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Here is a new critter for the Fenspace Weird Biology section. It is not yet a wiki article, but will be as soon as I learn to edit a wiki. Comments, and criticism, are more than welcome.



 
[b][b][b]Vorkosigan[/b][/b] Vampire Bugs[/b]

One of the main problems than Oscar Vykos faced after settling in Luna was finding enough meat to feed his "puppy", also known as Tristan, the three hundred pounds Hellhound.

After a couple of tries in desiging an artificial vat, he only managed minor succeses, changing soy into a meat analoge, too 'wave contaminated for use by non-biomods.

He eventually moved into biomoding animals, creating the genetics department of Genesis C&D in late 2008.

The Vorkosigan Vampire Bugs were his first success, a few month later. Named after the Vorkosigan Bugs from Lois McMaster Bujold's books, those animals eat vegetable matter and turn it into an edible paste.

The Bugs come in two varieties, flying and land -each being evolved from bees or termites. They give different products, Lunar Honey and Blood Tofu, but have similar biologies and needs.
Vampire Termites are a deep black, and range from half an inch to an inch long. Their appeareance is closer to cockoaches than termites, and they have a small red marking, similar to a flame, in their backs. They also have two ivory white pincers in their mouth.
Vampire Bees have a similar shape as bees, but they are twice the size and their matkings are read and black. They also have a red flame in their backs, and their stinger is proportionally twice as bg as it should be.

== Life Cicle ==

Both vampire bees and vampire termites are hive insects. Adults feed on vegetable matter, but larvae need to eat a mixture of blood and either lunar honey or blood tofu (there is a special insect caste, nurses, that only creates this mixture). That means than they need a source of blood when they have larvae growing -as they are farm animals, this is animal blood in feeding vats.

Queens, in the same way as bees, are born as common worker bugs. If they are fed the common paste, they will grow as workers; larvae than get royal jelly will turn into queens. This Royal Jelly is created by adding green handwavium to the nursing paste. This is always done artificially; since Vampire Bug farms are usually built in closed environments, no queen has yet fled to live on the wild. It is unknown if such a wild swarm would be able make Royal Jelly and raise a new queen to succeed the old one.
A worker, warrior of nurse bug will live two years, while a queen will live form five to seven years.

== Blood Tofu ==

Vampire termites produce several varieties of blood tofu, depending on the animal's feeding. This paste is similar in looks and texture to tofu, though a blood red colour -hence the name.

While the termites will make tofu from any vegetable, including discarded peels, grass or leaves, the nutritional value is not the same: Proper meat substitutes need a 50% of highly proteinic foods, like tofu, wheat gluten or legumes.

Taste will change slightly with the vegetal used, but that usually is not noticeable because raw blood tofu, while edible, is seldom used. It is treated with a variety of additives and flavoring, so it tastes, and looks, like pork, beef or chicken.

There is a small, but growing, group of chefs and gourmets than enjoy the taste of untreated Blood Tofu, and use it in their restaurants and exotic dishes.

== Lunar Honey ==

Lunar honey is created by the vampire bees. It is a visous liquid, similar to the honey from wich it borrows the name, but has a pearly white color.

While its nutricional value is amost nil, it is a very succesful product, due to its sweet taste, and used by many fen as a substitute for honey or maple syrup.

As it has little nutritional value, vampire bees do not need to feed proteinic vegetables, but the honey will lack sweetness unless they are fed at least a 50% of fruits, sugarcane, maple sap or similar sweeteners.
Intriguing, and something that complements what The Jason does with his experiments. I like the idea...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

HRogge

I wonder if a colony of Vampire Bees would make a good addition to some of the Bio Domes in Fenspace. If Oscar shares them, I can see them being distributed through Fenspace. Especially for Fen settlements with multiple Bio Domes.
Oscar would share then, but probably would keep the royal jelly recipe a secret, so they can not brew new hives and need to buy a new queen every few years.

Not that it would stop most biology inclined mads, but then they woudl be able to desing their own creepy bugs anyway.
On second though, I have decided than Oscar will share then freely. He will keep then private for a few months, but farming is a lot of work, and by then his interest will have wandered into the next proyect.

First he will sell then to Marduk farmers, and then they will spread over fenspace.

I edited the OT with a description and minor touches. If there is no further objection, I will put the bugs in the wiki tonight.

HRogge

Rakhasa Wrote:On second though, I have decided than Oscar will share then freely. He will keep then private for a few months, but farming is a lot of work, and by then his interest will have wandered into the next proyect.

First he will sell then to Marduk farmers, and then they will spread over fenspace.

I edited the OT with a description and minor touches. If there is no further objection, I will put the bugs in the wiki tonight.
Very nice Smile

I expect that he can trade in quite a few sort of different plant/fish species from a lot of Bio Domes users for his Bees...

"Hey, I have heard about your Bees, but my neighbors don't have any spares left... I have some pineapple seeds, would you be interested in them?"
And the inevitable Boskonian not expecting it...


''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll