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Description
This is a speculative evolution idea which is modelled after myrmecophytes (ant-plant) mutualism. Myrmecophytes are plants that have evolved into a partnership with ants whereby the plant provide ants with food and board, while the ants provide the plant with protection against herbivores both big and small. So I decided to take a pair of mammals that are relatively common and that most people would be familiar with - rodents and pigs - and create a pair of speculative biology beasts that emulate the symbiosis seen in ant-plants. So this is what I ended up - the "Symbiomice-Brood Beast complex" - a pig-derived mega-herbivore covered in a colony of eusocial rodents.
The Symbiomice is a species of eusocial rodent that have evolved from a species of cooperatively breeding rodent that frequented the habitat of the Brood Beast's ancestor - a species of solitary forest hog. The Brood Beast would otherwise be a fairly unremarkable mega-herbivore if not for its mutualistic relationship with the Symbiomice.
The ancestors of the Symbiomice and the Brood Beast originally had an opportunistic commensal relationship with each other, much like cattle egret and cattle. The ancestor of Symbiomice were originally social, cooperatively breeding rodents that loitered near the vicinity of the ancestors of the Brood Beast. The rodents used the solitary pig as a mean of transport, a supplementary means of foraging as it would feed on the scraps left behind by the host or small invertebrates it scares up, as well as cleaning the host of any skin parasites such as ticks and lice. The rodents also acted as sentry for the host pig, alerting it against potential predators while it is feeding or resting. In turn, the pig provided these ancestral Symbiomice with protect against *their* predators.
As the ancestral Symbiomice evolved to have a more intimate and obligate relationship with host, its original cooperative breeding system evolved into an eusocial one, like that of naked mole rat or termites, resulting in division of labour and formation of castes. The result Symbiomice are; Queen, Workers, Hunter-Soldiers, and Males.
The Queen is immobile and sits in a special cavity call the "Queen's Throne" on the host's back. Her sole function is to act as the colony's sole mean of reproduction and any newborn are taken away by the Workers and fed at the host's allospecific lactaries. She is fed by the Workers and her bodily wastes are carried away by the Workers. Her tail is shaped like that of a beaver and can be folded over the "Throne" to provide protection against harsh sunlight, rain, and predators. Her pheromones suppresses sexual maturity in the other females in the colonies (the Workers), but she can also sense the pheromones of individuals in the rest of the colony, which allows her to determine both he number of and ratio of different caste members (Workers, Hunter-Soldiers, Males) and allocate her reproductive effort accordingly. She can also sense hormonal changes in the host and is able to adjust reproductive effort accordingly. For example, during the Brood Beast's mating season, the Queen will produce more Males. But if the host is under stress which can indicate the presence of external threats, she will produce more Hunter-Soldiers. If the host is a female which has just given birth, the Queen will produce a reproductive female which one of the Worker will carry to the newly-birthed Brood Beastlet to start a new colony.
The Worker is involved in general maintenance of the colony, which involve feeding individuals which cannot feed themselves (Queen, newborns, Hunter-Soldiers), and general external hygiene of the host, cleaning (by eating) any of the host's dead skin and external parasites. It is also capable of aiding wound healing in the host - should the Brood Beast get injured, the workers will rush to lick to wound - their saliva have antimicrobial properties and contain proteins which hasten the healing process. The Workers are all females but are prevented from reaching sexual maturity by the Queen's pheromones. Should the Queen dies, the largest workers will excavate the Queen's cadaver and assume her place, metamorphosing into the new Queen.
The Hunter-Soldiers is involved in the protection of the colony as well as the protection of the Brood Beast host. While they are born as males, they never reach sexual maturity (regardless of the presence of the Queen). They have hypertrophied incisors and as such are unable to feed themselves, but are instead fed with regurgitated food by the Workers. The Hunter-Soldier is extremely agile, capable of scampering across the body of the host at high speed to intercept and kill any mobile blood-feeders which are too fast for the Workers to catch such as blood-sucking flies. The Hunter-Soldiers also protects the colony from small opportunistic predators that loiter around the Brood Beast and prey on the occasional Worker. Occasionally, the Hunter-Soldiers can turn the table and kill one of these opportunists - the body of which would be tore apart by the Workers and serves as a supplementary food source for the colony. Should the Brood Beast be threatened by a predator, the Hunter-Soldiers will leap en masse off their host and scamper towards the would-be predator, attacking it with their enlarge incisors and afflicting potential severe injuries. Any Hunter-Soldiers lost in such conflict are replenished by the Queen as she can sense the pheromonal changes in the ratio of Workers vs Hunter-Soldiers
The Males are infrequently produce by the Queen and only a few are present in any Symbiomice colony at any one time. However, the Symbiomice have evolve to syncrhonise their reproductive window with that of the Brood Beast. Upon sensing hormonal changes in the host that signals the start of the mating season, the Queen increases production of Males. When the Brood Beast mates, there is an exchange of Males from different colonies as they scamper off their original host onto a new host to seek out the Queen. Mating between the usually solitary Brood Beast also provides the Symbiomice an opportunity for cross-fertilisation. While on the new host, the Male emits pheromone that subdue the hostile responses that Workers and Hunter-Soldiers usually have towards individuals from a different colony. The Male is extremely agile and once on the new host, it scampers to the Throne, mate with the Queen and dies. The Queen is able to store sperm from a number of different males or many months.
