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Recently, I’ve taken a small break to establish a story bound universe, so that these questions can actually prove useful in the future

Recently, humanity has discovered a vast earth-like planet, with various ecosystems. However, in the desert, they find a creature that resembles one of Earth's many invertebrates, a scorpion.

The scorpion seems to act like ants, having workers, soldiers, and a queen.

Queen

The stinger on the queen's tail seems to resemble that of a flat leaf, with a bulbous lump in the middle. This is thought to be an evolutionary advantage for self protection. This is also because their desert-like environment is seen to have a little more foliage than Earth's deserts. When in danger the queen will not only sting its attacker, but will spray formic acid, mixed with a potent venom, which quickly kills said attacker.

The body of the queen has the texture of sharp rocks. This is thought to be a form of camouflage, but also a form of defense, in case she needs to move the colony to a safer location. In rare cases, she has been seen to have small plants growing on the back of her rocky-like body.

The head of the queen seems to possess two to four horn-like nubs. Four indicating health, and old age. The eyes are green and are described as slanted like compound eyes.

The pincers of the queen are fairly normal looking. They don’t have much of or any particular purpose other than to clamp down, hold, and tear prey.

Soldiers

The body of the soldiers look a lot more ridged and sharper than their queen or worker counterparts. Their pincers are a bit bigger than their body, and have hook-like nubs forming on the sides of said pincer. The stingers are a little bigger, and are capable of spraying formic acid further and in a wider arc than the queen can.

Workers

The body of the workers have a sleeker and smoother texture than the soldiers, but is still strong nonetheless. The pincers are smaller yet longer, and have a slight curve to them, indicating that they dig wide and long lasting tunnels. The head of the workers are flat in a way so as to block or wall-off the entrances of the colony from invading creatures. The stinger of the workers is small and doesn’t really spray all that much formic acid.

What evolutionary pressures would lead to such creatures, and are such creatures even feasible?

extra facts

The scorpions are seen to frequently migrate. In a recently seen event it was found that sometimes many colonies will migrate together, but split off along the way to find suitable nesting locations. This also indicates that the scorpions are mildly passive to other colonies.

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    $\begingroup$ Why do leaf scorpions live in the desert instead of the forest? That sticks out to me the most. $\endgroup$
    – Zxyrra
    Commented Feb 3, 2020 at 5:01
  • $\begingroup$ The deserts have a little more foliage than normal deserts do, so on the planet, it would be common to find a sorta mini oasis in deserts $\endgroup$
    – RotNDecay
    Commented Feb 3, 2020 at 5:10
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    $\begingroup$ Why not make this an Ant instead of a scorpion? That would at least explain the social hierarchy. The ant can of course look like a scorpion, thats pretty normal and you can attribute it to environmental specialization. $\endgroup$
    – Shadowzee
    Commented Feb 3, 2020 at 5:17
  • $\begingroup$ @Shadowzee There are ants that have stingers in addition to their mandibles too. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 3, 2020 at 6:13

2 Answers 2

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Various prey and predators or fighting eachother

I see no reason this creature couldn't exist as there are hundreds of examples of real creatures that have developed similar traits, even if not necessarily all of them. Therefore there is no reason they wouldn't have other related personality traits.

Preying mantis will sit perfectly still among leaves, waiting for other insects to wonder by and then strike quickly.

Likewise, It is entirely common for various insects to have rocky or leaf-like body shapes to hide from large predators such us birds and rodents.

Since the description of the queen seems to imply that they are very large creatures, I'm going to assume that they are more like lizards in size rather than insects. Also, since no other creatures were mentioned, I might assume they actually fight among themselves. There is precedence for this as it isn't unheard of for ants of separate colonies to almost literally go to war with eachother. This gives you the freedom to expand into multiple varieties, again much like ants (i.e. fire ants, red ants, bullet ants, etc...).

Larger creatures that form clear, but simple, societies have every reason to develop in a way to defend against themselves essentially.

Maybe some have a harder, stone-like exoskeleton; which in turn allows them to be protected from stingers, but is heavier and slower. Another variety is more leaf-like and camouflaged, which also allows them to be faster in exchange for being vulnerable to the stingers. Colonies fighting eachother also goes along with the idea that the workers have flat heads to block off enemies. You could just keep going with this and it really should work out just fine unless you get really crazy with it.

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Aereal predators

The scorpions you describe seem to have adequate defenses againsts ground menaces, but lack for aereal ones, so their best bet would be to remain still and not be seen. However, i'm not sure the role of the queen, why has it so formidable defenses? Isn't it buried in the soil and kept feed? Is the colony ever migrating?

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  • $\begingroup$ Migrating colonies is a good point for a strong queen. OP describes her more like a video game boss than a real insect queen, but migration is a valid reason behind the design. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 10, 2020 at 19:59

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