Feeling like theorizing. (sort of) (warning: tons of reading)

Joorff

Worker
I was inspired by a post that WaffleGuy made back in June about their thoughts on the Formica Ereptor's origins and I felt compelled to start my own discussion about the Ereptors.
Feel free to add onto it as this is a discussion so let me know your thoughts on this!

The main idea behind this half-theory thing is to come up with a more solid idea of how the Formica Ereptor species, as a (most likely/almost definitely) man-made species of ant would function in an environment outside of a laboratory setting and simply just how they would behave realistically utilising their polymorphism to adapt to different environments and enemies. The way that I feel particularly on the Ereptor's genetic copying ability and the way they would use it is that they would gain access to new genetic material to copy just before the queen begins creating a nest (This would happen most often in the wild). An Ereptor queen could possibly stumble upon a worker/soldier of a colony of a different species of ant, the Ereptor queen would then kill the worker/soldier, and then collect the necessary genetic material. (the Ereptor queen could do this with a large variety of species or not do it at all) The Ereptor queen would then create a nest.
After the first workers have eclosed, the queen would then continue to grow the colony, prioritising worker production over soldiers, however, when the colony encounters a serious threat (such as an enemy colony of ants), the queen will begin producing soldiers using the genetic material that the queen collected before she began the colony, allowing them to fight their opponents more efficiently. After the Ereptor colony begins producing soldiers of a different species, they tend to displace the other ant colonies in their area, taking over that patch of ground.

Like I said at the start of this post, feel free to add onto this or just share your own ideas. I will try to check this thread as much as I can.
 
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Joorff

Worker
Wasn't this how the mobile game EotU supposed to happen before they moved to PC?
Now that I read it over again, I see what you mean. I guess I kinda just used information I had remembered about the old idea of the mobile version's ereptors to get an idea as to how they would function, just without the inclusion of a nomadic lifestyle which was a thing I remember reading about.
 

WaffleGuy

Colony
There is a problem with this. I believe the queen does not actually extract the genetic material herself, it is already extracted in the royal jelly. Royal jelly itself is very special as it can redefine the genetics of organisms who were never intended to be used with royal jelly, e.g. hermit crabs and scorpions, dragonflies and tarantulas, etc. I now think that the royal jelly has special kinds of proteins that work kind of like cancer, hijacking normal cell's reproduction systems to engineer the jelly's DNA rather than the cell's own. Ereptors are specifically designed to somehow make these proteins dormant, possibly inside some kind of special storage, and then inject them into eggs later on. At least that's what I think.
 
I was inspired by a post that WaffleGuy made back in June about their thoughts on the Formica Ereptor's origins and I felt compelled to start my own discussion about the Ereptors.
Feel free to add onto it as this is a discussion so let me know your thoughts on this!

The main idea behind this half-theory thing is to come up with a more solid idea of how the Formica Ereptor species, as a (most likely/almost definitely) man-made species of ant would function in an environment outside of a laboratory setting and simply just how they would behave realistically utilising their polymorphism to adapt to different environments and enemies. The way that I feel particularly on the Ereptor's genetic copying ability and the way they would use it is that they would gain access to new genetic material to copy just before the queen begins creating a nest (This would happen most often in the wild). An Ereptor queen could possibly stumble upon a worker/soldier of a colony of a different species of ant, the Ereptor queen would then kill the worker/soldier, and then collect the necessary genetic material. (the Ereptor queen could do this with a large variety of species or not do it at all) The Ereptor queen would then create a nest.
After the first workers have eclosed, the queen would then continue to grow the colony, prioritising worker production over soldiers, however, when the colony encounters a serious threat (such as an enemy colony of ants), the queen will begin producing soldiers using the genetic material that the queen collected before she began the colony, allowing them to fight their opponents more efficiently. After the Ereptor colony begins producing soldiers of a different species, they tend to displace the other ant colonies in their area, taking over that patch of ground.

Like I said at the start of this post, feel free to add onto this or just share your own ideas. I will try to check this thread as much as I can.
This is very interesting. If this is how they produce and collect, how do they use the material that they harvest? Thanks for taking the time to write all of this.
 
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