Andegat

Biology

The Andegat are a species of Ant-Folk. They come bipedal and four-armed, with a protective exoskeleton and two strong mandibles. They have two antennae which they use to smell, hear, and occasionally feel. While they can see in the dark, their visual sense overall is relatively poor, especially over longer distances. They possess however and excellent sense of smell. They differentiate others by their smell. The Andegat hatch from an egg, undergo a short infantile stage as a larva, after which they become pupa, before emerging as imago in their iconic form.

Castes

The Andegat come in 3 biological Castes. Workers: The sterile females making up the vast majority of the population. Queens: rare large fertile females who lay all the eggs, and are thus the mothers of the colony. Drones: the rare winged fertile males who may mate with Queens. The Andegat have a haploid-diploid sex-determination system. Fertilized eggs become females (Workers and Queens), unfertilized eggs become males (Drones). This means females have both mother and father, yet males have only a mother.

Worker

Lifespan of 80 years. She is the classic and most common Caste. The Worker can come in Sub-Castes, often divided into the Minor Worker (120 cm, 30 kg), Median Worker (170 cm, 80 kg), and Major Worker (220 cm, 150 kg).

Queen

Lifespan of 200 years, size 300 cm, weight 500 kg. A Young Queen is called Princess and comes with 2 pairs of wings. As she gets older and larger, she becomes too heavy to fly, and she may clip her wings as a symbolic act of having matured into a Queen. In addition growing much larger, a Queen has a wider build than a Worker.

Drone

Lifespan of 40 years, size 170 cm, weight 50 kg. A Drone comes with 2 pairs of wings. He has a slimmer build than a Worker, with a smaller head and larger eyes.

Family

The Andegat lay heavy importance on relatedness and family. They can recognize family by the smell alone. Because only a rare few individuals can produce offspring, Queens and Drones, families tend to be very large, with Workers having a lot of sisters with the same Queen as mother. A family usually consists of a single Queen at the top, like a matriarch, with one or more Drone partners. Because Queens live a lot longer than Drones, Queens often acquire new partners over their life.

Name

An Andegat's full name consists of 3 names. Their Person Name, Generation Name, and Family Name. The Family Name is typically the name of the original Matriarch Queen of the family. The Generation Name is the name of their parents joined, with the Queen's name first. So a Worker named Zenir with a mother Elisedra and a father Veils, would be named Zenir Elisedra-Veils of family Elisedra. Multiple generation in the family have different fathers and thus different Generation names; and Drones lacking a father alltogether just have their mother's name as Generation Name. A Queen starting their own sovereign family changes their Family Name to the one of the new family, typically named after themselves; Like: Elisedra <mother>-<father> of family Elisedra. When the old Matriarch Queen dies, and a daughter Queen replaces her, the name of the family usually remains the one of the original Queen.

New Family

To start a new family, a Queen, often Princess, together with a large set of her Worker sisters (sometimes a few brother Drones) splits off from her old family, usually after having already acquired a suitable male partner. She, her partner, and her accompanied siblings become generation zero of the new family, and take on the new Family Name. The Queen's siblings are the placeholder workforce to build the foundations of the family and help raise the offspring of the coming generations. A generation is marked by a new father, which changes about all 20 to 30 years.

Structure

As a family ages, the single Matriarch Queen dies and gets replaced with a more complex multi-generational system of her Queen daughters. The leadership of the family usually consists of the oldest Worker generation and all Queens of that generation or older (and perhaps their mates), with sibling Drones rarely taking family leader roles, on grounds of never being part of the older generations.

Princes & Mating Season

Drones who are intended to become mates for Queens are titled Princes. Spring is Mating Season. Families may send some of their Drones to fly off as Princes to find partners during Mating Season. Families who in turn are looking for Princes for either unwed Princesses or widowed Queens ceremoniously craft an large fire releasing iconic rosy smoke to be recognized from afar for Princes. Families may alternatively arrange planned exchange of Princes with each other.