The Brood Beast provides for the Symbiomice colony in many ways. Just as how myrmecophytes have extrafloral nectaries en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmecop… to feed their ants, the Brood Beast has evolved additional mammary glands call allospecific lactaries that the Symbiomice can feed from. These lactaries are found on both sexes and are different from the primary mammary glands that the Brood Beast's own offspring feed from, and the presence of the Symbiomice colony induces continuous lactation in the allospecific lactaries. The Symbiomice have evolve lactase persistence which allows digest milk throughout their lives, but a the Brood Beast have in turn also coevolved to produce milk in their allospecific lactaries which are specifically suited for the Symbiomice's nutritional requirements.
While some myrmecophytes produce "food bodies" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmecop… to feed their ant colonies, the Brood Beast has numerous sebaceous trophic deposit excretors all over its skin which are derived from hypertrophied sebaceous glands. These excretors produce waxy globs consisting of a mix of lipids that the Symbiomice feed upon. The Symbiomice have special gut symbionts derived from propionbacteria (i.e. also known as the acne-causing bacteria en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propioni… ) which allows to break down and digest those globs of sebum. The Queen's Throne has a special "Royal Excretor" that produce a mix of nutrient which are more suited for the nutritional require of the colony' reproductive individual.
Some myrmecophytes grow special chambers call domatia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmecop… which their ant colonies can live in. The Brood Beast have special skin pockets (similar to those found on surinam toads) call "skin cribs" where they Symbiomice can shelter when they need to rest. Male Symbiomice spend the majority of their time curled up in skin cribs in a torpid state.
The Symbiomice is a species of eusocial rodent that have evolved from a species of cooperatively breeding rodent that frequented the habitat of the Brood Beast's ancestor - a species of solitary forest hog. The Brood Beast would otherwise be a fairly unremarkable mega-herbivore if not for its mutualistic relationship with the Symbiomice.
The ancestors of the Symbiomice and the Brood Beast originally had an opportunistic commensal relationship with each other, much like cattle egret and cattle. The ancestor of Symbiomice were originally social, cooperatively breeding rodents that loitered near the vicinity of the ancestors of the Brood Beast. The rodents used the solitary pig as a mean of transport, a supplementary means of foraging as it would feed on the scraps left behind by the host or small invertebrates it scares up, as well as cleaning the host of any skin parasites such as ticks and lice. The rodents also acted as sentry for the host pig, alerting it against potential predators while it is feeding or resting. In turn, the pig provided these ancestral Symbiomice with protect against *their* predators.
As the ancestral Symbiomice evolved to have a more intimate and obligate relationship with host, its original cooperative breeding system evolved into an eusocial one, like that of naked mole rat or termites, resulting in division of labour and formation of castes. The result Symbiomice are; Queen, Workers, Hunter-Soldiers, and Males.
The Queen is immobile and sits in a special cavity call the "Queen's Throne" on the host's back. Her sole function is to act as the colony's sole mean of reproduction and any newborn are taken away by the Workers and fed at the host's allospecific lactaries. She is fed by the Workers and her bodily wastes are carried away by the Workers. Her tail is shaped like that of a beaver and can be folded over the "Throne" to provide protection against harsh sunlight, rain, and predators. Her pheromones suppresses sexual maturity in the other females in the colonies (the Workers), but she can also sense the pheromones of individuals in the rest of the colony, which allows her to determine both he number of and ratio of different caste members (Workers, Hunter-Soldiers, Males) and allocate her reproductive effort accordingly. She can also sense hormonal changes in the host and is able to adjust reproductive effort accordingly. For example, during the Brood Beast's mating season, the Queen will produce more Males. But if the host is under stress which can indicate the presence of external threats, she will produce more Hunter-Soldiers. If the host is a female which has just given birth, the Queen will produce a reproductive female which one of the Worker will carry to the newly-birthed Brood Beastlet to start a new colony.
