Ant or other insect
The ant or other insect is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the lowercase a glyph (a). Ants and insects are designated internally by the macro S_ANT.[1]
The monster class contains the following monsters:[2]
- a Soldier ant
- a Giant ant
- a Fire ant
- a Killer bee
- a Queen bee
- a Giant beetle
Common traits
Ants and insects are are neutral-aligned animals that have limbs, but no hands. They are carnivorous with the exception of both bees, and are also oviparous with the exception of the giant beetle.
Centipedes are arthropods but not insects, and are instead part of the arachnid or centipede monster class, s. Fantastic insects such as the xan constitute their own monster class.
Generation
Randomly generated ants and insects monsters are always created hostile.
The clerical monster spell summon insects will generate ants and insects unless the monster class is extinct or genocided, in which case snakes are generated instead.[3]
Strategy
Most of the insect monsters (particularly the ants) have high speed along with attacks that are often poisonous or decently strong, making them early-game menaces - the movement speed also makes the weaker attacks like those of the giant ant tough to contend with. Even the much-slower giant beetle, which has a speed of 6, has a bite attack that is the strongest among its monster class.
It is usually not considered worthwhile to genocide any insects with the exception of the soldier ant, which are a significant early-game hazard - while it is possible to take out soldier ants through other means, genociding them can be useful as a form of last resort or emergency option. Otherwise, the insects summoned by hostile priests in Moloch's Sanctum and on the Astral Plane can serve as a valuable barrier between you and most of the tougher monsters (minus the Riders).
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM introduces several new insects:
- a assassin bug
- a black wasp
- a giant flea
- a giant louse
- a giant tick
- a giant wasp
- a killer beetle
- a migo drone
- a migo queen
- a migo warrior
- a snow ant
- a spitting beetle
- a tsetse fly
- a yellow jacket
