Angela Christie! Kank question!

[Marc]

This isn't meant to gross anyone out but I have to know!

AC:  Can you please explain the anatomy of a kank?  Specifically how they resemble ants and how shield-wall oysters come into being (no pun intended).

Ant's with balls?

[Gargath]

I know I'm not AC or anything...but...

I saw an episode of Futureramma the other day were they were on mars and were riding giant ants around. My first thought was, Kank!

[House Rising Sun]

The buggalo had wings. They were more like beetles.

http://ant.edb.miyakyo-u.ac.jp/INTRODUCTION/Gakken79E/Page_18.html

I did a close study of various ant pictures and Dark Sun illustrations for a drawing I was working on. As far as I could guess, they're basically like that with more substantial legs and joints between segments, and perhaps different proportions. What's cool is that the front legs are really more like arms, so I got a kick out of picturing a kank rearing back like a horse.

[Gargath]

I'm not talking about those cow beetles =)
Later in the episode there is a 3 mins skit of them riding large ants.

[Marc]

Not to claim derailment but the root of my question is:

Shield-wall oysters are kank balls.  Ants don't have balls in so far as I know.  Testies are only found in mammels are they not?  What is the answer to this great mystery?  Where do kank-balls come from?

[Gargath]

I'm not positive actually. Maybe these are ants with balls? They are 'kanks' and not earth ants so there may be some diffrences.

[Marc]

Thats why I asked AC Gargath ;-)

Give it time.  Everyone eventually realizes Angela knows EVERYTHING.

The problem is finding her *peers around*

[Jacques]

Non-mammals can have testes. Even things that don't actually have intercourse can have testes! (some fish, for example, lay the eggs on the bottom, and the male comes by and just kinda dumps the sperm on them)  I have no idea if ants do or not - however, SOMETHING has to fertilize the queen before the eggs are laid, right? Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they're not there.

For kanks, they could very well be hidden safely under a piece of chitin, such that to get them you have to actually skin the kank and then carve them out, much the way you would for a liver, spleen, or those oh so tasty kidneys.

I can't wait to hear what AC has to say on this one, though.  :wink:

[Lazloth]

For kanks, they could very well be hidden safely under a piece of chitin, such that to get them you have to actually skin the kank and then carve them out, much the way you would for a liver, spleen, or those oh so tasty kidneys.

Cryptorchidism, and while our definitions may clash some, insect organs appear generally internal:  

some bug website[/url]"]Internally the male reproductive organs consist of a pair of 'testes' containing the 'testicular follicles' where the spermatozoa are made, the 'vas deferens' which is the tube down which the sperm travels, a 'seminal vesicle' which is where the sperm is stored prior to mating, and accessory glands which supply seminal fluid for additional volume and to nourish the sperm before and during their journey.

Maybe these are swollen glands that are scooped out rather than hacked off.

[House Rising Sun]

Kanks don't have queens, I believe.

[Dan]

In Dark Sun they do. I believe there are three classes. Worker, warrior, and queen. A worker kanks bite is poisonous if I remember correctly.

[House Rising Sun]

That'd be cool if you weren't so goshdarn wrong. Kanks in game, as far as I have seen, are like horses that are bugs. They form loose clutches in the wild, but don't seem to breed in colonies.

Or is the pyramid in tuluk really just a giant anthill?

[Dan]

In Dark Sun that is how it is, not Zalanthas. What I said wasn't wrong it just isn't how it is on Zalanthas.

[Xamminy]

In Dark Sun, yes, they are hive creatures, to a degree.

In Zalanthas, maybe you should find out in game?  Find wild kanks and see where they come from...or ask the people selling kanks where they get them, maybe.

[Marc]

Xamminy:
Are you suggesting I ask someone how a kank has balls and where?  Garuntee you it will be pre in game speculation if it is a pc and any npc response will be either the pre-generated script (a script was the root cause of this question, which I still don't see how a kanks anatomy is sensitive IC info) or the immortal who controls the npcs opinion at the time.

Granted, I could be completely wrong and somewhere in the immortal helpfiles someone has written out the kanks anatomy exactly, but I somehow doubt it.

If your response WASN'T directed at the ball question and more at the hive/herd bit, then I apologize, but it's what you get laying track on a derailment.

AC, where are you?

[wizturbo]

AC, where are you?

Yes, I'm starting to wonder this myself....the AC sign has been put in the sky (like the bat signal) and our caped crusader is no where to be found!  Jeepers.

Maybe AC is researching this question... *Grins*

[Avril]

Maybe we should try to summon her, eh?

I'll bring the live goats.

[Delirium]

I'll bring the thirteen virgins.

[Xamminy]

Yes, Marc, my response was directed at the hide/herd portion of the discussion and not the anatomy portion.

[Avril]

If you're willing to sacrifice a few of the disciples, you could cut those down to three, I think.

See, this is why they recruit P&Pers into satanist cults. Jack Chick was right all along...

[Quo]

I'm no expert in ants, but a few other critters have caught my interest.
Crustaceans for example have their ovaries right behind the head, and transfer the eggs through a small channel downwards to a small opening on their 'belly' at about the 3rd pair of legs. (the first two pairs are used for feeding, the 3rd pair is the first pair to be used for walking). The legs are used to move the eggs produced to the tail section, where they get attached (pretty firmly glued into place) to the swimmerets.
I'd have to ask someone else about male anatomy there. Even the very translucent ones are kind of hard to view -that-. (With females, the eggs in some kinds have very contrasting colors, which, wherever this coincides with a translucent body, makes them easy to spot from production to hatching of the offspring)

For pictures:
Crustacean news (german)

Quo

[EvilRoeSlade]

Angela Christine hides in shame, for this is the one question she has no answer to.

[mansa]

Where is AC?  I miss her.

[wizturbo]

*sniffle*  Me too.  AC is my role model :-(

[Agent_137]

http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10529

She's back.

(I know you saw this already, witzburo, but for anyone else.)

[Angela Christine]

The real problem isn't finding the sexual organs of a male kank, presumably there are male kanks and they do have sexual organs of some kind.  The fact that you have to get them out of the shell just makes them more oyster-like.  The real problem is the name, why shieldwall oysters?  Are there any other kind of "oysters" in the known world?  Are there any records or legends of wetter times that mention oysters?  

It is a puzzle wrapped in an enigma, with a chewy chocolate center.


AC