Glissen Ants
Highly organized and social animals, these tiny insects rarely exceed half an inch in length. Living in large colonies, these creatures not only display strong division of labor, but complex social interactions and dedicated relationships to specific individuals. Technically omnivorous, they feed on small insects, nectar, and plant sap, but they do so in a very unusual way. In fact, these crafty animals have evolved into the chefs of the Glass Sea, a point that will come up again in this article.
The glass of Glaine Cuan is, for all intents and purposes, perfectly smooth. This is in fact almost entirely true. Almost. And these little survivors know every anomalous nook and cranny from edge to edge. Building their nests well out within the Open Glass, they have evolved a nearly magical ability to find and squeeze through the most minute cracks imaginable, despite the fact that their exoskeletons are thickened, and resistant to their own acid. The Glissen Ant's exoskeleton seems, upon microscopic inspection, to be keloidal as opposed to chitinous. It allows them the flexibility they need to traverse the subsurface of the Glass Sea with their bounty.
Carefully traversing well maintained routes and highways yards below the surface of the glass, the ants will walk their routes to the edge of the Glass Sea. There, they will tend their wind traps made of silk that the female workers produce from spinarettes in their abdomen. This silk is impervious to the male workers' acid, which they regurgitate from a specialized gullet. This acid is capable of softening the hardest glass or ceramic into a gel. This gel will then be shaped by the workers into complex systems of nurseries, spawning chambers, larders, pantries, waste disposal facilities, sleeping quarters and breeding areas. Of special consideration, however, are the kitchens! Yes, these little gourmets will need to cook their own meals. They store gathered food, such as insects and sap, and nectar and seeds, into specialized chambers high up in the glass. So high that the temperature herein cooks the food, with specialized worker ants tending to the meals. They use spices and differing recipes that each impart varying degrees of minerals and vitamins necessary for the healthy living of the Glissen Ant.
The nest complex spreads out from a nucleus that contains the queen, her retinue, and their chambers, with many of the lower caste filling the chambers higher up in the glass. In the world within the glass of Glaine Cuan, the higher one goes, the higher the temperatures one must daily bear. In this case, they shield the queen and her court, as well as the light sensitive young in the deeper warrens that often touch the compressed clay soil below the skullcap of glass that makes up the Glass Sea. This, in turn, feeds other parts of the small yet incredibly complex ecosystem the Glissen Ants require to survive.
Basic Information
Anatomy
The head, thorax, and abdomen of an ant betray them as ants; if rather specialized ants. Males and females are all sterile, unless chosen by one of the queens of the nest.
Biological Traits
The queens are a good deal larger than the rest of the community, and the males are sterile until they are chose by one of the queens, at which point a pheremone released by the queens will take hold and juice up her new lover, so to speak.
Genetics and Reproduction
The queens will choose mates, who inherit child rearing duties the moment they are done inseminating their queen's eggs. They remain very busily doing so at the behest of their darling lover, who eventually exhausts them and they die. When they do, they become food for the youngsters who are in the process of aging out of the nectar they have been living on.
Additional Information
Domestication
It is entirely impossible to keep these critters in a glass ant farm!
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Their silk is impervious to acid, but almost impossible to farm. Some of the more adaptive and hard working of the people surrounding Glaine Cuan harvest the Glissen Ant bile, and shape glass with it into small pieces of jewelry and trinkets for sail at Cannat Glaine.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
These little buggers only live and thrive within the glass of Glaine Cuan.
Average Intelligence
Hive intelligence of an ant colony.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Their head hopuses their sensory organs and powerful mandibles they use for various tasks. Their acid gullet is in their thorax, for the males, or their spinarettes are in their abdomen, if they are female.
Scientific Name
Acidorex Formicidae
Origin/Ancestry
Termites, carpenter ants, and Gaian Nanites
Lifespan
1-2 yrs.
Average Height
3/16"
Average Weight
1/1000th of an Oz.
Average Length
1/2"
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
These little beauties are a pearly, irridescent purplish color that can seem otherworldly when viewed through the prism of the glass sea.
Geographic Distribution
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