The Worker is involved in general maintenance of the colony, which involve feeding individuals which cannot feed themselves (Queen, newborns, Hunter-Soldiers), and general external hygiene of the host, cleaning (by eating) any of the host's dead skin and external parasites. It is also capable of aiding wound healing in the host - should the Brood Beast get injured, the workers will rush to lick to wound - their saliva have antimicrobial properties and contain proteins which hasten the healing process. The Workers are all females but are prevented from reaching sexual maturity by the Queen's pheromones. Should the Queen dies, the largest workers will excavate the Queen's cadaver and assume her place, metamorphosing into the new Queen.
The Hunter-Soldiers is involved in the protection of the colony as well as the protection of the Brood Beast host. While they are born as males, they never reach sexual maturity (regardless of the presence of the Queen). They have hypertrophied incisors and as such are unable to feed themselves, but are instead fed with regurgitated food by the Workers. The Hunter-Soldier is extremely agile, capable of scampering across the body of the host at high speed to intercept and kill any mobile blood-feeders which are too fast for the Workers to catch such as blood-sucking flies. The Hunter-Soldiers also protects the colony from small opportunistic predators that loiter around the Brood Beast and prey on the occasional Worker. Occasionally, the Hunter-Soldiers can turn the table and kill one of these opportunists - the body of which would be tore apart by the Workers and serves as a supplementary food source for the colony. Should the Brood Beast be threatened by a predator, the Hunter-Soldiers will leap en masse off their host and scamper towards the would-be predator, attacking it with their enlarge incisors and afflicting potential severe injuries. Any Hunter-Soldiers lost in such conflict are replenished by the Queen as she can sense the pheromonal changes in the ratio of Workers vs Hunter-Soldiers
The Males are infrequently produce by the Queen and only a few are present in any Symbiomice colony at any one time. However, the Symbiomice have evolve to syncrhonise their reproductive window with that of the Brood Beast. Upon sensing hormonal changes in the host that signals the start of the mating season, the Queen increases production of Males. When the Brood Beast mates, there is an exchange of Males from different colonies as they scamper off their original host onto a new host to seek out the Queen. Mating between the usually solitary Brood Beast also provides the Symbiomice an opportunity for cross-fertilisation. While on the new host, the Male emits pheromone that subdue the hostile responses that Workers and Hunter-Soldiers usually have towards individuals from a different colony. The Male is extremely agile and once on the new host, it scampers to the Throne, mate with the Queen and dies. The Queen is able to store sperm from a number of different males or many months.
The Brood Beast provides for the Symbiomice colony in many ways. Just as how myrmecophytes have extrafloral nectaries en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmecop… to feed their ants, the Brood Beast has evolved additional mammary glands call allospecific lactaries that the Symbiomice can feed from. These lactaries are found on both sexes and are different from the primary mammary glands that the Brood Beast's own offspring feed from, and the presence of the Symbiomice colony induces continuous lactation in the allospecific lactaries. The Symbiomice have evolve lactase persistence which allows digest milk throughout their lives, but a the Brood Beast have in turn also coevolved to produce milk in their allospecific lactaries which are specifically suited for the Symbiomice's nutritional requirements.
While some myrmecophytes produce "food bodies" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmecop… to feed their ant colonies, the Brood Beast has numerous sebaceous trophic deposit excretors all over its skin which are derived from hypertrophied sebaceous glands. These excretors produce waxy globs consisting of a mix of lipids that the Symbiomice feed upon. The Symbiomice have special gut symbionts derived from propionbacteria (i.e. also known as the acne-causing bacteria en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propioni… ) which allows to break down and digest those globs of sebum. The Queen's Throne has a special "Royal Excretor" that produce a mix of nutrient which are more suited for the nutritional require of the colony' reproductive individual.
Some myrmecophytes grow special chambers call domatia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmecop… which their ant colonies can live in. The Brood Beast have special skin pockets (similar to those found on surinam toads) call "skin cribs" where they Symbiomice can shelter when they need to rest. Male Symbiomice spend the majority of their time curled up in skin cribs in a torpid state.
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This is a really creative idea.