Ant
Exists on Gor in
at least one variety which inhabits the Schendi jungles. The black
ant, also called 'Marcher', whose bite is said to be extremely painful
though not poisonous, moves in huge columns in the jungle night,
devastatingly effective
as they forage all
that lies ahead of them. They are shown in one passage to 'forage'
through the carcass of a tarsk in a matter of minutes. Note that
termites are also referred to as 'white ants' on a few occasions.
...Here,
too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts,
leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines,
lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects,
ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies,
and so on....
---Explorers of Gor
, 32:311
Soon,
as we approached more closely, quietly, the sound
became much louder. It was now clearly distinguishable
as a quite audible rustling or stirring. But there
was no wind.
"The marchers," said the leader of the
small men, pointing.
The hair on the back of my neck rose.
I saw now that the sound was the sound of millions
upon millions of tiny feet, treading upon the leaves
and fallen debris of the jungle floor. Too, there
may have been, mixed in that sound, the almost infinitesimal
sound, audible only in its cumulative effect, of
the rubbings and clickings of the joints of tiny
limbs and the shiftings and adjustments of tiny,
black, shiny exoskeletons, those stiff casings of
the segments of their tiny bodies.
"Do not go too close," said the leader
of the small men.
The column of the marchers was something like a
yard wide. I did not know how long it might be.
It extended ahead through the jungle and behind
through the jungle farther than I could see in either
direction. Such columns can be pasangs in length.
It is difficult to conjecture the numbers that constitute
such a march. Conservatively some dozens of millions
might be involved. The column widens only when food
is found; then it may spread as widely as five hundred
feet in width. Do not try to wade through such a
flood. The torrent of hurrying feeders leaves little
but bones in its path.
"Let us go toward the head of the column,"
said the little man.
We trekked through the jungle for several hours,
keeping parallel to the long column. Once we crossed
a small stream. The marchers, forming living bridges
of their own bodies, clinging and scrambling on
one another, crossed it also. They, rustling and
black, moved over fallen trees and about rocks and
palms. They seemed tireless and relentless. Flankers
marshaled the column. Through the green rain forest
the column moved, like a governed, endless, whispering
black snake.
"Do they march at night?" I asked.
"Often," said the small man. "One
must be careful where one sleeps."
We had then advanced beyond the head of the column
by some four hundred yards.
"It is going to rain," I said. "Will
that stop them?"
"For a time," he said. "They will
scatter and seek shelter, beneath leaves and twigs,
under the debris of the forest, and then, summoned
by their leaders, they will reform and again take
up the march."
Scarcely had he spoken but the skies opened up and,
from the midst of the black, swirling clouds, while
lightning cracked and shattered across the sky and
branches lashed back and forth wildly in the wind,
the driven, darkly silver sheets of a tropical rain
storm descended upon us.
"Do they hunt?" I shouted to the small
man.
"Not really," he said. "They forage."
...
"Look," had said the leader of the small
men this morning, "scouts."
He had thrown to the forest floor a portion of the
slain tarsk. I watched the black, segmented bodies
of some fifteen or twenty ants, some two hundred
yards in advance of the column, approach the meat.
Their antennae were lifted. They had seemed tense,
excited. They were some two inches in length. Their
bite, and that of their fellows, is vicious and
extremely painful, but it is not poisonous. There
is no quick death for those who fail to escape the
column. Several of these ants then formed a circle,
their heads together, their antennae, quivering,
touching one another. Then, almost instantly, the
circle broke and they rushed back to the column.
"Watch," had said the small man.
To my horror I had then seen the column turn toward
the piece of tarsk flesh.
...There
was now a horrified shouting in the camp. I saw
torches being thrust to the ground. Men were irrationally
thrusting at the ground with spears. Others tore
palm leaves from the roofs of huts, striking about
them.
I hoped there were no tethered animals in the camp.
Between two huts I saw a man rolling on the ground
in frenzied pain.
