Uksor

The uksor split from its ancestor and has spread across the planet. Four major super-colonies exist within the three landmasses and glacier, each consisting of thousands of colonies genetically close so that members do not war with one another. Each colony contains soldier, drone, queen, and nurses. All work together to maintain the social order within the colony. This allows the planet wide "empire" to remain relatively stable in terms of size and growth. Modifications to their morphology include a retractable drill, chitin-based plates, and a function in their brain that causes them to abandon the hive should they become ill in order to avoid spreading infections. The soldier class performs the roles of both warrior and guard. They lay siege to other colonies while at the same time defending their own from invaders. They possess a special gland at the base of their contractible drill that secretes a toxin that causes a painful sting. They can grow to be 7 cm in length and consist solely of male individuals. They typically have their drill retracted into their bodies and use their "beaks" to bite their enemies. If the fight is going badly, the soldier will enact a suicide tactic by stabbing its drill deep into their enemies' flesh. Should the drill break, it causes the gland at the base of it to burst and thus force the soldier to begin vomiting a highly toxic poison onto its foe before it eventually succumbs to it. The worker drone class consists of the female laborers who dig and maintain the colony as well as collect and/or harvest food. They only grow to be 5 cm in length and tend to only live a few months. All are sterile due to the absence of essential enzymes in the development of their gonads. The nurse caste consists of specialized females who are dedicated to caring for the queens of the colony as well as the numerous eggs and larvae within the birthing pools. The larvae will cling onto their backs as they are brought back and forth from the feeding chambers. They can grow to be 6 cm in length. The queen caste consists of the purely reproductive females that are the largest in the colony. They produce numerous eggs every day. They are "bloated" in appearance and produce pheromones that control the production of new queens that will either remain in the nest or head out into the world in order to start new ones.