The Face / Sandkings

Back in the 1980s OMNI Magazine featured a piece of near-future science fiction, called Sandkings. The story revolved around tiny creatures called Sandkings that were sometimes kept as exotic pets. They live in swarms and live in an elaborately constructed hive. Kept in a small enclosure they remain pretty small, like hermit crabs maybe. They ALSO build, onto the exterior of their hive, a realistic likeness of the FACE of whomever supplies them with live food, usually small animals such as feed rats, or in one case a puppy, if memory serves. When the owner grows tired of them or becomes unhappy with their failure to behave the way he expects, the likeness gradually becomes less flattering, reflecting their knowledge of his attitude toward them. I just wonder if the large face is there for a similar reason, to provide a generic but accurate human likeness for whatever comes out of the ampules to imprint on? (Note: With respect to the moderators, I did look back through several pages of threads, and did not see this mentioned.)