Stone Bees

• Size: Workers are fist-sized, while queens can grow to the size of a keg.
• Coloration: Variegated slate-grey and mushroom-brown with a dull chitin sheen.
• Mouthparts: Specialized for both cutting and acid regurgitation.
• Wings: Small and dense—not used for flight, but for vibration communication and hive aeration.

Their bodies are thick and compact, ideal for navigating tunnels and withstanding pressure and heat. Their antennae glow faintly with bioluminescence, allowing communication and limited vision in pitch black.

Rock-Dissolving Acid

A unique and potent adaptation: their stomachs produce a regurgitated acid capable of melting most stone (except high-grade dwarven-forged metals). This allows them to:

• Carve perfectly smooth tunnels
• Create hexagonal drüzel chambers deep in granite walls
• Inadvertently ruin mining operations

This acid loses potency quickly once exposed to air, but has limited industrial applications in controlled environments.

Reproductive Cycle

Stone Bees follow a eusocial structure, with a single reproductive queen per hive and three main castes: Burrowers (workers), Defenders (soldiers), and Heat-Flutters (environmental regulators). The queen lays fertilized or unfertilized eggs, which determines caste and sex.

Egg Types:

• Fertilized (Diploid): Female larvae; may become workers or, in rare cases, a new queen.
• Unfertilized (Haploid): Male drones; their only purpose is to mate and die.

Queen production is chemically suppressed in the hive by pheromones unless:

• The current queen dies.
• A colony reaches a critical biomass threshold.
• Drüzel production peaks beyond storage limits, signaling an expansion phase.

Genetic Memory Transfer

A unique trait of Stone Bees is their chemogenic memory inheritance:

• Queens secrete a glandular enzyme into developing eggs, encoding memory “markers” into their nervous systems.
• These epigenetic memory traces allow the next generation to recall:
• Hive locations
• Known threats
• Fungal sources
• Predator echolocation frequencies
• Past queens' emotional pheromone tones (rare)

This gives Stone Bees their eerie multi-generational awareness, making them incredibly difficult to outwit once they’ve identified a threat. Some colonies have “learned” over time to avoid certain metals, dwarven tools, or even mining songs.

Dietary Influence on Genetics

The larvae of Stone Bees are nutritionally programmed. What they are fed as pupae determines their developmental path:

• Mushroom-heavy diet: Workers with enhanced sensory antennae
• Carrion-boosted slurry: Heavier defenders with denser mandibles
• Enriched Stone Honey with trace gold salts: Potential queen larva (rare and heavily guarded)

Dwarven hive-tamers have experimented with manipulating larval diets to create specialist bees for acidic mining, tunnel heating, and even honey flavor profiles.

Queen Succession

When a new queen is raised:

1. She must defeat all rival queen-pupae in a chamber duel, often by acid or mandible.
2. She undergoes a Mating Flight—a short dash through carved lava tunnels where male drones pursue her.
3. Mated drones die; she stores their genetic material in a spermatheca for her entire life, often decades.

If she survives and returns, she becomes the new Matriarch, and the hive adjusts its pheromonal structure accordingly.

“Time does not shape them—stone, fungus, and memory do.”

— Hivewatcher Elgurn Flintspindle

Stone Bees possess a fast but regulated lifecycle, optimized for survival in harsh subterranean environments. Their growth rate is dictated by temperature, diet, pheromonal signals, and drüzel production quotas. Colonies can slow or accelerate development based on external pressures (e.g. predators, food scarcity, collapsing mines).

Life Stages

1. Egg Stage (1–3 Days)

• Laid in temperature-stable acid-etched niches near the hive center.
• Size: ~5 mm long, translucent with faint amber flecks.
• Coated in a fungal-protein sheath, preventing mold growth.
• Fertilized eggs become females (workers or queens).
  Unfertilized eggs become male drones.

If eggs are left unguarded, fungal mites or rival larvae may consume them—though the hive often produces decoy clusters to lure predators.

2. Larval Stage (4–6 Days)

• Pale, grub-like creatures, blind and soft-bodied.
• Fed by worker-nurses with pre-digested slurry of mushrooms, rot-meat, and trace minerals.
• This is the most critical stage, where caste potential is triggered through diet:
• High-protein = Defenders
• High-sugar-fungi = Heat-Flutters
• Balanced slurry = General Workers
• Enriched Stone Honey + rare minerals = Queen Pupae

Hivewarders call this period the Meal of Fate.

3. Pupal Stage (3–5 Days)

• Larvae seal themselves in stone-calcified cocoons, hardened with stomach acid and ground slate dust.
• Inside, they undergo complete metamorphosis.
• During this time, memory enzymes from the Queen’s gene-seed encode ancestral information directly into neural structures.

