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Over time, in the small smooth dirt room where she lives, the queen’s body becomes “physogastric”, her abdomen swelling to the size of my thumb, constricted by taut black bands remaining from her old exoskeleton so she looks like a soft sausage that has been carelessly bound with string.

Thyreoxenus brevitibialis, a “termitophile” with a physogastric body form.

Aleocharines have also integrated into termite societies many times, repeatedly evolving a termite-looking “physogastric” body.