Regalian Fossorundi
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At a casual glance, one might think the Regalian Fossorundis live in a similar fashion to their ancestors, who they had split off from and became a distinct taxon. The species still lives underground for the most part, with their network of tunnels and chambers getting as expansive as 10 meters wide and 5 meters deep near the end of a queen's reign. The main difference from their ancestor, however, revolves around the fact they have begun to practice agriculture of a sort. This originally started with Supershrooms that grew on the food workers brought back, thriving on the decaying organic matter. As the ancestral Regalian Fossorundis defended their burrows ferociously from potential invaders, these Supershrooms faced less significant predation than those on the surface and flourished, which in turn provided the nodents with an additional food source. Overtime, these noants would begin to feed less and less on lower nutrient flora like the windbulbs and feed more upon these Supershrooms until they actively farmed them. At around the same time, some species of the abundant Vermees genus group would feed on the feces and dead of these nodents, which would also lead to a positive relationship between the two groups that gave rise to the Regalian Fossorundis actively farming these little Cadovermoids.
Much like their ancestors, the worker caste is the most abundant caste of a Regalian Fossorundi colony, and fill various roles. Their lives first begin by being birthed out of the immobile and blind queen as relatively helpless young, who then get taken to a nursery chamber. Here, they will be fed a healthy balance of Vermees and Supershrooms to develop into a worker. In their early years, these workers act as foragers, leaving the safety of the tunnels and going into the outside world to gather various bits of foliage like the leaves of puffgrasses or wildbulbs. As they gather these resources to bring back to the hive, the workers are vulnerable to potential predators and have to be constantly on alert. Camouflage patterns do provide some protection, and the entire species vary in color depending on the area they live in (being black in areas with black soil, being gold in areas with golden soil, etc.), but a good portion of the foragers still fall victim to predation. If they survive these trips, the workers will return to the colony with whatever foliage they collected to then put them in a chamber dedicated towards their Supershroom crop. These will be tended to by the caretakers, who are workers that have survived for about 5 months and outgrow the role of a forager. These caretakers also tend to the Vermees livestock in the colony, which live within the waste chamber (where Regalian Fossorundis excrete waste and bring their dead to be eaten by the livestock). The caretakers will examine the state of the colonies' resources and see what needs more food, what needs to be removed due to potentially being sick, and what is ready to be harvested.
After about a year with the role of a caretaker, the workers will then graduate to the role of a nurse, whose job is to care for the members of the colony. This can range from feeding the queen and assisting her with birthing offspring, to taking care of the newborns and aiding their growth into specific roles. A notable change seen in the Regalian Fossorundi's development is that the young will develop into specific castes depending on the quantities of the food given to them. If they are given small amounts of both Supershrooms and Vermees by the nurses, they will develop into another worker. If they are fed very little Supershrooms and a high portion of Vermees meat, the newborns will instead become soldiers. The sole job of a soldier is to protect the colony from threats. They camp around the tunnels that lead to the surface, where they will block off the entrance with their own bodies if a predator shows up. Their powerful forelimbs with enormous claws are well suited to grasping onto a threat. If the intruder is small, like perhaps a Teacup Sauceback, these prevent its escape as it is then dragged into the tunnel for the other soldiers to tear it apart with their buck teeth and claws. The upper buck tooth of the soldiers have three large projections, which assist them with tearing flesh, making the process of killing small predators relatively quick. If the soldiers face a larger predator, like perhaps a Harndsum Prickleshrew, they will still latch on with their claws to cause as much pain as they can. As the soldiers will all work together to attack the intruder, the high amounts of "stings" can usually deter larger predators from continuing their advance, even if the soldiers who directly attack the threat are usually killed. The soldiers possess bright colors on their faces and forelimbs to provide a visual warning to threats that they will do whatever it takes to protect the colony, even if it means sacrificing themselves.
If the young are fed a high concentration of Supershrooms, meanwhile, they will grow into the Architect caste. This caste is technically derived from the workers of the Undergroundi and thus shares many traits with Regalian Fossorundi workers. The main differences are their stockier builds, reduced eyes and ears, as well as forelimbs and teeth better suited for digging. While the worker caste can technically dig, and they have to when the queen first establishes the colony, the architects are specialized for this task. Their buck teeth help dislodged soil that then gets pushed back with the broad claws on their forelimbs. This caste will help dig out new chambers and expand tunnel systems as the colony grows, alongside maintaining the tunnel system to make sure it's in good shape.
The lifespan of these three castes is generally short, with soldiers only living for about a year, architects for two, and workers living for about three years. These castes are also all female and sterile upon birth, never being able to reproduce. The two remaining castes are a bit different in two major ways, being the king and queen. Kings are completely different from all the other castes in that they mostly live on their own without any sort of help. In many ways, the kings resemble the more basal looking yellowdundis, having long cursorial limbs that give them a large stride and help them with scurrying away from threats. They possess excellent camouflage patterns to blend in with the foliage and soil around them, alongside sharp senses to both find food and detect predators. The upper buck tooth and lowermost hind spur possess large serrations to help deal as much damage as possible to threats if they are backed into a corner, as this can distract the predator with the pain caused and buy the nodent some time to flee. To better obtain resources and fend off threats, the kings have become four times the size of the kings in their direct ancestors, making them the second largest caste within the Regalian Fossorundis.
These kings will regularly enter the colonies of other Regalian Fossorundis, producing an oily secretion that gives off a distinct odor. As the colony recognizes the smell as belonging to a king, they will let him enter instead of tearing him apart as if he were a typical intruder. From there, the king will enter the chamber that the resident queen dwells in and proceed to mate with her. After that, he will visit the chambers housing both the Vermees and Supershrooms being farmed by the colony and eat a few of them to satisfy his hunger before moving on. When the king does leave, the spores of Supershrooms will be carried in his gut and the larvae of the Vermees hitch a ride on his back, with both of these types of passenger being dropped off at the next colony the king visits. This behavior of regularly entering colonies to mate and feed on some of the crop and livestock means the kings play a vital role in preserving genetic diversity among the Regalian Fossorundis and the organisms they cultivate. Though a king can sometimes live as long as ten years, they usually don't last more than around four to six due to predation.
When a queen mates with a king, she will stop producing sterile females. Instead, this is the only time a queen will give birth to males and females that can reproduce. These newborns will be raised by the nurses until they grow into kings and immature queens. From there, both will leave the colony to start lives of their own. For the immature queens, a few workers from the old colony will follow her to aid her with starting a new colony while also taking some of the colony's crop and livestock. As they dig out the beginnings of a tunnel system, the workers fulfill the jobs of a forager, caretaker, and a nurse all at the same time as well as the role of diggers. The queen will continue to resemble an abnormally large worker and help with maintaining the colony until a king comes along and mates with her. Afterwards, she will undergo a transformation into her mature adult form and begin producing young right away. These will be raised by the workers that followed the queen until they themselves grow into the new workers and replace them, alongside becoming proper architects and soldiers. Queen Regalian Fossorundis can live for quite a long time, living for as much as a century and producing millions or sometimes even billions of offspring.
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An example of the Worker caste.
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An example of the Architect caste.
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An example of the Soldier caste.
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An example of the King caste.
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An example of the Queen caste.
