Formica Ereptor Origins

WaffleGuy

Colony
I don't think many people focus on the lore of the game, so here I am figuring out how exactly Formica Ereptor works and its origins within the ant species hierarchy. Let's start with their close relatives.

I have good reason to believe that Formica Ereptor are tied to Saharan Silver ants. Firstly, they look like each other. The queen may be different, but the workers are basically the same thing, just with different colors. And if we assume that the workers are just formica ereptor females who aren't a queen and who don't have gene splicing, then that means that the Formica Ereptor's base form is Saharan Silver, further tying the bonds between the two species. And there's more. Formica Ereptor workers are just fast in general, some of the fastest ants in the game I believe? Actually I'm not that sure if all workers in the game have the same speed so this reason can be ignored, but there's one more piece of evidence. In the kick starter campaign island of the original story which got scrapped, Formica Ereptors were placed right next to the Saharan Silver ants, in the "Fertile Pinnacle". This is some strong evidence that they are related to each other. As for how the ereptors have different colors, probably the same way blue butterflies are blue. By having special scales that reflect certain wavelengths back to the eye. This would've been useful as scientists can tweak this to keep track of the different colonies when they are first starting.

Now for how they actually work. I'm pretty sure the DNA steal and insertion uses DNA to transfer rather than mRNA. My guess is that ereptors have a sort of protein that attaches to genes and stores them in some part of the queen. The royal jelly that the queen eats to gain new units and powers is simply filled with the DNA you want your ereptor colony to have. When the queen eats the DNA, the special protein flood through the digestive system and takes the genes of that royal jelly, puts them in some place, then locks it away. When the queen is ready to inject the genes into her daughters, well it's just simple DNA replication here. The DNA polymerase comes in, the nucleotides move into place. Then the strands of DNA leave, go to the daughter cell before it's ready to multiply, genes that need to be replaced are cut through CRISPR, then inserts the new DNA into those places. The only thing left unsolved is how the queen knows which genes to inject into the eggs.
 

syrian dugong

Soldier
Ecosystem Beta Tester
I don't think many people focus on the lore of the game, so here I am figuring out how exactly Formica Ereptor works and its origins within the ant species hierarchy. Let's start with their close relatives.

I have good reason to believe that Formica Ereptor are tied to Saharan Silver ants. Firstly, they look like each other. The queen may be different, but the workers are basically the same thing, just with different colors. And if we assume that the workers are just formica ereptor females who aren't a queen and who don't have gene splicing, then that means that the Formica Ereptor's base form is Saharan Silver, further tying the bonds between the two species. And there's more. Formica Ereptor workers are just fast in general, some of the fastest ants in the game I believe? Actually I'm not that sure if all workers in the game have the same speed so this reason can be ignored, but there's one more piece of evidence. In the kick starter campaign island of the original story which got scrapped, Formica Ereptors were placed right next to the Saharan Silver ants, in the "Fertile Pinnacle". This is some strong evidence that they are related to each other. As for how the ereptors have different colors, probably the same way blue butterflies are blue. By having special scales that reflect certain wavelengths back to the eye. This would've been useful as scientists can tweak this to keep track of the different colonies when they are first starting.

Now for how they actually work. I'm pretty sure the DNA steal and insertion uses DNA to transfer rather than mRNA. My guess is that ereptors have a sort of protein that attaches to genes and stores them in some part of the queen. The royal jelly that the queen eats to gain new units and powers is simply filled with the DNA you want your ereptor colony to have. When the queen eats the DNA, the special protein flood through the digestive system and takes the genes of that royal jelly, puts them in some place, then locks it away. When the queen is ready to inject the genes into her daughters, well it's just simple DNA replication here. The DNA polymerase comes in, the nucleotides move into place. Then the strands of DNA leave, go to the daughter cell before it's ready to multiply, genes that need to be replaced are cut through CRISPR, then inserts the new DNA into those places. The only thing left unsolved is how the queen knows which genes to inject into the eggs.
I wouldn't say both ereptor worker and the Saharan silver ant look the same tbh. There are some differences between them if you look closely at the EOTU's ant fact stuff or whatever they were called and just compare them.
 

WaffleGuy

Colony
There are some differences between them if you look closely at the EOTU's ant fact stuff or whatever they were called and just compare them.
Yeah, there are a few differences with the head and gaster especially, but the bodies and stats seem to match up very well. As for the queen, I think the shapes match up very well, only the thorax is a bit more expressive of the shape for ereptors.
 
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