Insecticons

"There is no greater ferocity than an Insecticon hive."

- Hardshell about his kind in Toxicity.

The Insecticons are insect-like Cybertronians that lived in the underground of Cybertron, near its core. They survived by the core's supply of Energon but they were forced to move to higher ground when it was infected with Dark Energon. Shockwave came into contact with them and manipulated them into joining the Decepticon ranks.

At some point, a large group of Insecticons made their way to Earth and sealed themselves inside stasis pods for years. Those Insecticons now serve Megatron in their fight against Team Prime. After some time however, Airachnid returned and tried to take over the Nemesis but failed as Soundwave bridged her and the Insections on one of Cybertron's moon. Airachnid, now a zombie, sucks the energon out of her minions.

Before Earth
The Insecticons were native to Cybertron, when the Great War began they were seen as tiny specimens as Shockwave, the Decepticon's scientist began experimenting on them and made 3 New Insecticons Kickback, Sharpshot, and Hardshell.

After the War
When Arcee and Jack traveled to Kaon, there was an Insecticon guarding the Decepticon Capital. Arcee tried to distract it while Jack carried on with the mission. The Insecticon subdued Arcee and attacked Jack as he was fighting a swarm of Scraplets. Jack managed to direct the Scraplets' attention to the Insection, and the Scraplets quickly killed the Insecticon.

Hidden Army
As Airachnid was losing Megatron's trust, Megatron ordered Dreadwing and Breakdown to terminate her. Airachnid managed to kill Breakdown and escape with her spark intact, losing one of her spider legs.

Starscream then found Airachnid with an Insecticon. Airachnid ingored the Starscream's question concerning the Insecticon's origins and ordered it to attack him, with Starscream barely escaping.

She then challenged Megatron to fight the Insecticon. After a battle, Megatron triumphed and killed the Insecticon. Airachnid found that defeat unimportant, as she had found an entire hive of Insecticons underground that she could control.

Against The Nemesis
"Forgive us, One true lord and master!"

- Insecticons forgiveness to Megatron Airachnid planned to have the ultimate revenge against the Decepticons, so she ordered the entire Insecticon army to attack their command ship, the Nemesis. While the Vehicons and Megatron battled the Insecticons, the Autobots arrived. The back fleet of the Insecticons attacked the Autobots, except for Arcee, who went after Airachnid. After a battle underground, Arcee trapped Airachnid inside a stasis pod, preventing her from controlling her army.

Returning To The Decepticons
With Airachnid no longer controlling the Insecticons, they returned to their natural instinct of serving Megatron, and joined the Deception army. Though tensions grew even greater when they began to insult the soldiers. Megatron sent Hardshell to retrieve Tox-en.

Hardshell failed but returns to claim to Megatron that he had snuffed an autobot during battle. Megatron was pleased and ensured that Hardshell had his kill. As Hardshell talked and walked with two fellow Insecticons about his hand in "killing" Bulkhead and how Megatron should entrust missions to Insecticons. Two Vehicons overhead Hardshell and insulted them. Though Hardshell fought these two Vehicons, he was caught by Knock out. Hardshell met his end when he faced against Wheeljack. He was able to take down Wheeljack, but was killed by a human in Wheeljack's ship. The insections returned to tell Megatron of Hardshell's demise.

Return Of The Queen
Airachnid would later be freed by the Terrocon C.Y.L.A.S. and regained control of the Insecticons. However, they were all transported to a desolate planet by Soundwave. At present, they serve as food for their now Energon-hungry queen.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise
In Metal Meltdown, an Insecticon was among Glowstrike and Scorponok's crew of Alchemor escapees. In Mighty Big Trouble and in Mini-Con Madness, another worked as a bounty hunter alongside Shadelock and Roughedge, employed by Starscream to track down the Weaponizers. In Worthy, the insecticon eventually ran afoul of the Bee Team and was shipped back to Cybertron as a prisoner.

Known Insecticons

 * The earliest known named Insecticons include:
 * Hardshell
 * Kickback
 * Sharpshot
 * Among the other named members of the species are:
 * Barrage
 * Bombshock (Predacon)
 * Buzzclaw
 * Infernox
 * Needler (Mini-Con)
 * Ransack
 * Razorhorn
 * Scorpinok
 * Skrapnel
 * Springbolt
 * Waspinator
 * Saberhorn
 * In addition, there are countless types of Insecticon drone, each adapted to a specific role. Some of these are:
 * Bombshells
 * Bruisers
 * Shrapnels
 * Spitters
 * Swarmers

Physical Appearance
The physical appearance of Insecticons differs in each appearance. In Fall of Cybertron, they are mostly land based Insecticons with large jaws and six legs called swamers with a purple and green color scheme. However, some of the Insecticons in FOC are smaller, flying bugs that spit acid at their targets. Finally, a new breed created by Shockwave called Bruisers are very large, as large as Grimlock and have a mostly purple color based paint job.

However, in Transformers: Prime, Insecticons are very different. All known Insecticons are taller than most transformers, even than Optimus Prime and Megatron. They have a green color job with a single optic streeched across their face (like Cyclops from X-Men). They transform into Hercules Beetle type insects which make loud fly sounding noises.

Behind the Scenes
To be added

Trivia

 * There seems to be discrimination between the Vehicons and Insecticons. They both constantly insult each other and believe the other to be inferior.
 * This often leads to scuffles, as shown in Hurt.
 * Insecticons seem to be another form of "vermin" on Cybertron than others.
 * Insecticons also appear to have male members, at least on screen, along with the Vehicons.
 * Insecticons often snarl and growl than speak. When they do speak, it's either because they're giving orders or talking to their fellow beings.
 * It is unknown how many Insecticons there were on Earth although given that their massive number and the fact they almost overran the Nemesis twice, it is possibly between 4,000 and 10,000.

Gallery
Main Article: Insecticons/Gallery