Carrion Burrowers
Quiet, numerous, and extremely dangerous. These swarms [of Carrion-Burrowers] are one of, if not the greatest, bane of this hellish desert. The pain of their sting is excruiating, their numbers are over overwhelming, and their hunger is seemingly endless.The Carrion-Burrower, commonly referred to as the Setican Corpsefly, or the Matanza Marauders are a large, swarming, parasetic insect that inhabits the Matanza Desert. Carrion-Burrowers, despite their habitat, struggle to exist in the intense heat and often burrow into the ground, rocks, or in either living or dead creatures. At night, these fearsome insects burst from their nests in the cold and search for food.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Carrion-burrowers are one of, if not, the largest insects in the world. They possess strange, tear-drop shaped bodies with the rear tapered to a dull point. Their heads, which are triangular in shape, are adorned with a long, needle-like hook along that is capable of piercing flesh. An array of long, fin-like pertrusions run along their back, acting like sawteeth.
Their wings, which cover most of their back, are translucent black and shimmery.
Genetics and Reproduction
Carrion-Burrowers do not typically have recognized genders but do have a very chaotic hierarchy. From what little research has been done, there is always one Hive Queen in a swarm and they are not typically born. Aside from the Hive Queen are Majors, which are noted as much larger than typical drones and lead swarms to defend both themselves and the hive.
New Hive Queens come from the lowest of drones. When one finds a living or dead host, they will dive through the flesh and pierce through with their razor-sharp hooed nose, burrowing into the skin by using acidic spit and their frontal legs which act as claws. Upon burrowing into the flesh, they will begin what is called the Queen's feast, which results in the insect eating twice its body weight in flesh, blood, and other materials. Once accomplished, the wings will be torn from the body and the insect's gender is shifted to female. Slowly, they will begin laying eggs as their body undergoes a metamorphasis to a new Hive Queen.
It is unsure how these drones metamorphasis or how the eggs are laid, though many scholars assume that the eggs come from the massive feast and are merely genetic copies of the new Hive Queen. Though no answers are known for sure.
Growth Rate & Stages
Eggs of the Carrion-Burrower normally remain unopened for roughly 8 weeks, before the larval Carrion-Burrower eats its own egg and begins crawling. For the first two weeks, from hatching, these larval forms do not have wings and are generally blind. It is believed that, during this stage, the insect's heightening its other senses before gaining flight capabilities. After these two weeks, the larva gain their long, dark wings and are capable of flight and joins a Major for swarming.
Majors, unlike Drones, cannot be Hive Queens. As they are specially birthed Carrion-Burrowers, acting as the bodyguard of the Hive Queen and the Nest itself and thus, have special pheramones to accomplish this.
Additional Information
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
Because of the reliance on living or dead creatures, Carrion-Burrowers utilization of pheramones are terrible and horrific. If the nest is dead, the Carrion-Burrower will merely continue to eat the insides until there is nothing but bone and flesh. From here, the drones will, upon being hatched, will utilzing a sticky, acidic-like spit to seal the rotting skin until it forms a dome. Overtime, these insects will begin to burrow into the ground and create an underground nest, using the bones for protection.
When the host is still alive, the Hive Queen will spray pheramones as it begins the Queen's Feast that tricks the nervous system to feel pleasure instead of pain. Throughout this process, these chemical reactions gradually tricks the brain of the creature to act as though they welcome these insects into their body, despite the fact they are quickly killing them. Over time, the person's memories fade and they will become more and more aggreviated towards others. Eventually, the person will merely be a moving and walking hive before eventually they collapse, their body failing as they die slowly.
Lifespan
9 years
Average Weight
Up to 1 oz
Average Length
5 to 6 inches
Geographic Distribution
Discovered by
To be fair to I read it. There are animals in real life we learn about in high school level biology that do most if not all of what you talk about in that article. I would not say it needs a NSFW title. You wrote a high grade (like 11 or 12) biology lesson. Nothing more graphic really. I appreciate the candor and the concern for people, but something like just a general *Heads up, creepy crawly gross stuff* warning at top of article would suffice. You didn't really get anywhere near anything sounding remotely M or R rated. Legitimately there are real life insects that do bascially exactly what you describe and we learn about em in high school biology if we take it all the way through. So I think you fine my friend, don't worry about labelling it NSFW you have no need to do that to yourself as this is. If you had images depicting the actual words that'd be different. But you don't :)