I felt a sharp painful bite at my foot. More ants
poured over the palings. Now, near the rear wall
and spreading toward the center of the village,
it seemed there was a growing, lengthening, rustling,
living carpet of insects. I slapped my arm and ran
toward the hut in which originally, our party had
been housed in this village. With my foot I broke
through the sticks
at its back.
--- Explorers of Gor, 47:400-402
Bee
There
is mention of raising honey bees in Marauders of
Gor.
...I
saw small fruit trees, and hives, where honey bees
were raised; and there were small sheds, here and
there, with sloping roofs of boards; in some such
sheds might craftsmen work; in others fish might
be dried or butter made....
---Marauders of Gor
, 6:81
Beetle
Mentioned in Mercenaries of Gor
as one of the
insects that frevets are used to control.
"That
is a frevet." The frevet is a small, quick,
mammalian insectivore. "We have several in
the house," he said. "They control insects,
the beetles and lice, and such."
---Mercenaries of Gor, 22:276
Centipede
...Here,
too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts,
leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines,
lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects,
ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies,
and so on....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:311
Fly
A number of types of flies can be found in the different areas to
which the readers are taken. From the far northern arctic fly to
the Taharian sand fly, most will be described as larger than the
usual house fly found on Earth. Most of them are also said to bite.
Fly, Arctic
At
certain times in the summer even insects will appear,
black, long-winged flies, in great swarms, coating
the sides of tents and the faces of men.
---Beasts of Gor
, 12:196
Fly, Needle
(also known as Sting Fly)
"Listen,"
said a man.
"I hear it," said another.
I myself had never heard the sound before, but I
had heard of it.
"Such vast clouds, so black," said a man.
"They cover the entire horizon," said
another, wonderingly.
"The sound comes from the clouds," said
a man. "I am sure of it."
"I do not understand," said a man.
At such a time, which occurs every summer in the delta, the rencers
withdraw to their huts, taking inside with them food and water,
and then, with rence, weave shut the openings to the huts. Two or
three days later they emerge from the huts.
"Ai!" cried a fellow, suddenly, in pain.
"It is a needle fly," said a fellow.
"There is another," said a man.
"And another," said another.
Most sting flies or needle flies, as the men of the South call them,
originate in the delta, and similar places, estuaries and such,
as their eggs are laid on the stems of rence plants. As a result
of the regularity of breeding and incubation times there tends,
also, to be peak times for hatching. These peak times are also in
part, it is thought, a function of a combination of natural factors,
having to do with conditions in the delta, such as temperature and
humidity. and, in particular, the relative stability of such conditions.
Such hatching times, as might be supposed, are carefully monitored
by rencers. Once outside the delta the sting flies, which spend
most of their adult lives as solitary insects, tend to disperse.
Of the millions of sting flies hatched in the delta each summer,
usually over a period of four or five days, a few return each fall,
to begin the cycle again.
"Ai!" cried another fellow, stung.
Then I heard others cry out in pain, and begin to strike about them.
"The clouds come closer!" cried a fellow.
There could now be no mistaking the steadily increasing
volume of sound approaching from the west. It seemed
to fill the delta. It is produced by the movement
of wings, the intense, almost unimaginably rapid
beating of millions upon millions of small wings.
"Needle flies are about!" cried a man.
"Beware!"
"The clouds approach more closely!" cried
a man.
"But what are the clouds?" cried a fellow.
"They are needle flies!" cried a man.
I heard shrieks of pain. I pulled my head back,
even in the hood. I felt a small body strike against
my face, even through the leather of the hood.
I recoiled,
suddenly, uttering a small noise of pain, it stifled by the gag.
I had been stung on the shoulder. I lowered my body, so that only
my head, hooded, was raised above the water. I heard men leaping
into the water. The buzzing was now deafening.
"My
eyes!" screamed a man. "My eyes!"
The flies tend to be attracted to the eyes, as to
moist, bright objects.
I felt the raft pitch in the water as men left it.
