@Boney, so for whatever reason my brain started wondering about the sex composition of the We so I started to do some research by searching through the thread.
Now given that Egg-Layers are called "Egg-Layers" that implies they're either all female or hermaphroditic.
Based on this part of a past update
The We presumably sent Hunters to do the probing attacks and given they're all female unless there was a massive coincidence that implies that the Hunters are all female albeit with undeveloped ovaries.
Based off this post,
We know that lost Hunters who are absorbed into another We develop mature ovaries and mate with Web-Weavers to produce new Egg-Layers and stave off inbreeding. This further implies that the Web-Weaver caste is at least partially composed of males and/or hermaphrodites who are capable of inseminating a fertile Hunter and that fertile Hunters produce offspring that are at least partially composed of the Egg-Layer caste.
However this isn't the only method of producing Egg-Layers as this update shows that Egg-Layers can be birthed despite the We in question not absorbing any foreign hunters,
Implying that Egg-Layers can birth more Egg-Layers.
As such my working hypothesis for We reproduction goes something like this:
The Egg-Layers are either all female, hermaphroditic, or a mix of both and produce new eggs of all castes by parthenogenesis, fertilization by mating with male/hermaphroditic Web-Weavers, fertilization by mating with other Egg-Layers if at least one of them are hermaphroditic, or self-fertilization if they are hermaphroditic. The Hunters are all female with normally undeveloped ovaries which occasionally get 'lost' and wander into another We and get absorbed at which point something about that absorption triggers the biological process which makes them develop mature ovaries. The Web-Weaver caste is partially or totally composed of males and/or hermaphrodites who may fertilize the Egg-Layers and definitely fertilize absorbed fertile Hunters who then lay eggs which are either totally or partially eggs that will mature into new genetically diverse Egg-Layers whose introduction will stave off the effects of inbreeding in their gene pool.
Is that an accurate summation of the We's reproductive lifecycle or are parts of it wrong or are there additional missing details?
