where did cluster lizards come from?
In the actual conceptual development of the form of the Insects, the Cluster Lizards are definitely the direct ancestors.
In terms of my theory, I don’t suggest that Insects and Cluster Lizards are closely related. Rather, I suggest that there is
enough overlaps, segmented armoured bodies, rolling or coiling into a circle, predation,
egg laying, tolerance to vaccuum environment, to suggest that the two species
may be related. But we’re not talking Man
and Chimpanzee levels of relationship, but rather, Man and Lizard.
As for the Cluster Lizards tipping off people on the Cluster as to the true nature and the hidden existence of the Insect within. But remember that through its history the The Cluster would have been ruled by His Divine Shadow and the Divine Order. No matter how their fortunes rose or fell, that was the one planetoid where His Divine Shadow would allow nothing less than an unbreakable grip. Cluster Lizards would not have emerged to the sight of anyone capable of understanding what it meant or living long enough to spread that message.
As I’ve said, the Insect survived a period of dormancy for a long long time. It’s likely that Cluster Lizards metabolisms followed their host, especially if periods of dormancy were part of the insects nature.
Parasites which remained active when the host went dormant would eventually either starve to death, or they’d consume the host and then starve to death.
There’s ample precedent on earth for parasites that link their metabolism and life cycles to their hosts. Fleas on rabbits for instance, only become fertile when the female rabbit enters estrous. When rabbits mate, all the flees move to the female rabbit, temporarily leaving the male
free. There the flees await the birth of the rabbits litter and the colonization of a new generation of rabbits. That’s fairly sophisticated. Compared to that, it’s not unreasonable to assume that Insect parasite or symbiont species would link its metabolism and life cycle to the host Insect.
We acknowledge there is no ecosystem on the Cluster and the Cluster Lizards would not have been viable in isolation. However, they were not in isolation, but clearly a part of the order of punishments and games used by the Divine Order.
The rest of the morphology of the Cluster Lizards conforms to an existence as insect parasites. This includes the pseudopods evolved to grip hard surfaces (Insect carapace), egg laying in which the eggs are literally cemented in place in a stable sheltered location but not otherwise protected (as in burying), the ‘swimming’ motion sometimes used instead of rolling, and the wide opening flower jawed mouth with inward pointing teeth which is designed for
biting large objects. The larger the object, the bigger the bite ratio. Their bite ratio is immense, essentially, they’re
evolved to try to gouge or scrape chunks out of large near flat surfaces.
As for Xev, I suspect there was more than a little speculation on her part. Conceivably
she received edited or misleading texts while in her skinner box. Kai might be better informed, but remember, even Kai and the Predecessors didnt know the secret of the Gigashadow. So, if Cluster Lizards were part of the secret, that information may not have been accessible to him.