Apocalypse ants.
So, what if you had a species of ants capable of eating almost anything, including some kinds of dirt, whose queens possessed incredible tactical and processing intelligence and were able to relay orders and receive information through networks of a specialised type of ant worker because they use special vocalisations to communicate as well as pheromones. What if, in addition to this, the queens could alter the physiology of their workers using hormones before laying the eggs for them, with such flexibility in this that they can custom-make new ants for new situations.
It'd pose a huge problem wherever it is, eating everything in its path, and it does. On their homeworld, there was exactly one land species other than the ants, a species of plant they deliberately grew to eat and avoid oxygen deprivation of their world. They were even selectively breeding it as the armies of different queens endlessly warred between one another among the inter-twining branches of these plants. They were even in the process of making the first moves to try and conquer the ocean, using themselves as bait to lure up sea-creatures to add to the biomass in the land system for them to fight over.
Great. Amazing. Oh good lord so awful. Bonus facts: queens vary between the size of hands and cars, that they can make their legs extend beneath them like mammals as well as go out the side to massively increase size ranges, that every queen has backup queens inside of her, that they've teamed up with special photosynthetising fungi on some worlds, and that their survivability means that smaller queens can survive attached to ships in the vacuum of space for several weeks at a time if they do so deliberately, which some do.
Because they do all that. They're nightmares for the CHG and LIR at large and have to be actively eradicated constantly.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Their whole thing is basically being ants that can change their shapes, proportions and colours to match the environment.
Genetics and Reproduction
Queens can reproduce asexually, but have an annual (242 days on their home world) breeding season in which males are created and deployed all over the place to spread DNA and strengthen the species, but most queens kill any male offspring with good genes to prevent the spread of those genes to the control of other queens.
Genes, yes, agony. They have some limited ability to copy genes into their long genomes and control which genes certain offspring have. This, of course, has terrifying implications regarding what a mad scientist somewhere could do if he had some of these, a few specially made viruses and specially picked animals. Luckily something like Tyrannids would be very unlikely because of the whole thing of them communicating with sound.
Growth Rate & Stages
Queens can control their growth rates according to the availability of food and how many workers and soldiers they feel the need to be able to produce at a time.
Ecology and Habitats
One of their whole things is adaptability so pretty much anywhere that there's food, dryish land and breathable air.
Dietary Needs and Habits
*Everything*, especially the offspring of other queens.
Biological Cycle
Infinite war 230 days of their year, breeding 12 days a year.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Everything is absolutely obedient to the queen and the only queens that don't hate each other are the ones that are closely related, sometimes coming together to form Ultra Nests they're collectively stored in for collective safety.
Domestication
No, but the possibilities if someone were to slap a few bear or wolf genes into them are terrifying.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Dropping them on LIR planets is a fun pass-time for CHG special forces.
Also let's be honest the CHG has absolutely used their slight gene theft and offspring gene selection abilities to cook up some kinda horror waiting to break out a lab. In other words I reckon a Tyrannid-style infestation of the galaxy is inevitable.
Hunting
Aside from the usual use of flamethrowers, as well as carefully crafted viruses, the CHG has figured that hitting them with the biggest variety of enemies possible is the best way around their adaptability and so has created tiny robotniks in infested areas that make more robotniks using "queens" by putting scrap metal in them that will actively kill these ants, literally making ant-robot wars. Additionally some especially capable specially-made wildlife has been deployed against the ants, including the Harpoon Spider Millipede (very fast, can walk on just a quarter of its legs and uses the rest like scorpion tales but instead of poisoning prey it kebabs it, covers its retreat from any hive-style threats by squirting a web from its tail to make a sticky area enemies must go around) being used in addition to Swarm Worms (imagine the worms from Dune but on a much smaller scale). Aside from that there is the use of Laser Bees, which find Apocalypse Ant swarms, let their homies know, and then attack in their own numbers rapidly killing tonnes off enemies with high-precision rapid-fire lasers. They're technically part of the robotniks mentioned earlier but damn they're so cool that they're practically their own thing.Geographic Origin and Distribution
Currently spread over about 87 worlds, probably with more to follow.
Average Intelligence
Queens are basically playing 15 games of 12D chess at once all the time, but you'd have no hope of getting them to appreciate art or anything like that.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Very good hearing to take orders. Specialised workers and soldiers often have very good hearing and sight.
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
Deliberately practice agriculture. Have been known to hitch rides on space ships and animals to spread around.
Scientific Name
Apocalypsis formica
Origin/Ancestry
Some ants using Planet Loki ended up on a very varied planet and gained built in adaptations.
Conservation Status
HAHA NO. They're marked as an "Extinction Preferred" race, which is a funny way of saying the government wants their existence to not continue.
Average Weight
The most they'll reach in Earth-like gravity is that of a large dog, but queens prefer to make smaller offspring as they're generally getting more back per biomass input... which just means even more offspring and not being able to kill them with the same weapons you'd kill a human with.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
The offspring of certain queens have specific, unique-to-their-queen pheromones so they know which ones of each other they're meant to kill for smelling different and who to help for smelling the same.
Geographic Distribution
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