Most insects have fractional souls, with simple minds not too far removed from plants and minerals. But hive creatures are different. Though each unit insect (be it bee, ant, termite, etc.) has only a tiny mote of spirit, their collective is interconnected in a large, distributed soul. When a hive of bees is fully killed, and this spirit is departed from every unit bee, this strange soul may be supplanted with something else. This may be a soul constructed by a psychosophist, or the soul of some demon, or the restless soul of a dead mage. It is a delicate skill, binding a soul distributed among a swarm in this way, but the methods are well documented. A swarm of "Red Bees" is exactly this-- they are not really so much red as merely dry and dark in color. A swarm of this nature has the benefit of being able to infiltrate through very small openings, and is quite challenging for a foe to destroy completely with conventional weapons. As servants to a thanaturge, they thusly make ideal spies.
