Terabyte

Terabytes are termites that live in the Central Desertof Novopangea, 200 million AD, in The Future is Wild. It is the most common insect in the Central Desert.

In the hostile environment of the Central Desert, insects have found a way to create their own living conditions. Here and there on the exposed surface, jagged, dusty towers rise up out of the sand, jutting many feet into the air. At the pinnacle of each structure there are translucent panels that could almost be windows. These towers are the cities of terabytes.

Like any termite, terabytes are eusocial, which means they form a colony in which a single queen breeds while every other individual performs distinct tasks essential to the colony's survival. In colonies like these, individuals are divided into several castes, each with a function of its own.

The fiercest terabytes are those in the warrior caste. Their disproportionally large heads generate chemicals which they squirt from nozzles to fight enemies and secure targets. Insects have long been equipped with chemical weapons produced within their own bodies. An ant bite can deliver a potent dose of formic acid. Termites have always squirted noxious chemicals at intruders. 200 million AD, such systems have developed to a high degree of sophistication.

The sandy citadels of the Central Desert are constructed by the builder caste of terabytes. They gather sand grains, along with the carcasses of their comrades and their own feces, and cement the particles with a natural secretion produced in their internal chemical factories.

Terabyte rock-borers (similar in appearance to warriors) produce acid which they use to burrow down through the limestone rock, carving out tunnels, shafts and chambers to reach the reservoirs of water deep below - aided by the biter caste, which have strong jaws. Members of the water carrier caste bloat themselves by drinking the water and saturating their tissues, then they redistribute it throughout the colony.

Most remarkably, all but one of the terabyte castes are, quite literally, legless. Each individual has a head, a body, feeding organs and organs to generate and secrete chemicals, but it cannot move unless it is carried. Terabyte haulage is carried out by a transporter caste whose members seem to be nothing but legs. Their sole function is to carry other terabytes on their backs, relocating them as they are needed.

Every day the transporter caste carries all other castes into the greenhouse to feed. Members of a nurse caste scrape up quantities of algae and are carried deep into the colony, where they feed it to the queen. Minute after minute, hour after hour, the queen produces eggs. She must produce offspring constantly to maintain high enough levels of population for the colony to survive.