Antlions were originally considered as new enemies for the challenge mode in the beach missions.Originally, the game would only have one scientist observing the gene thief ants on migration in the wild, while they clash with the local ant species. You play as other ant species in various missions to get resources for your gene thief colony in the formicarium. The story mode is about two scientists doing some tests with their newly developed gene thief colony.
The second nerf, coming out one year later, lowers other creatures' spawn rate while increasing the number and level of army ants. The first nerf lowers mantises' stats and spawn rate, making the mission somewhat beatable to experienced players, even though it still required a lot of minor management. After the hilarious leaks during Liam's stream, they have confirmed that matabele ants would be the playable species and driver ants would be their enemies in the 5th set of missions. Matabele ants seemed to be more likely after John's revelation of Flashheal ability.
