Illustrations

Hand-coloured natural-history study: ants pour out from beneath a tilted field stone.

Habitat plate: an Aqua among reeds, water lilies and a mossy trunk, reflected in shallow water

Pen study of a nest attack with attackers, defenders and a retreating slime

Attack and defence

Pen study of several slimes taking different paths, one carrying a load

Autonomous behaviour

Hand-colored natural-history study: Bat

Hand-coloured natural-history study: a brown beaver gnaws the foot of a young tree beside a woodland bank.

Hand-colored natural-history study: Boar

Hand-coloured natural-history study of a large curved burrow worm rising from a small sandy mound.

A collapsed slime carcass among fallen leaves

Carcasses and decay

Violet Gloom crystal

Aqua light and a retreating Gloom in a cavern

Hand-colored natural-history study: Deer

Desert plate with sunlit rocky ridges, dry grass and an open sandy path

Hand-colored natural-history study: Desert hare

Hand-coloured natural-history study: a large reddish-brown earthworm squeezes through root-lined soil; a small Aqua sits in a neighbouring cavity.

A slime descending from the entrance into an earthen chamber

Entering and digging

A leader with loosely spaced colony members following

Escorting, following and gathering

A cautious scout rounding a bend

Exploration and safer routes

A small escort in combat with one member withdrawing

Fighting and leading a group

Leafy forest with tall trees, ferns and clusters of red and brown mushrooms on the woodland floor

Hand-colored natural-history study: Forest bird

Hand-colored natural-history study: Forest hare

An inhabited nest in cross-section

Founding additional nests

Hand-colored natural-history study: Fox

Hand-colored natural-history study: a blue and turquoise frog catches a fly with its violet tongue beside a reedy bank.

An Aqua and its colony on their first paths near the nest

Getting started: slime, camera and time

Habitat plate: a dark Gloom in an almost black cave among violet-glowing crystals and roots

Dark cave with narrow rocky ledges, black water, roots and softly glowing violet crystals

A small escort in combat with one member withdrawing

Habitat plate: an orange-glowing Magma among warm desert stones at dusk

Red-and-white edible mushrooms from the forest

Object study of four round orange nectar parcels

Nectar and the founding reserve

Natural history study of underground nectar and its portable portions

Aqua resting, eating and drinking

Needs, health and retreat

Cutaway of a nest with its local food store

Nests, stores and entrances

Object study of four compact green food parcels

Nutrition points and food parcels

Foragers following the trail of a returning food carrier

Pheromones and danger memory

A slime carrying a food parcel beside a deposited portion

Picking up, carrying and putting down

A persistent toxic growth beside decaying wood

Slimes at a toxic patch, one visibly weakened

Underground passage between two cavern spaces

Hand-coloured natural-history study of an elongated predatory fish among a few ripples and reeds.

A large queen with workers and food reserves

Queen and offspring

Hand-colored natural-history study: Rat

Two colonies of different sizes, nests and paths beneath sun and moon

Reading dominance and time of day

Field sketch of a decaying trunk with remaining bark and broken wood.

Hand-colored natural-history study: small silvery fish travel in a loose school past reeds.

A Gloom withdrawing beneath a rock from the morning light

Sunlight damage

A growing Aqua colony with its queen, workers and food delivery

Sustaining a colony

Open swamp water with broad lily pads, pale violet flowers, reeds and small muddy islands

Open ground with water, sun and rain

The surface: light, rain and territory

Excavated earthen galleries among roots and rocks

The underworld and shaft digging

Habitat plate: a pale violet Undead among rotting wood, mushrooms, bones and poisonous growths

Barren Undead Grove with splintered deadwood, bare trees and gray-brown rubble

Pen study of slime tracks around thorns, faded scent marks and a decaying site of danger

Warning pheromone

Large violet swamp lily eaten by Aqua in water