Imagine spending seventeen years underground. ... you wait. ... don't wait. ... you eat. ... metamorphose? ... trying to suck it all up. Would it be worth it? ... invest? ... no. ... infest. ... a fixed area. ... like a hut or a mansion. Consider, then, that spending seventeen years underground means that you are guaranteed to live for those seventeen years, as you're avoiding all predators. ... egotism. ... self-preservation. ... stealing all the nutrients for yourself so that you survive, even if others don't. ... seventeen is a prime number. ... the only ones separate from the cycle, the circle.