Battalion Krugg

The battalion krugg has a wide diet. They will eat nearly anything if it's found on the soil and is either dead or immobile and defenseless.

Battalion Kruggs are huge and conspicuous, and form clusters where food is abundant. They do not hold territories, but wander around depending on food availability.

Battalion Krugg larvae are not miniature versions of their parents. They differ in their more slender bodies, larger rear spikes, and smaller legs, as well as subtle differences in head proportions. Larval battalion kruggs are small enough to use burrows. They can dig burrows themselves, but prefer to use exoskelesor tunnels. Those tunnels do not even need to be abandoned, for while their armor isn't as strong as the adults', it's still strong enough to withstand prodding by exoskelesor workers or warriors. The resident exoskelesors usually give up after a few days, as battalion kruggs have no interest in eating the exoskelesors or their food.

The adult females are bigger than the adult males in length, height, and width. Their bodies are filled with fully-formed eggs that need only fertilization by a male battalion krugg to develop. Battalion kruggs reproduce by internal fertilization, in a way that's sort of like a seahorse. The female will pass a portion of her stored eggs to the male with her egg pincers. The male will fertilize them internally, holding them in his body until they hatch. Upon hatching, he opens his own egg pincers and "gives birth". The newly-hatched battalion kruggs drop to the ground and climb up his legs, where they then nestle in a cavity on the male's underside. Counter-intuitively, females willing to mate find a male with a bunch of larvae on his underside more attractive.

While the male acts as an armored convoy for the battalion krugg larvae, he doesn't care for them. The larvae climb down the male's legs when hungry and eat food items underneath the male. When the larvae are approximately 25 cm, they leave the male's underside permanently. The larvae grow to this size quickly, allowing the male to mate again the next mating "season".

They have three brief mating "seasons" per year. These "seasons" are not actually seasons in the way autumn and spring are seasons, but rather week-long spans in which they are inclined to mate.