The foremost general prince responsible for the conquest of the beetles was stationed at their nesting grounds with an occupation force. As it turned out that the fungi on and around the log and its surrounding area was edible and nutritious enough to have long been a staple of the beetles' diet, as part of his role he oversaw its cultivation and harvesting. That fungus, along with the occasional berries, was given to select male beetles. In time their eggs would hatch and their diminished numbers would rise, but in the meantime a breeding program was underway. Because the beetle males were expected to offer the females food as part of their courtship ritual, it was easy to identify the docile ones and ration them much larger portions of food so as to allow them a much better chance at mating.

Experimentation into bringing the beetles into the fold of the Hivemind hadn't achieved success (and neither had any attempts at making hybrids between our species and the beetles), but at least through controlling their females and influencing their breeding we were able to discourage the overexpression of negative traits like individualism and rebelliousness. The beetles overall seem to be somewhat less intelligent than us to begin with, which probably helps our cause because we don't think that they fully understand what we're doing to them or that the prince now placed in charge of their home was responsible for the deaths of so many of their peers. For the most part, they actually seem reasonably happy and content with the accommodations that we allow. We found some success training them to utilize their greater size and strength to assist the worker drones in harvesting berry or fungi crops and in cutting, carrying, and pulverizing twigs into wood pulp that's used in construction. With the beetles' help, construction of the much larger and reinforced hives was expedited.

The beetle captives that we kept in our own nests with all their limbs severed were finally killed and eaten, given that they are no longer of any particular use to us. The others of their kind need not know, and hopefully never shall. What few troublesome elements that arise in the remaining beetle population are being similarly dealt with by a few vigilant princes working on the breeding project.

On the topic of other projects, more berries were planted in the open space east of the main hive, and some of the closer ones forming a ring around it have begun to bear their fruits. This great increase in food supplies is allowing us to sustain a larger population, but it's also begun to draw the attention of colossal creatures from deeper in the forest and from the grasslands to the northwest. This increased attention from the giant animals is becoming a real problem, as it means we have to devote even more resources towards protecting the food supplies. There's also the issue that nothing less than a swarm of warriors is capable of killing such large creatures. In small groups, they end up being eaten or just proving to be minor annoyances despite their paralytic venom presumably causing muscle cramps and minor pain in small doses.

Before we needed to resupply him, the prince leading the exploration team retreated back to our territory. He, as well as all the bugs under his command, looked haggard and worse for wear, and at least half of the warriors that had accompanied him were gone. He detailed having discovered a horrible land far to the east, where the grasslands ends and the river widens and bends. There pools of stagnant or slow-moving water breed all manner of horrors, the tall reeds shelter predators, and what looks like solid ground is sometimes a muddy slurry that traps any who steps into it and leaves them doomed to slowly sink and suffocate. Inside of this swampy fen were water moccasins, giant snakes that helped contribute in part to the expedition's diminished numbers, but also frogs. The frogs had not only eaten numerous warriors, but they'd actually pursued them some ways beyond the edge of the wetland and hunted them until they'd gone almost a full third of the way back! Such a savage land also bred savage insects; the scouts reported having seen tiny flying bugs with long, needle-like mouths. If for some reason the hivemind ever decided to try and conquer that swamp, those mosquitoes would probably be the only ones with which diplomacy could even be attempted.

To deal with the larger threats being drawn in by the bushes-- better means to combat these creatures must be adapted.

Begin work on 'super warriors'.

Suggestion; ability to enter a metamorphic chrysalis state should be integrated into warrior genes.

Warriors that survive numerous battles, and are proven to have better cognitive skill than their peers are to undergo metamorphosis ASAP.

After first generation of super warriors, warrior caste is to be periodically evaluated for drones suitable for promotion.

Super warriors are to be as enlarged as possible.

Armor on super warriors is to be made as strong as possible.

Poison in super warriors should be as potent as possible.

Strength is to be extremely overhauled

Cognitive functions of super warriors are also to be enhanced.

Princes will be generals, whereas super warriors would function as commanders.

Possibility for multiple 'promotion' tiers to be explored.

All warriors are to develop ability to spray venom at foes.

Venom should turn acidic upon contact with air.

So the land to the east is a treacherous land of death. While a shame to have lost so many of the expedition, at least their sacrifices were not in vain.

To the big problem we now have to deal with: The threat of larger creatures and the damage they can do both to our hives and our food sources.

Mandibles have worked nicely against creatures relatively our own size, but they prove ineffective against these giants that besiege us. Might I recommend a new warrior breed inspired by the snakes and spiders we have encountered in the past; Rather then mandibles, we need a number of warriors to develop fangs/stingers instead. A means to punch into a larger, fattier target in order to deliver a shot of our venom deep where it will do the most harm.

