Headcrabology.
For some reason it interests me the various forms of the headcrab, what they are, how they come to be, how they live, how they grow, etc.
Of course we all know we have several types of headcrab: the standard headcrab, the “fast” headcrab, the poison headcrab, and the gonarch.
Are they all the same species? Are they subspecies? Gonarchs seem to create standard headcrabs, so is there a gonarch-type for every type of headcrab? A giant speedy gonarch running around somewhere at 80mph spewing out fast headcrabs?
I think all headcrabs are members of the same species in various states of development. This is for two reasons. First, the gonarch was seen “giving birth” to only one physically identical type of headcrab which bears obvious resemblence to the “standard” headcrab type. Also, there is (at least IMHO) an obvious physical gradiation effect from normal headcrab to gonarch. See below:
First we have the baby headcrab; quite pale, flat and elonged. By the time it matures to a “standard” headcrab it has shortened and rounded out. Maturing to “fast” headcrabs, its colouration grows darker, its legs become symmetrical both in appearance and placement. By the time it reaches “poison” headcrab it has become even darker, its body has become more squared and segmented as opposed to the smooth roundness of its younger forms and it develops some sort of poison. Then ??? happens, it grows exponentially larger and develops the reproductive sac.
It is likely that the transformation from one biological state to the next (except for baby headcrabs->“standard” headcrabs) is a near-instant biological process similar to insects, as no “inbetween” specimens have ever been found.
The next question of course is how these different states relate to their symbiotic nature with host creatures (namely humans). Do headcrabs attach in their first stages and then develop into the later stages while attached to their host? I don’t believe so; the states of their host bodies seems to varied to be of the same lineage as their development; “normal” headcrab hosts are relatively unchanged, while “fast” headcrab hosts become quite thin and fast, and “poison” headcrab hosts large, slow and lumbering; transformation of the host from one to the next to the next is biologically unlikely, but not impossible.
Likely, the symbiotic relationship is the primary form of feeding for headcrabs and likely is a necessary act necessary for transformation, similar to how animals lay eggs in other animals to feed on and grow. So as not to become completely defenseless during the coupling process, the host victim is kept alive, but under the control of brutal, violent instinct, with only basic motor functions and reasoning ability. It is very unlikely the headcrab “mind-controls” its victims due to observed instances of a coupled victim carrying out actions native to its former pre-coupled existence that headcrabs would have no comprehension of (such as the use of grenades). It is also unlikely that hosts have any cognitive understanding of what they are doing, and are acting more like mindless rabies-infected “zombies” with extremely violent tendencies and will attack any non-headcrab organisms it detects.
Headcrab social organization is hard to determine, but is likely similar to native social insect species such as ants. This is due to the fact that the “gonarch” state of development is nowhere near as plentiful and widespread as the other stages. The one gonarch we’ve encountered was seen giving birth to undersized headcrabs at a prodigious rate; if these plentiful headgrabs would each (naturally) grow into a gonarch equipped with similar reproductive powers then the population explosion would be absolutely immense and far, far, far greater than what we actually see. Likely, most headcrabs do not “make” it to gonarch-dom, either due to high mortality rates in native populations (perhaps it takes years and years for a poison headcrab to develop into a gonarch, and most do not live anywhere near that long due to a variety of reasons), or lack of some food source required to power the immense transformation, or simply because very few headgrabs are actually born with the ability to become gonarchs (similar to how the vast majority of ants are born as workers and soldiers as opposed to queens and males).
However, beyond this there does not appear to be any form of social interaction or unification between headcrabs. When multiple headcrabs exist in the same environment they almost completely ignore one another, and will pursue prey in an individualistic manner. This is contrary to the behaviour of other social insects who live, work, build, forage and hunt as one community with each member playing specific roles to a greater end.
“You bring up a good point identifying the similarities between headcrabs and social insect species. Doesn’t this support each type of headcrab being “born” in its current state, rather than transforming from one to the next?” No. Again, the only recorded gonarch was observed giving birth to a single type of headcrab. It is entirely possible that this “baby headcrab” can develop into any of the different kinds of headcrabs once it is born and simply looks the same because this is a common biological feature (young human fetuses look almost identical; baby birds regardless of gender look identical but the differences between adult males and females can often be quite mind-boggling; and ant larvae looks identical when laid but can hatch into a variety of different types of ant). However I like the idea that there is a clear link from baby>standard>fast>poison>gonarch, visually.
That is all.
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