| Plague Crawler | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| General information | |||
| Universe | Resident Evil | ||
| Classification | Armiger eius plaga (plague bearer)
(Parker Green 2020) | ||
| Species type | Insect Chimera (dragonfly base) | ||
| Homeworld | Earth | ||
| Environment | Damp, dark locations | ||
| Intelligence | Non-sapient organism | ||
| Biochemistry | Carbon-based lifeform | ||
| Discovered | Between 1978-1988 | ||
| Discoverer | Dr. James Marcus | ||
| Biological information | |||
| Reproduction | Sexual; lays eggs (presumed) | ||
| Average length | 2 meter (6.6 ft) | ||
| Locomotion | Hexapodal walking | ||
| Feeding behavior | Carnivorous | ||
| Prey | Humans, likely among other large organisms | ||
| Distinctive features | Large raptorial forelegs and mask | ||
| Skin color | Pale and dark brown or black | ||
| Lineage information | |||
| Ancestor(s) | Unknown species of dragonfly, multiple other unrelated insect species | ||
| Cultural information | |||
| Alignment | True Neutral | ||
| Personality | Aggressive ambush predators | ||
| Organization | Swarms, usually found in small packs | ||
| Capital city | Umbrella Corporation Training Facility | ||
| Sociocultral characteristics | |||
| Scientific taxonomy | |||
| Planet | Earth | ||
| Domain | Eukaryota (Complex lifeforms) | ||
| Kingdom | Animalia (Animals) | ||
| Subkingdom | Eumetazoa (Tissues organized into germ layers) | ||
| Infrakingdom | Bilaterial (Animals with bilateral symmetry) | ||
| Superphylum | Ecdysozoa | ||
| Phylum | Arthropoda (Arthropods) | ||
| Subphylum | Hexapoda (Six-legged arthropods) | ||
| Class | Insecta (Insects) | ||
| Subclass | Pterygota (Winged insects) | ||
| Superorder | Odonatoptera | ||
| Order | Odonata (Dragonflies & damselflies) | ||
| Suborder | Epiprocta | ||
| Infraorder | Anisoptera (Dragonflies) | ||
| Family | Tryanniviridae (Tyrant virus dragonflies, Parker Green 2020) | ||
| Genus | Armiger (Parker Green July 16, 2020) | ||
| Species | A. eius(Parker Green 2020) | ||
| Subspecies | A. e. plaga | ||
| Other information | |||
| Status | Extinct in the Wild | ||
| Creator | Dr. James Marcus | ||
| First sighting | Between 1978-1988 | ||
| Last sighting | 2002 | ||
| Possible population | 0 (presumed, unless Wesker had other specimens not sold to Javier Hidalgo) | ||
Plague Crawlers are a species of hybridized bio-organic weapons produced by the Umbrella Corporation at their training facility in the Arklay Mountains.
Physiology[]
Plague Crawlers are an amalgam hybrid of various insects; this was created by injecting several different insectoid species with the Tyrant Virus (henceforth referred to as the t-Virus) and then manipulating each species' genes thereafter. It can be assumed that they were manipulated in a way to allow them to interbreed to create the hybrid. With this in mind, their body design hints that they primarily used a dragonfly as the base organism (meaning that the final female used to birth the final form of the plague crawlers would have been a dragonfly). Despite this they appear to have developed neoteny as they continue to resemble a dragonfly nymph, their aquatic larval stage. They continue to possess the mask, a raptorial hinged labium of a nymphs that can be extended to grasp prey items.
While it is not known what other types of species could have been added to their DNA, they have raptorial forelimbs, indicating that giant water bugs, mantids, mantis-flies, saucer bugs, or water scorpions were very likely added to the mix.
After decades of growth, a number of the more successful individuals had reached almost 2 meters in length.
Plague Crawlers favor damp, dark places perhaps due to their perpetually larval state, and often will make their nests underneath roofs of buildings. Here they will hide as ambush predators, awaiting large prey such as humans to walk below them. At this point they will lunge down from their hiding place to attack with their gigantic pincers.
Background history[]
Detail on the Plague Crawler's raptorial mask.
The Plague Crawlers were developed under the eye of Dr. James Marcus' at the Umbrella Corp. training facility and were first produced sometime between 1978 and 1988 after the Progenitor Virus had been enhanced into the t-Virus. As they were developed early on in Umbrella's t-Virus research they had many years to grow in size.
On the surface with their suitably large, death-dealing pincers, they appear to be excellently suited for fielding as B.O.W.s; however, they were determined to be unfit for heavy combat situations by Marcus after it was discovered that insect-based B.O.W.s are not intelligent or controllable enough to be truly successful. This led to Umbrella issuing a halt on their development and all specimens were slotted for destruction. While most were taken care of, some specimens survived by escaping their captors. These individuals founded colonies away from the watchful eyes of their human creators and grew in numbers at frightening speeds.
Despite this, when the Umbrella Training Facility was destroyed via self destruct sequence by Dr. William Birkin to eliminate the Queen Leech nearly the entirety of the Plague Crawler species appears to have gone extinct. If some continued to survive in the area beyond that point, they were likely completely wiped out a few months later when the US military destroyed the nearby Raccoon City with a tactical nuke to stop the zombie outbreak occurring there. They are thus considered to be extinct in the wild and their only known recorded occurrence beyond the Raccoon City Destruction Incident was in 2002 during Operation Javier, when Leon S. Kennedy and Jack Krauser were sent to apprehend the drug overlord Javier Hidalgo in South America. As such, it can be assumed that Umbrella agent Dr. Albert Wesker had stolen specimens from the Training Facility labs and later sold them to Hidalgo. He used them in his prison torture chambers to kill his countless victims.
Appearances[]
- Resident Evil 0 (First appearance)
- Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles