing Tang Huai open the cap of the sampling tube and about to put his ear close to listen to this insect's call, Liu Jing immediately warned, "Boss, careful you don't get stung!"

"Stung my ass, has your hearing degenerated? Didn't you hear me say this insect has no stinger?" Tang Huai started cursing right away. "If the damn thing had a stinger, would it still need to disguise itself as a honeybee and mix into a bee colony to survive using Batesian mimicry?!"

Liu Jing chuckled twice. "Boss, let me listen too. I'll catch bugs together with you and Sister Qing."

Hearing the words "Batesian mimicry," Xia Qing knew that what Tang Huai had said on the lord's channel was true. He was currently taking undergraduate-level biology courses online to improve his theoretical knowledge.

Everyone in this territory was living their own way, striving to survive.

Xia Qing stared at the honeybees flying among the flowers, and quickly spotted the first hover fly. "Tang Huai, the net."

"Coming!"

Tang Huai immediately handed the small insect-catching net to Xia Qing, then watched her very dashingly and crisply catch the first hover fly in this greenhouse from a cluster of wild balsam flowers.

"Sister Qing truly lives up to her reputation as a top sniper. Even without a gun, any target you lock onto can't escape!" Liu Jing immediately offered this powerful figure from the northern District One an endless stream of admiration.

Xia Qing expressionlessly put the hover fly into the sampling tube and continued staring at the bee colony.

Liu Jing didn't feel embarrassed or angry just because Xia Qing ignored him. Because she was the strong one, and he was the weak one. The strong could do whatever they wanted. Once a natural or man-made disaster struck, the weak had to rely on the strong for protection in order to survive.

This was the law of survival during the years of natural disasters.

The way he used to flatter the strong ones of the Su Feng Squad, he now flattered Tang Huai and Xia Qing twice as much, because Tang Huai and Xia Qing were more humane than the strong ones of Su Feng. Following them, Liu Jing had a greater chance of surviving and felt more at ease than following Su Feng's people.

"Xia Qing." Zhang San's voice came through the walkie-talkies of Xia Qing, Tang Huai, and Liu Jing at the same time.

Xia Qing immediately pressed the walkie-talkie button. "I'm here, Third Brother. Go ahead."

"What you sent over is an evolved male hover fly. Its mouthparts are five times harder than those of an ordinary hover fly, and can easily pierce through honeycomb and capping. Based on the survival habits of hover flies, it will complete the development of its reproductive system and reach sexual maturity within 1-3 days of emerging, and enter the mating period. Male evolved hover flies in the mating period have a strong territorial awareness and will attack insects of other species. Screen the bee colony immediately and clean out these insects thoroughly."