Insect Prison Game Jun 2026

We hypothesize that Containment is favored when (a) the cost of escalation is high, (b) the prisoner retains utility (e.g., foraging, brood care), and (c) escape probability is low.

Consider two players: a and a Defender (D) , contesting a resource of value V . Payoffs are determined as follows:

The game exhibits a rock-paper-scissors cycle if escape rates are high: Contain beats Escalate (traps aggressor), Escalate beats Submit (overpowers retreat), Submit beats Contain (refuses to be contained by fleeing). However, in enclosed environments (nests, burrows), Submit loses to Contain, and the system collapses to a Prison State.

The narrative progresses through Leah's exploration of several distinct and dangerous biomes: