Chrub

Chrub Fullbody Sketch

by IBB

A basic sketch of a typical Chrub, including variation in abdomen and wing length between sexes.

Chrub are often said to resemble large bees, sharing their general three-part body plan: a head, a thorax, and an abdoment. Despite their vaguely bipedal stance, the majority of their organs are located within their abdomen. They have five eyes, a pair of antennae, and mouth pieces designed for the extraction of nectar from flowers and to help them build and shape nests. Of course, the advent of something resembling opposable thumbs has lead to the development of tools to help them accomplish the same thing, but chrub have been known to simply use their mandibles in a pinch.

They have ten limbs in total: two sets of wings, four arms, and two legs. They are invertibrates, possessing a chitinous exoskeleton that is tough enough to protect them to a certain extent. This exoskeleton, however, is said to be weaker than the average human's bones, giving them a reputation as being surprisingly fragile despite their natural protection.

Chrub generally tend to be eusocial, with large family units revolving around a single matriarch known as the "queen," typically the mother of all the other chrub in the hive. She is nominally in charge of the whole family, and her children will typically defend her with their lives if it comes down to it. But in terms of actual day to day management, that tends to fall to her daughters, who make up the majority of the worker caste. Her sons typically perform some duties around the hive, such as aiding in the raising of their siblings, helping their foraging sisters coordinate where to go, and collecting and keeping information to pass along to the next generations. Male chrub, or drones, rarely leave the hive except for their one (and only) mating flight.

Workers typically take on different roles according to a combination of the hive's current needs and the worker's age. A worker's first role is typically to help raise her siblings, usually by feeding and cleaning them until they pupate. Her second role is to attend to the queen, their mother, by feeding and grooming her. Her third role is typically to help maintain and build up the hive, and to help store and distribute food and other important hive resources as needed. Some people call this role the "Quartermaster" role. Her fourth role is to stand guard over her hive and help defend it from those who would seek to either rob or otherwise harm them. Some hives also have workers in this role help with keeping order within the hive as well, but this isn't usually considered necessary unless the hive encompasses a wider range of species than just chrub. The last role a worker will serve in her life is as a "forager," which is the traditional name for any chrub who ventures outside of the hive for long stretches of time. It encompasses actual foragers, farmers, merchants, and diplomats.

In general, chrub tend to prioritize the safety and continuation of the hive in general moreso than any specific individual. The queen can often be considered the "representative" of the hive, but this is not a hard and fast rule. Some hives will prioritize the life of the queen with the justification that she can always lay more eggs. Other hives will prioritize their eggs and larva, with the justification that they can always raise a new queen. It is also not entirely uncommon for hives that have recently lost a queen to adopt a hiveless virgin queen as their own. And in more modern hives, it's not entirely unheard of to have two or more queens and their broods working together. In fact, many chrub cities originated from multiple hives deciding to pool their resources to become an interconnected mega-hive.

When the queen approaches the age where she can no longer produce the necessary amount of daughters, a new queen is selected from among her not-yet-mature children. A few, actually, largely as insurance. Once these young queens hatch, how they are handled tends to depend on the hive and its particular needs. Sometimes these virgin queens are expected to fight to the death, other times they undergo some other selection process to determine which will take over after the current queen. Sometimes the hive splits up, with some workers following the virgin queens to new settlements elsewhere.

Chrub vision is similar to bees, in that they have a wider field of view (280º), and can see ultraviolet light, but struggle to see red. They have two compound eyes and a set of three smaller eyes that help them orient themselves in flight. They have very poor long-range vision, though their visual range extends up to about a mile away. They have faster reaction times than humans, though, as they process images much, much faster.

They primarily use their antennae to detect smells, but they are also useful in detecting sound. They also have tiny hairs all over their legs that help them sense sounds. Some chrub dislike when others touch these hairs, as it apparently messes with their hearing in ways some chrub don't like.

While they have a sense of taste, they don't rely on it nearly as much as smell. They can pick up on sweet, sour, bitter, and salt, though they are less sensitive to bitter flavors and much more sensitive to salty flavors. This has lead to some interesting inventions when it comes to other species' attempts to cook for chrub.