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In the lore have the Tyranids ever just invaded a planet and made it a giant ant hill and started to farm and regrow their numbers?

Hive Fleet Tiamet are holding a system and building something - Dakka discussion here.

Years ago there was a description of hormaguants hybernating underground on a planet and erupting out when enemies showed up.

Also, laying eggs.

Time was Hormies were the only Tyranid species to do that. But, don’t ask me which one(s) specifically, I think that list has expanded in recent years.

Also check out the Anphelion Project. An Imperial Armour Source/Campaign book. It’s kinda 40K Jurassic Park, where a strictly limited range of Tyranid species are being studied, only for other species (Trygons in particular) to manifest among them, leading to tasty nom noms for the Hive Mind, and the Imperium rather sheepish about the whole thing.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Also, laying eggs.

Time was Hormies were the only Tyranid species to do that. But, don’t ask me which one(s) specifically, I think that list has expanded in recent years.

Also check out the Anphelion Project. An Imperial Armour Source/Campaign book. It’s kinda 40K Jurassic Park, where a strictly limited range of Tyranid species are being studied, only for other species (Trygons in particular) to manifest among them, leading to tasty nom noms for the Hive Mind, and the Imperium rather sheepish about the whole thing.

Readded IA and WHAT? So a few gaunts can evolve in full fledge hive? I don't understand from book.

The Imperium's grasp of Tyranid behaviour is very basic and we never get any real story from the perspective of the Tyranids. So we see them behave a certain way but that doesn't mean its the only way they can behave.

They've certainly built a huge planet structure; they've pre-digested worlds and left them for other Hive Fleets whilst stripping others.

Also don't forget many gas giants have way more resources than habitable worlds and yet the Tyrainds leave them alone. I've long theorised that the Tyranids are not in a feeding mode but a pacification one. Their choice to feed on worlds is driven by a joint purpose. To bolster their own numbers and to deny habitable worlds to other races.

Thus strengthening the Tyranid position and weakening any threatening species . Whilst at the same time leaving big juicy worlds totally alone for a latter feeding stage once the Galaxy is pacified to a "safe" status.

I've even wondered if there are literal feeding Tyranid ships in the dark outside of the Galaxy. Huge, potentially more vulnerable ships that come in to purely graze and feed on the Galaxy once pacification is completed.

 kabaakaba wrote:
Readded IA and WHAT? So a few gaunts can evolve in full fledge hive? I don't understand from book.

Putting a hyperadaptive species in a controlled environment doesn't really make it a controlled environment.

Like with the not-dinos from Jurassic Park and the Xenomorphs in Alien: Resurrection, control is an illusion, and the monsters will escape. Once the specimens had escaped, the environmental control was gone, and the Tyranids evolved rapidly, spawning the biomorphs needed to command the swarm. As soon as one Synapse creature was spawned, it was game over, as the swarm then had command and control to turn regular mutation and evolution into precise order, creating whatever was needed to consume Beta Anphelion.

It’s been a while since I read Anphelion, so I’m not sure if it hinted at the bigger bugs just…sort of appearing, or if an existing bug went through a metamorphosis.

From a real world biological point of view? I think I prefer the latter.

After all, insects pupate, and some are quite dramatically different once they’ve done their thing. If we assume a similar but enhanced process? I can see a Gaunt Genus, given sufficient biomass, being able to do the same

It's speculative but I think it's more likely at some point the lesser creatures triggered the creation of a "brood nest" (like the one from Forge World) and from there this then spawned first Warriors and then later even larger creatures.

Basically this would mean the Tyranids carry within them enough information to recreate the Tyranid ecosystem sort of like how Squigs will start spawning around Orks. Both of these factions are effectively mobile self-regenerating ecosystems