Field note. The colony has gathered its smaller specimens, not yet fully calcified into adult proportions, into a darkened rectangular chamber and instructed them to enjoy it.
They do not.
Observation of spatial behavior. The chamber has two dominant regions. Along the perimeter, the specimens press their dorsal surfaces to the wall, arms crossed over the thorax, minimizing surface area, as though attempting to become architecture. In the central zone, a fluctuating cluster moves without traveling, flexing at the knees in loose synchrony with a rhythmic pressure wave the colony pumps through the air at damaging volume.
A clear boundary separates the two regions. No specimen crosses it willingly. The boundary is not physical. I cannot detect what enforces it. I have marked this as a field of unknown origin and given it provisional designation.
Note on chemical output. The chamber smells of a sugared liquid, a fruit-scented aerosol applied in excess, and beneath both, a sharp organic tang the specimens are visibly ashamed of and cannot suppress. They keep raising an arm, checking the source, lowering it. The shame appears to accelerate its production. Fascinating loop.
Observation of the dominant activity. For long intervals nothing happens. The specimens hold small glowing rectangles at chest height and consult them. They look across the room at a particular other specimen. They look back at the rectangle. They do not move. Two specimens spent the entire cycle six meters apart, each apparently aware of the other, each mechanically incapable of reducing the distance. Their heart rates were elevated. No pathogen present. No predator present.
Preliminary conclusion. The chamber is a trial. The colony has manufactured a low-stakes environment and released the young into it to observe which of them can approach another and which cannot.
Correction. There are no low stakes. Not to them.
I retract the word.