Antlions

***This content is fanon and should not be considered canon to antwar.io.***

(For those who don't know those terms, canon is what is officially part of the thing, while fanon is "fan-made".)

**Antlions** are either predatory or neutral entities that can take on egg, larval, pupal, and adult stages and exist in different levels of the soil profile over the course of their lifespan.

## Overview

Antlion eggs are major egg-sized, semitransparent, white bulbs that are often laid in clutches of ten to thirty and, depending upon the species they belong to, are placed in different locations in the overground and underground. They often hatch in under two minutes of spawning, revealing large "doodlebug" larvae.

## Antlion Species

All antlion species have the same appearance in their egg, larval, and pupal stages, but there are many differences to their times of development, levels of aggression, and adult appearance.

### Lacewing Antlion

Lacewing antlions, or just "lacewings," place five to ten eggs under leaves in the early spring. Only one to two eggs are actually fertilized, but if an ant chews on them, all of them will produce a single piece of meat.

Lacewing larvae are the same size as nanitics and only pose harm to aphids. In twelve bites, a lacewing larva will kill an aphid. To avoid aphid death, ants should kill them—they will produce one to two pieces of meat and as many honeydew as the amount of aphids they have killed.

If a lacewing larva has consumed three aphids, it will pupate in a brown cocoon underneath a leaf for five minutes, and will then emerge into a bright green insect the size of a soldier ant with clear, teardrop-shaped wings. They immediately fly away at the speed of an alate and cannot be killed; they often either find another lacewing to mate and lay the next generation of eggs or they will leave the map and disappear. To avoid this from happening, any soldier or major ant can break through the antlion pupa and kill it, producing two meat and three honeydew.

After every winter, at least two new lacewing clutches appear on the map at random if all other clutches have been successfully destroyed.

### Giraffe Antlion

Giraffe antlions, or "threadwings," spawn every early spring as larvae at about twenty per map. They often work quickly to create a pit trap near ant colonies, submerging their bodies in soil at the bottom of the trap. Before this happens, a team of ants can kill them above ground, which produces two to three pieces of meat. Once the pit trap appears, however, the threadwing larva becomes inaccessible.

Larger insects, such as anates, beetles, spiders, centipedes, termite queens, ant alates, and ant queens can step over threadwing pits without suffering any harm, but roaming non-reproductive ants, termite workers, and aphids can fall into the trap and will die if bitten. Traps disappear in rain and thunder, so the threadwing larvae reappear on the surface and will walk about until the weather becomes clear. During this time, they are vulnerable to attack, and they are too slow to bite any enemies. Any threadwing larva that accumulates five kills will flatten out its pit trap and bury itself as a cocoon underground in the same spot where the trap was laid.

The cocoon usually spawns in a place surrounded by soil, so ants will need to dig it out and wait for a soldier or major to deal a killing bite to open up the sac. If successful at killing the cocoon, it will pop and release five pieces of meat. By the autumn, if any threadwing larvae have not killed enough insects, they will die and their trap will disappear. Any cocoons will disappear, leaving a 1x1 tile of empty underground where the cocoon opened. On top of the cocoon in the overground will reveal a brown, spider-sized adult antlion with mottled, zebra-striped wings. Adults are slow fliers and must encounter another threadwing to mate before laying eggs in soil. Adults are frail and can be killed in under twenty bites from nanitics.

### Dosbonfly Antlion

Dobsonfly antlions, or just "dobsonflies," only appear in rain or thunder in ther larval or adult forms, possessing no known egg or pupal stage. Dobsonfly larvae are aggressive, but they are slow and deal less damage than spiders, and they die after the weather becomes clear again. They are elongated and segmented in shape and their bodies are mostly black with the exception of their sepia legs and eyes.

Dobsonfly adults are faster, but they are not aggressive and can take more hits before dying. Adults can survive in clear weather until they are killed, despawn, or leave the map. Adults are twice as large as spiders and are completely brown; half of adults have large jaws (male), and half have stubby jaws (female). They are used solely for cosmetic purposes and are not used for killing ants.

Dobsonfly larvae killed by ants produce six pieces of meat and one piece of super food. If they are killed by weather change, they only produce four pieces of meat. Dobsonfly adults, when killed, produce ten pieces of meat.

### Voracious Antlion

Voracious antlions, unlike the others, are aggressive and use tactics that real-life antlions do not. Eggs are scattered in clutches of ten to thirty in the soil between the underground and overground, making them impossible to access before they become larvae. Up to five are ever fertilized, and each have a base probability of 30% of hatching unless the five-larva limit has been reached.

Larvae appear on the overground at the size of anates, and they tend to spread out before laying pit traps. These traps are twice the surface area of giraffe antlion traps, and voracious antlions can dig themselves backwards out of a trap to pursue ants and aphids nearby; however, they walk backwards and are very slow. They often spit their venom to enemies at a range of up to two worker ants tip-to-tail just to be able to catch them. If a voracious antlion larva happens to die, it will drop six meat and one to three Super Food. If they do leave their pit trap to pursue enemies, they can either return to it or make a new trap, letting ants an aphids accumulate at the bottom of the empty one for passerby predators to eat.

The pit traps of voracious antlion larvae are deep, and they can survive rain and thunder without flattening out or becoming too moist to malfunction. Despite their shape and size, non-ant and non-termite entities are immune to them and easily step over them. If one of these antlions manages to kill ten ants or aphids, they will pupate in a hardened cocoon underground that only a queen ant can open. Their cocoons are the same dimensions as those of threadwings, but it can take twenty queen ant bites to open. Popped cocoons produce only three meat and at most one piece of Super Food.

Voracious antlions emerge as spider-sized, black adults with green eyes and somewhat clear wings with black veins. They are immune to damage and seek other voracious antlion adults to mate and lay eggs with, dying immediately after they find their mate. As adults, they do not drop any food. By the time snow appears in the overground, if a voracious antlion has not killed enough insects, it will still pupate and appear as an adult in the early spring of next year, but they will emerge wingless and cannot fight back against ants even if they tried.

Eggs immediately hatch by the time early spring appears, or they hatch as soon as two wingless voracious antlion adults meet to mate.