Antlion

"He won't last five minutes on foot. It's spawning season for the Antlions!"

- Leon

The Antlion is a voracious insectoid creature of several differing castes, with a hierarchy very similar to that of ants.

Overview
Antlions are social creatures living in large underground colonies. They are blind and use pheromones and vibrations to identify other living beings. They come in several types, some of which are separate castes. Five have been showcased so far:


 * The Antlion Soldier, which is the most commonly found.
 * The Antlion Grubs, the larvae.
 * The Antlion Worker, which works in nests and protects the Antlion Grub.
 * The Antlion Guard, a taller Antlion
 * The Antlion Guardian, which rules the nests.

Behavior and skills


Common Antlions are the most visible element of a larger Antlion society, most of which is kept hidden in fiercely defended underground nests. It is not clear how Antlions breed. One resistance member is heard referring to a "spawning season" at the beginning of the Highway 17 chapter, but whether Antlions mate separately, have a queen/drone system or practice something completely alien to Earth sensibilities is not known. Their young begin life as larvae in blue honeycombs similar to those of bees. The extract of these larvae is highly prized by the Vortigaunts for its ability to "divide the false veils of the vortessence" when imbibed. This seems to augment their natural powers. It should be noted that when they imbibe the extract, they glow purple and look very similar to how they did in the beginning of Episode One. It may be speculated that they were in this state when rescuing Gordon. The larvae grow into large grubs, which are attended to and protected by Antlion Workers and Antlion Guardians. Within this system, common Antlions presumably serve as hunter gatherers. Inside their nests, decomposed bodies of other creatures can often be discovered, trapped in the viscous silk the grubs produce as a food source, and some of their deepest chambers are pooled with blood.

History
Antlions were once farmed by Vortigaunts for their larval extract and a number of other purposes, possibly on their homeworld (no Xen creature is native from there ); the Victory Mine Vortigaunt states that Antlion husbandry was once their ancestral practice. Since the Combine invasion of Earth and the beginning of the Portal Storms the Antlions have established themselves on Earth. They have obviously been very successful in doing so, possibly to the point of causing extinction to other kinds of Earth fauna. So widespread were the Antlions on Earth that the Combine had to install a large network of thumpers around Nova Prospekt, as well as a vast variation to the base of the Citadel. When these were shut down by Gordon Freeman's activities, both Nova Prospekt and City 17 were quickly overrun separately by Antlions, with chaotic results.

Behind the scenes
In the cut wasteland chapters of Half-Life 2, the player was to visit Antlion caves where they would meet the Antlion King and Antlion Grubs, among other enemies. This idea was brought back in Episode Two.

Trivia
The Antlion (scientific name Myrmeleontidae) is an actual insect; strictly speaking, the term Antlion applies to its larval form which does somewhat resemble Valve's creation.

The soldier and worker antlions cannot swim, and are too stupid to avoid going in the water so in some cases you can kill them this way. Once they are in too deep they will thrash around in vain for a few seconds before drowning

List of appearances

 * Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
 * Half-Life 2: Episode One
 * Source Particle Benchmark
 * Half-Life 2: Episode Two