Ant, white | White ants, see also termites. |
Ant, marcher | "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." -- Explorers of Gor These insects are known in the jungles of Schendi as 'The Marchers' and they are aggressive carnivorous insects. Each is about 2 inches long, with a shiny black exoskeleton and two antennae. Their name is derived from their, apparently seasonal, marches through the jungle in a single column, yards wide and pasangs in length. They may number in the millions, their path's widening to as much as 500 feet when they overtake, swarm over, and devour all flesh, living or dead, in their path. Their bite is extremely painful, but not poisonous. Their victims die from being weakened from relentless attack, being overcome until they are still. |
Arthropod | "At that moment to my horror a large, perhaps eight feet long and a yard high, multilegged, segmented arthropod scuttled near, its eyes weaving on stalks. 'It's harmless,' said the Priest-King. The arthropod stopped and the eyes leaned toward us and then its pincers clicked twice. I reached for my sword. Without turning it scuttled backwards away, its body plates rustling like plastic armor. -- Priest-Kings of Gor, page 82 A creature found in the tunnels of the Nest of the Priest-Kings. It is 8 feet long and a yard high with a multi-segmented body and 8 legs. It's eyes are on long stalks. |
Bee | "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, page 81 Much like the insect of same name upon Earth. |
Beetle | "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, page 276 Mentioned in Mercenaries of Gor as one of the insects that frevets are used to control. |
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, page 311 Much like the insect of same name upon Earth. |
Fly, artic | "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, page 196 Black insect with long wings that are often a nuisance in the summers. |
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, page 152 Again, typical nuisance of an insect found in the Tahari. |
Fly, needle or sting | "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." -- Vagabonds of Gor, page 161 "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, page 162 Most of these insects originate in the delta, and their eggs are laid on the stems of the rence plants. The sting or needle flies tend to be attracted to the eyes and moist bright objects. Its sting is extremely painful but it is usually not dangerous unless inflicted in great numbers. |
Grasshopper, red | "'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, page 293 Red, obviously, this insect is much the same as the one upon Earth by the same name and in is described as weighing around 4 ounces. |
Gitch | "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, page 277 A biting insect; the description is vague, although it is used near mention of roaches. |
Golden beetle | "The Golden Beetle was not nearly as tall as a Priest-King, but it was probably considerably heavier. It was about the size of a rhinoceros and the first thing I noticed after the glowing eyes were two multiply hooked, tubular, hollow, pincerlike extensions that met at the tips perhaps a yard beyond its body. They seemed clearly some aberrant mutation of its jaws. Its antennae, unlike those of Priest-Kings, were very short. They curved and were tipped with a fluff of golden hair. Most strangely perhaps were several long, golden strands, almost a mane, which extended from the creature's head over its domed, golden black and fell almost to the floor behind it. The back itself seemed divided into two thick casings which might once, ages before, have been horny wings, but now the tissues had, at the points of touching together, fused in such a way as to form what was for all practical purposes a thick, immobile golden shell. The creature's head was even now withdrawn beneath the shell but its eyes were clearly visible and of course the existence of its jaws. I knew the thing before me could slay Priest-Kings." -- Priest-Kings of Gor, page 180 An insect, roughly the size of a rhinoceros, which lives in the caverns below the Nest of the Priest-Kings in the Sardar Mountains; its prey is the Priest-Kings themselves. It has a narcotic, filamented mane and curved, hollow, laterally moving jaw-pincers. |
Hinti | "'Hala' is Kaiila for the Gorean hinti, which are small, active insects. They ressemble fleas but are not parasitic...." -- Blood Brothers of Gor, pages 219-220 Small, flea-like insects; unlike fleas, they are not parasites. |
Leech, marsh | "'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, page 97 Rubbery and about 4 inches long, it attaches itself to plants in the marsh or floats free in the water, waiting for warm blooded animals. They fasten themselves to their victim to suck blood until, satiated, they detach. They can be removed with fire or salt. They are edible. |
Lice, tarn | "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, pages 142-143 Marble-sized parasites that infest wild tarns. |
Lice, ship | "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, page 321 Much the same as the Earthen insect by same name. |
Rennel | "...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, page 27 A crab-like, desert insect found on the Southern Plains. Its bite is said to leave red speckled marks. |
Roaches | "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, pages 276-277 Even on Gor these insects appear, large, oblong, flat-bodied and black about a half hort (a little more than half an inch) in length with long feelers. |
Scorpion | Found in the canopy level of the rainforest, no real quote or description is given. The insect is mentioned in Explorers of Gor, page 311, and can be assumed to be much like its Earth counterpart. |
Slime worm | "We had not walked far when we passed a long, wormlike animal, eyeless, with a small red mouth, that inched its way along the corridor, hugging the angle between the wall and the floor. 'What do you call it?' I asked. 'Oh,' said one of the slaves. 'It is a Slime Worm.' 'What does it do?' I asked. 'Long ago it functioned in the Nest,' said one of the slaves, 'as a sewerage device, but it has not served that function in many thousands of years.'" -- Priest-Kings of Gor, page 105-106 A long, slow, blind worm which inhabits the caverns below the Nest in the Sardar. It scavenges the remains of the Golden Beetle's kills. |
Spider, rock | "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, pages 115-116 An inhabitant of the rainforest's lower level, this brown or black spider camouflages itself by tucking legs under its body to look like a rock -- hence its name. It is approximately one foot in diameter and will catch small rodents or birds in its web. |
Spider, swamp | "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, pages 81-83 Man-sized arachnids which inhabit the swampland near the city of Ar. They can communicate in human speech via the mechanical translators they wear around their abdomens. They also spin Cur-lon Fiber, which is used in the textile mills of Ar. They have four pairs of eyes, sensory hairs on its appendages, and are monstrous insects, but they do not hurt "rational creatures." |
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, pages 311-312 Identical to the same named insect of Earth. |
Toos | "'The one who was not a Priest-King,' quickly said Mul-Al-Ka, 'was a Matok and is called a Toos and lives on discarded fungus spores.'" -- Priest-Kings of Gor, page 142 A crab like organism with overlapping plating; inhabits the Nest and scavenges on discarded fungus spores. |
Vint | "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, page 115 A tiny, sand-colored insect found in the Tahari Desert. |
Zarlit fly | "The zarlit fly is very large, about two feet long, with four large, translucent wings, with a span of about a yard. It has large, padlike feet on which, when it alights, it can rest on the water, or pick its way delicately across the surface. Most of them are purple. Their appearance is rather formidable and can one a nasty turn in the delta, but happily, one soon learns they are harmless, at least to humans." -- Vagabonds of Gor, page 160 A large, harmless, purple insect about two feet long with 4 long, translucent wings, with a span of about a yard. It is able to walk on top of water because of its padlike feet and feeds on small insects. |