The sting of the sting fly is painful, extremely
so, but it is usually not, unless inflicted in great
numbers, dangerous. Several stings, however, and
even a few, depending on the individual, can induce
nausea. Men have died from the stings of the flies,
but usually in such cases they have been inflicted
in great numbers. A common reaction to the venom
of the fly incidentally is painful swelling in the
area of the sting. A few such stings about the face
can render a person unrecognizable. The swelling
subsides, usually, in a few Ahn.
---Vagabonds of Gor
, 17:160-162
Fly, Sand
...Following
such rains, great clouds of sand flies appear, wakened
from dormancy. These feast on kaiila and men. Normally,
flying insects are found only in the vicinity of
the oases....
---Tribesmen of Gor
, 10:152
Gitch
No description given, the gitch is mentioned
as having a painful bite.
We
watched a large, oblong, flat bodied black object,
about half a hort in length, with long feelers,
hurry toward a crack at the base of the wall. "That
is a roach," he said. "They are harmless,
not like the gitches whose bites are rather painful."
---Beasts of Gor, 22:277
Grasshopper
Although it is likely that grasshoppers were
found in other places, the only quote on this insect
is seen in Explorers of Gor, when a red, rather
large variety is mentioned.
"Oh!"
cried the girl, startled. A grasshopper, red, the
size of a horned gim, a small, owllike bird, some
four ounces in weight, common in the northern latitudes,
had leaped near the fire, and disappeared into the
brush.
---Explorers of Gor, 29:293
Hinti
A small non-parasitic flea-like insect.
...'Hala'
is Kaiila for the Gorean hinti, which are small, active insects.
They resemble fleas but are not parasitic....
---Blood Brothers of Gor
, 22:219-220
Leech
Salt leeches are mentioned in Tarl's journeys through
the Delta of the Vosk.
"Here
is another," said a fellow wading near me,
holding up its wet, half flattened, twisting body
in his hand. It was some four inches long, a half
inch thick.
---Vagabonds of Gor, 9:97
Lice
Mentions of lice are numerous, more particularly
the large, marble-sized variety said to be found
on Tarn. Other mentions are found pertaining to
a more 'common' type, including the fact that they
are, like on Earth, responsible for the spread of
epidemic types of illnesses.
...I
slapped his beak affectionately, as if we were in
a tarn cot, and shoved my hands into his neck feathers,
the area where the tarn can't preen, as the tarn
keepers do when searching for parasites.
I
withdrew some of the lice, the size of marbles,
which tend to infest wild tarns, and slapped them
roughly into the mouth of the tarn, wiping them
off on his tongue. I did this again and again, and
the tarn stretched out his neck....
---Tarnsman of Gor
, 12:142-143
...The
hair of the below-deck girls, mercifully, is shaved
off; indeed, our body hair, too, was shaved off,
completely. These precautions prevent, to a great
extent, the nesting of ship lice....
---Slave Girl of Gor
, 16:321
"We
are going to test you for pox," he said. The
girl groaned. It was my hope that none on board
the Clouds of Telnus had carried the pox. It is
transmitted by the bites of lice. The pox had appeared
in Bazi some four years ago. The port had been closed
for two years by the merchants. It had burned itself
out moving south and eastward in some eighteen months.
Oddly enough some were immune to the pox, and with
others it had only a temporary, debilitating effect.
With others it was swift, lethal and horrifying.
Those who had survived the pox would presumably
live to procreate themselves, on the whole presumably
transmitting their immunity or relative immunity
to their offspring. Slaves who contracted the pox
were often summarily slain. It was thought that
the slaughter of slaves had had its role to play
in the containment of the pox in the vicinity of
Bazi.
---Slave Girl of Gor, 17:325-326
Rennel
A crab-like desert insect found on the southern plains. Its bite
is said to leave red speckled marks.
...I
was told by Kamchak that once an army of a thousand
wagons turned aside because a swarm of rennels,
poisonous, crablike desert insects, did not defend
its broken nest, crushed by the wheel of the lead
wagon....
