This chapter introduces insect communication, glowing mushrooms, venoms, weapons, elytra, forelegs, the term mire, and thief ants.

Can insects really communicate? Yes, and their methods are as varied as they are. Many insects communicate chemically or with pheromones, but some communicate with sounds, vibrations and even body language. The four main methods of insect communication are tactile, chemical, acoustic, and visual. Ants actually communicate with all four, although not as complex as to pass off ideas. Ants like to touch or taste each other with their antenna. They waft chemicals from various glands on their bodies. Acoustics come from their abdomens from stridulatory organs, a file segment and scraper segment that rub together. When ants are buried alive, they stridulate so workers can rescue them. Hissing cockroaches can actually puff air out of their spiracles, thus making a hissing sound. Many insects use vibrations. Spiders drum their legs or bodies. Some ants drum as well. The most famous insect drummer is the tok-tokkie beetle who communicates by drumming its body into the ground. Dancing or shimmying is a favorite of insects too. Honeypot ants actually size each other up in a dance-like territorial display of ownership. And while most ants like to follow scent trails, some can orient with landmarks or the position of the sun. So while ants may not be able to communicate ideas, they can communicate. And if they became sentient, who knows... Alex Wild takes great photographs. Here's some of ant communication.

While ants don't need light to know their surroundings, considering how colorful insects are, it seems logical sentient ants would make use of luminescent plants. Glowing fungus usually comes in greenish colors, but some are yellowish to white and some have bluish-green tints. One common name for glowing fungus is called foxfire. Here's another beautiful shot. Here are more pictures and information on glowing fungus.

Insect venoms vary greatly. Some venoms produce pain, others death, and yet others only paralyze certain muscles so the victim will remain alive, usually to be eaten later. Scorpions produce two venoms, one for pain and one for death, and can choose which they want to use. My favorite venom comes from the Ampulex wasp who injects cockroaches with a dope-like venom that makes the cockroach willing to be pulled by the wasp to her den, where the cockroach waits to be eaten by the wasp's larva. Another favorite is the wasp whose larval stage venom changes a spider's behavior to make a very different web for a very specific purpose. I imagine sentient insects would mix their own concoctions, depending on need.

The most common insect weapon is venom, thus sentient insects would probably invent new ways to inject their concoctions. Three of the weapons in this chapter are stinglettos, clawmors, and stinghorns. Stinglettos are small, dagger-like stingers, not really used for combat but useful for injecting venoms and medicines. Clawmors are sword-like claws, worn on the foreleg, with an embedded stinger in the tip. Clawmors can be used in jaw-to-jaw combat, and require skill to use. Stinghorns are pike-like weapons with a scorpion stinger on the tip of a long antenna. They are easy to use and a common weapon in the age of insects.

Elytra are the hard outer wing coverings on all beetles. Because of their variety and colors I felt sentient insects would use them for decorative doors and shields. The living-jewels website shows the variety and splendor of insects.

The picture for this chapter is a soldier ant holding a stinghorn; but can insects really hold objects in their forelegs? Yes. We often see spiders manipulating their webs with their legs, which end, as most insects do, in two tarsal claws; but forelegs can also be prehensile as evidenced by this cool photo of a green stigma hangingfly holding a captured ant.

The term mire means ant. It is short for the term pismire.

Here's more information about thief ants.