A first-generation “dwarf” worker, much smaller than normal, raised on the founding queen’s limited reserves.
Her first daughters chew their way out of their cocoons — often with her help. These first workers are “nanitics”: dwarfs, far smaller than normal workers, because she raised them on a shoestring.
The new workers break open the sealed entrance and step outside for the first time. Food finally flows in from the world, and the queen can stop living off her own body.
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