---Nomads of Gor
, 5:27
She
was gasping and stumbling; her body glistened with
perspiration; her legs were black with wet dust;
her hair was tangled and thick with dust; her feet
and ankles were bleeding; her calves were scratched
and speckled with the red bites of rennels.
---Nomads of Gor, 11:135
Roach
Described as black, oblong and flat and said to
be essentially harmless.
We
watched a large, oblong, flat bodied black object,
about half a hort in length, with long feelers,
hurry toward a crack at the base of the wall. "That
is a roach," he said. "They are harmless,
not like the gitches whose bites are rather painful."
---Mercenaries of Gor, 22:276-277
Scorpion
... Here, too,
may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts, leaf urts, squirrels,
climbing, long-tailed porcupines, lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties
of insects, ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and so
on....
Spider
Mentions of spiders include the jungle rock spider, described
as measuring a foot in diameter, and the small cell spider found
in the Tahari.
...I
detected the odor of kort rinds, matted, drying,
on the stones, where they had been scattered from
my supper the evening before. Vints, insects, tiny,
sand-colored, covered them. On the same rinds, taking
and eating vints, were two small cell spiders....
---Tribesmen of Gor, 7:115-116
They are
called rock spiders because of their habit of holding their legs
folded beneath them. This habit, and their size and coloration,
usually brown and black, suggests a rock, and hence the name. It
is a very nice piece of natural camouflage. A thin line runs from
the web to the spider. When something strikes the web the tremor
is transmitted by means of this line to the spider. Interestingly
the movement of the web in the air, as it is stirred by wind, does
not activate the spider; similarly if the prey which strikes the
web is too small, and thus not worth showing itself for, or too
large, and thus beyond its prey range, and perhaps dangerous, it
does not reveal itself. On the other hand, should a bird, such as
a mindar or parrot, or a small animal, such as a leaf urt or tiny
tarsk, become entangled in the net the spider swiftly emerges. It
is fully capable of taking such prey. ... It, immobile on the ground,
was about a foot in diameter.
---Explorers of Gor, 29:294
Swamp
Spider
Those known as the spider people are actually rational
beings rather than simple insects who inhabit the
swamps of the Ar area. Like Priest Kings,
they use a translator to communicate with
humans.
...Approaching
me, stepping daintily for all its bulk, prancing
over the strands, came one of the Swamp Spiders
of Gor....
...and
I caught sight of the mandibles, like curved knives....
...I saw then for the first time that strapped to
his abdomen was a translation device...
..."They hunt us and leave only enough of us
alive to spin the Cur-lon Fiber used in the mills
of Ar"....
---Tarnsman of Gor, 6:81-83
Termite
...Also
in the ground zone are varieties of snake, such
as the ost and hith, and numerous species of insects.
The rock spider has been mentioned, and termites,
also. Termites, incidentally, are extremely important
to the ecology of the forest. In their feeding they
break down and destroy the branches and trunks of
fallen trees. The termite "dust," thereafter,
by the action of bacteria, is reduced to humus,
and the humus to nitrogen and mineral materials....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:311-312
Vint
A tiny, sand colored insect of the Tahari, seen
feeding on rotting fruit.
I
detected the odor of kort rinds, matted, drying,
on the stones, where they had been scattered from
my supper the evening before. Vints, insects, tiny,
sand-colored, covered them. On the same rinds, taking
and eating vints, were two small cell spiders.
---Tribesmen of Gor, 7:115
Zarlit
Fly
An enormous dragonfly which if scary by its proportions, is essentially
harmless. Its description is reminiscent of prehistoric Earth's
Meganeura (giant dragonfly) which lived more than 280 million years
ago in the forest swamps and said to have a wing span of more than
27 inches.
...I
did see a large, harmless zarlit fly, purple, about
two feet long with four translucent wings, spanning
about a yard, humming over the surface of the water,
then alighting and, on its padlike feet, daintily
picking its way across the surface....
---Raiders of Gor
, 1:5