A second suggestion to go with the first: Taking another bit of inspiration from the Spiders, the venom employed by these anti-giant warriors shouldn't be paralytic; Instead, it should work to melt skin, muscle and fat into a liquid in order to maximize pain to ensure that the target gets the message that coming near us is a bad idea.

Alternative means of dealing with large predators: Instead of Mandibles, equip new breed of warriors with some means of borrowing into the target's flesh to eat them from the inside out. Can also be used as a means of ensuring that venom delivery reaches vital areas.

We're gonna drag these Beetles up along the food chain with us.

Meet with the bees again. After all, we planted these berry bushes "for them." They're a mutual investment. See if they would be willing to buzz by to inform us when these threats are coming, so that we might be able to marshal our new forces to better protect them.

Alternatively, we could evolve a big, fat, round variant of the drones the same color as the berries and full of poison and sticky fluid. Position them on the most tempting looking clusters of berries and let these giant monsters devour them. See if we can teach them that berries are dangerous.

In response to the threat of large creatures, the warriors developed stingers on their rear ends. While their mandibles still contain a light paralytic agent, their stingers inject a venom that denatures proteins and effectively "melts" flesh. It is somewhat slow to act and usually only lethal in quite large doses, but quite painful. The threat of being stung has begun to deter most animals from our berry bushes, but the bees have agreed to help us by giving warning when larger beasts come near.

Additional evolution of the warriors has lead to them now possessing latent receptors for a certain hormone found in the saliva of princes. It has no effect upon young warriors, but the bodies of more mature ones react quickly to it. Upon receiving the hormone, they become incapacitated for some time as their bodies once more enter a state of rapid growth usually associated only with the larvae. At the end of their vegetative state, they are much larger and stronger with thicker armor. Their minds are somewhat enhanced, and their lifespan is elongated as their age is practically "reset" and old wounds are regenerated during the growth phase. In this way, our princes are able to find the most grizzled veterans among the warrior drones and "promote" them that they can continue to serve the hive in a greater capacity.

No new notable threats seem to have emerged, which allows a brief respite where we could look inwards or perhaps focus on expansion.

Upgrade the workers' saliva to be even more sticky, for better trap capability and building stregnth. Increase the defenses by strengthening the hive walls with new coats of the stronger concrete. Above ground, bring the hive up to about halfway up the bushes, and make those walls super thick to keep them safe from collapse by large creature attacks.

Work on developing wings for the regular warriors for aerial attacks.

Develop new larva subtype.

Larva are to grow extremely large, while maintaining a larval state.

These larva can be 'planted' in order to begin metamorphic process.

Under the oversight of a prince, these 'construction larva' will grow and reshape themselves as desired for the project at hand.

Upon fitting size and shape specifications to the best of it's ability, the larva will immediately begin transforming into a thick piece of inanimate chitin.

Construction larva should be able to seamlessly fuse themselves to already created larval structures.

This may allow the hive to build more advanced aboveground structures.

---

Begin construction of third hive, to be located east of main hive, and attached by tunnels.

We know what's east of us, horrible land of frogs. What about the far west? Send an expeditionary force westward, led by a core of those experienced with exploration from the Eastward expedition once they've been given time to recover. Send a few beetles as well, their large size will allow the expidtion to carry more supplies or bring exotic material or creatures back.

Keep talking with the bees too. Our last negotiation went well, we're on freindly terms, perhaps they can tell us more about the lay of the land from their vantage points or have something they'd be willing to trade with us. Most importantly it lets us keep practicing that communication.

West was what I meant XD

Oh I thought we were gearing up for conflict with those dirty toads.

Actually, could we construct some kind of lightweight portable shelter out of sticks, long grass blades, and webbing for the explorers? It would keep them safe in case of rain and would probably help act as camouflage from larger predators.

Yes, a portable shelter would be perfect.
Exploration team to the west should be extremely careful if we do send them.

While preparations were being started for a much larger and well supplied caravan of explorers, complete with a portable "tent" built from papery mesh, we sent a drone to ask the bees about the surrounding lands. They know quite a bit as their flying nature and a desire for variety in their nectar has led to them exploring a wide area. Though it was difficult and slow for them to convey much about the outlying regions through gesticulations, we eventually gleaned some knowledge. We're getting better at communicating, too; a sort of pidgin language is developing.

They warned us that the grasslands eventually give dry up and give way to a bleak and sandy landscape out west. It seems to extend quite far, but as there are hardly any flowers to pollinate, the bees rarely venture in that direction. Perhaps there is something beyond the desert, but they've never tried to go out so far. They also warned us of the presence of dangerous predators, confirming our suspicions of what might have happened to that fateful scouting party that vanished in the northwest so long ago. They described one type of lizard that lurks still and hidden in plain sight with natural camouflage, and which likes to stalk the various flowers or edible plants. In light of these revelations, perhaps the expedition and colonization efforts should be focused elsewhere. There still is a reasonably large patch of land between our central hive and the swamp that is both habitable and seemingly rarely frequented by frogs.