Pupal humming is common. Some say it’s the sound of past hives echoing into the next generation.

4. Juvenile Stage (1 Day)

• Newly emerged adults are pale and soft, requiring a full day of temperature regulation via Heat-Flutter vibrations.
• Wings, acid sacs, and mandibles finish hardening.
• Juvenile bees remain inside the hive and are not yet assigned caste duties, though minor chores like grooming and tunnel cleaning are common.

5. Mature Caste-Worker (Varies)

• Once hardened, caste assignments are finalized via pheromone induction from the Queen or Hive-Tenders.
• Lifespan varies by caste:
• Workers: ~6 months
• Defenders: ~3–4 months (due to combat attrition)
• Heat-Flutters: ~9 months
• Drones: ~1–2 weeks (solely for mating)
• Queen: 12–20 years, or longer if the hive is large and stable.

Total Development Time

• Normal conditions: 9–15 days from egg to adult
• Accelerated (Emergency Hive State): As fast as 6 days total, though this produces smaller and more brittle workers
• Dormant hives (during fungal blight or cave-in) may delay development by suspending pupae in stasis, covered in calcium-rich foam until conditions improve.

Stone Bees are omnivorous detritivores with a strong preference for decaying organic matter, mushrooms, and trace minerals. Their diet varies by caste but centers around materials commonly found in subterranean ecosystems.

Primary Food Sources:

• Rot-meat & carrion: Softened by hive acid and mixed into nutrient slurry.
• Mushrooms & fungal blooms: Particularly heat-loving species like Glowcap, Ashcaps, and Veinweft.
• Mineral licks: Including iron oxide, calcium-rich shale, and copper dust—key to acid production.
• Drüzel (Stone Honey): Consumed primarily by queens, larvae, and as a reward for elite workers.

Feeding Behavior:

• Workers regurgitate softened slurry to feed larvae and low-caste adults.
• Stone Bees use acidic saliva to break down tough meat, bone, and moldy growths, creating communal feeding troughs within hive burrows.
• Hives actively cultivate mushroom gardens using spore-dispersal waste from blood-bats and cave-hogs.

Unique Trait:

Stone Bees do not hunt, but will scavenge relentlessly, making them both feared and admired by Dwarven tunnel-keepers. Some Dwarves refer to them as “the grubs that clean the grave”.

Curious Observation

Some Veiled Kin biologists believe that Stone Bee queens exhibit unique ‘personalities’, shaped by the memories and trauma of previous generations. One hive might be curious and defensive; another, aggressive and expansionist.

“It’s less of a queen than a living memory palace, built on venom and whispers.”

— Dr. Ysolde Taranis, Biologist aboard the Celestial Arcadia

Colony Structure

Much like bees or ants, Stone Bees live in large matriarchal colonies, divided into castes:

• Queen: Immobile, bloated with eggs, housed deep in the hive.
• Burrowers (Workers): Excavate tunnels using acidic vomit and pack drüzel into chambers.
• Defenders: Larger, with hardened mandibles. Buzz with a frequency that causes dizziness in predators.
• Heat-Flutters: Vibrate constantly to regulate temperature and airflow.

Drüzel: The Stone Bee “Honey”

Stone Bees do not gather nectar—instead, they consume underground mushrooms, meat scraps, and fungal byproducts, which are processed by a specialized stomach into a thick, nutritious, savory-sweet paste called drüzel.

Drüzel Characteristics:

• Taste: Umami-sweet, with hints of iron, roasted mushroom, and caramelized marrow.
• Uses: Spread on bread, used in stews, or even fermented into buzzmead by daring dwarves.
• Cultural Note: Dwarves prize drüzel as a delicacy but consider harvesting it “a brave fool’s business.”

Interaction with Dwarves

• Harvesting Drüzel requires timing, stealth, and protective gear.
• Entire expeditions have been mounted to collect hive segments, which fetch high prices in trade.
• Stone Bees are not inherently aggressive, but defending a hive can lead to swarms capable of melting armor.

Some dwarf clans keep tamed hives using a method of musical vibration and smoke from burnt cave-honeycomb fungi. These hives produce domesticated drüzel, often infused with particular flavors depending on their diet.

Impact on Dwarves & Miners

• Fast growth means new infestations can form in abandoned tunnels within two weeks.
• Dwarven Hive-Tamers exploit the stasis technique to transport pupae and establish domestic hives near forges or fungal groves.
• Stone Bee meat is best harvested post-larval but pre-hardened, known as the "Bloom Point"—tender and packed with protein.