Idle thoughts on a new menace species<br /><br />The Mantes are an insectoid like omnivore resembling a preying mantis.<br /><br />They have a hive like society with 3 or 4 castes of significantly different body types in each caste.<br /><br />The "Swarmer"<br />The lowest cast is a seemingly unintelligent to low intelligent creature that is used as a swarm to overrun enemies. They are created when the standard larva are fed cirtain foods/compounds that interact with its version of DNA, locking and unlocking key sections of genetic code to produce the quick growing "swarmer"<br />These creatures live for nothing but to eat and swarm; Luckily they only live for 1d5 mounths. Their bloated dead husks are collected and become a food source for the growing hive.<br /><br />The Worker<br />Again the worker results when the standard larva is fed the right foods/nutrients. they are larger than the swarmer and the foundation of Mantes society. Doing all the work and normally account for 90% of the species unless a swarm state is on. <br /><br />The Warrior is a worker that has injested ____________ and metamorphed into a warrior. they dont live for long 2d5 months. But they are deadly opponents and exert some control over the swarm<br /><br />The Flyer is another "warrior" model and results when a worker injests ___________ and metamorphs into a flyer. <br /><br />The Queen is hermaphroditic and produces standard larva when impregnated by a warrior, whom she eats during the coupling but when she impregnates a flyer with her stinger a new queen larva begins to grow inside the flyer eating it from the inside out.<br /><br />the Mantes has a high iron content in their chitonous shells (much like the iron content in a homing pigeon's bill) that makes them very attune to magnetic fields- they never get lost, camoflaged vehicles do not fool them.<br /><br />When a swarm is on it eats every thing carbon based- plants, animals, people, their own dead. If not checked the swarm will die off 1/5 at a time each month for 5 months. In the first few month the shear mass of numbers masks the warriors but in the last two month they are more visible and exposed.<br /><br />I had intended that this be a space faring race comperable to the sathar but after writing the above I'm unsure.<br />
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