But the bees told us of more than just the west. If we can ever manage to cross the river, they have claimed that the land there is lush and rich with a natural bounty of fruits and berries. However, there is a forest much denser than the woodland near our own home, and within those trees lurk all manner of other insects and creatures that would prove to be competition.

The queen that we spoke to surprisingly knew little of the lands south and the rest of the forest. It turns out that the various beehives are all independent from one another, and that we've only ever been in communication and good relations with one--that one nearest to the forest's edge. By longstanding agreement with the other bee colonies, our friends do not venture south or very deep into the forest, as those lands sustain the other colonies. Presumably they're rich enough, though, as the other two beehies seem to be getting along fine.

The beehive nearest to the beetles' former territory has been somewhat skittish near us, which probably doesn't come as much of a surprise seeing as they were a front-row witness to our invasion and conquest of the beetles. But after seeing our dealings with the other beehive, they don't seem to feel overly threatened or fearful, just a bit cautious. Perhaps we should investigate establishing relations with them as well.

The continued usage of the mutated spitting workers has led to their saliva gradually becoming an even more powerful adhesive agent. Our two hives have finally been completely coated and built with our biological concrete, but now they are being fortified with additional layers and built even taller. Some attempts were made at developing a breed of flying warriors, but the effort was in vain. Our warriors have evolved to be much larger and better armored than the rest of our species, and it's gotten to the point that any wings are just vestigial. They are too bulky to actually take flight, and perhaps we would achieve better success by starting with the princes or even the workers. But then we would face the issue of having flying insects suited perhaps for scouting, but without the stingers, strong forelegs, armor, or mandibles of the warriors that make them adept at combat. They would need to gradually develop those weapons again, or else adapt a new means of fighting.

The development of a 'scout' by allowing the smaller, lighter drones the ability to fly would be useful for getting an idea of the landscape for ourselves, even with the benefit of the Bees sharing some of their knowledge with us. Plus it would give us the benefit of having drones who can fly and work on areas where they wouldn't be able to reach normally.

Alternatively, we could begin attempts to develop a strain of workers who can handle water; Namely, so that we can benefit from the nearby river to the north.

Perhaps we should reconsider westward expansion at the moment then, if it's really as terrifying as the bees say. After all, we have plenty of sand along the river already if we want it. Going further into the forest might be a better plan. Who knows what new resources we could find in there.

Are there any flowers around? Gather seeds from them and plant them at the base of the next beehives tree as a gesture of good will. Berries benefit us, but flowers only help bees. It should help convey that we have no interest in any conflict with them.

Plant some near the first hive too, for the information.

Increase overall species size.

To contend with these larger threats, we too, must become larger.

The development of a worker strain more adept at surviving in the conditions of the marsh, perhaps a form with longer legs and wider feet that will allow it to 'skid' across the water for easier access to resources and escape from predators.

Making adjustments for a wetter environment would be useful. We can test out the improvements on the river to the north, as well as work on things such as allowing a future strain to swim and breath under water.

Dig a swimming pool next to the river instead of going in it if we're gonna be testing water adaptations.

Oooo, maybe we can farm minnows in there afterwards.

The initiative to create a strain more adapted to the water found success in an unusual pairing with the beetle breeding program. Our efforts to create a hybrid between the beetles and our own species have finally borne fruit, and we now have a small number of these hybrids. As our species has evolved it has gradually become larger and larger, but these hybrids surprisingly resist that trend in that they are smaller and lighter than both the beetles and many of our current phenotypes. Initial experiments have shown that they are capable of floating in water where most of our heavier insects eventually sink, and they can swim (albeit somewhat awkwardly, and not easily through moving water as in the river).

As a sign of goodwill, we planted a number of flowers and other plants near the beetle nest. The local beehive there has begun to pollinate those plants and seems quite appreciative. We attempted to similarly reach out to the third and most distant colony of bees, but when our worker drones arrived bearing seeds, they were witnesses to a brutal skirmish between a giant wasp and a dozen bees. Though the wasp was a giant when compared to the bees and it easily bit one or two of them in half, it was soon overwhelmed. The bees almost suicidally threw themselves onto it in a great heap, covering it so completely that it fell from the air before suffocating and overheating. That particular beehive seems highly distressed and they have been in a frenzy ever since that hostile encounter with the wasp.

Offer aid to the beehive that was under attack.

Discover location of wasp hive.

Form a small council of princes; and delegate control of further hive establishment to their authority. This should allow the hivemind to turn its focus to larger scale goals, while territorial occupation will continue to grow automatically.