Formics

The Formics, also known as Buggers, are a fictional insect-like alien species from the Ender's Game series of science fiction novels by Orson Scott Card.

Name

The term "Formic" is derived from formica, the Latin word for ant; whereas "bugger" is a pejorative used by humans; yet it was not until 1999's Ender's Shadow that the term 'Formic' was first used, interchangeably with 'Bugger'. Later books used 'Formic' almost exclusively, as the more 'scientific' term. This leads to odd scenarios in the continuity of the books, such as Valentine referring to them as "Buggers" in Ender's Game, chronologically next as "Formics" in Ender in Exile, and again as "Buggers" in Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide. The feature film adaptation of Ender's Game uses "Formics" exclusively.

Biology

The Formic species consists of hive-minded colonies directed by queens. While often described as "insectoid", the Formics are warm-blooded, and they respirate and perspire. If a queen dies, all the workers under her control lose their intelligence and ability to function immediately; but in Xenocide, implications exist that 'workers' can escape the influence of a queen. The Formic race is revealed to be trimorphic in Shadows in Flight. Drones are much smaller and depend on a Hive Queen for survival, and their bodies are shaped to spend their lives clinging to her, until upon her death, they take flight to seek out a new queen. Drones are capable of individual thought and action as well as mind-to-mind communication, more limited than that of a queen; whereas queens communicate instantaneously and can even do so with other species. Formics live in vast underground colonies, usually without light, informing the assumption that Formics make use of sensory apparatus outside the range of the electromagnetic spectrum visible to humans. In the first novel they have artificial lighting; whereas in Xenocide, Ender claims they rely on heat signature.

References

1. ^ Ender's Game. p. 237. "Valentine shivered, as if a cold breeze had suddenly passed. "I refuse to watch the bugger vids anymore. They're always the same."" 

2. ^ Ender in Exile. p. 46. ""The formics' worlds were all in the same arm of the galaxy as us, and not all that far away, as galaxies go," said Valentine primly, to goad him." 

3. ^ Xenocide. p. 173. ""What's wrong with the buggers getting offplanet?" asked Valentine." 

• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
• Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
• Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
• Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
• Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
• First Meetings by Orson Scott Card
• Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card