Minions

Minions are a eusocial species of yellow, capsule-shaped bipeds. Minions form a mutualistic symbiosis with villains of other species, where the protection of the villain is traded for the labour of the minion workers. A minion queen selects a villain and then begins formation of a colony, where she will remain for life. Minions colonies can consist of over 10,000 individuals.

Minions are a monogynous species which can undergo arrhenotokous parthenogenesis, however they are not haplodiploid. While an unfertilised queen can produce haploid males to fertilise her, this is uncommon as nascent queens usually attract a retinue of diploid males when starting a new colony. After a villain and location are chosen, the queen mates with one or more males and begins the egg-laying process to produce new workers for the colony. As part of this process, the alate discards her wings and begin to grow arms in their place; the hind limbs are also remodeled into arms. The resulting body has a six arms, used for feeding and tending to eggs, and a large, distended abdomen for housing many ovarioles. The queen also has many spermathecae which can be used to store gametes from a variety of males; this is used to increase the genetic diversity of fertilised eggs.

A fully distended queen is capable of laying hundreds of eggs per day and may continue to be mated by new males. These eggs are excreted via an ovipositor and encased in sticky slime which helps them adhere to surfaces and each other, resulting in tough clusters of the off-white capsules. Minions undergo hemimetabolism, meaning they hatch as nymphs rather than pupae, and go through several instars before reaching maturity. Nymphs are cared for by workers until their final ecdysis where, unlike the exuviae of previous moultings, the minion traditionally eats its own shed exoskeleton as a sign of manhood.

Workers in a minion colony are exclusively male and are generally diploids capable of reproduction. As a result of the multiple males used for egg fertilisation, minion ergates exhibit obvious polymorphism, though formation of distinct castes has not been observed. The scarcity of females, as well as the active reproductive capabilities of the ergates, often leads to widespread sexual frustration in the colony. A consequence of this is a pseudo-protandry, where male ergates dress and act as females for the sexual satisfaction of other males. When the colony is mature, the queen can produce a special egg which will hatch into a female alate who often has to compete with the pseudo-queens for male attention before leaving to begin a new colony.

Minions often cluster together for warmth, emitting chirps of "Bello". They can also form bridges and rafts out of their bodies in order to cross gaps or bodies of water. In combat, the minions swarm all over their enemies delivering paralysing venom via bite. Once subdued, the fully conscious victim is dragged back to the nest where it is ravenously devoured. Minions are omnivorous, however, and mainly subsist on fruits such as bananas with meat being more of an opportunistic source of food.