CaledonianWarrior96

Nov 27 2016, 02:02 PM

Predatory Trees; that is some ingenious imagination, and made beautifully plausible

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This is looking quite interesting so far. I particularly like the weep.

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most enjoyable! plausible marsupial birds, and hungry trees that would make Victorian explorers feel vindicated (they claimed to find a lot of predatory trees)

keep up the great work.

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tiny question - is there anything that either feeds on the golden sap when moving or when the sap is dried - to keep the tree from preserving itself in its own amber?

Golden Lakes - Benthook Rainforests - South Denaska

 

In some areas of the weeping bog-forests, a strange event has occured, as the water levels have been rising, submerging some areas of the forest. This has led to a new, fairly rare habitat that can only be found here in the Benthook rainforests, and only in certain areas: the golden lakes. Before we explore this unique habitat, we must first further understand the weep trees.

As previously stated, the constantly dripping sap leads to a beautiful effect, as over time resin builds up over the bark, giving the tree a golden look, and earning them the nickname 'golden oaks'. The nature of the sap has been carefully adapted over millenia to be of just the right consistency, to run slowly enough so as to be in the open air attracting insects for a decent length of time, but not to run too slowly so that it hardens before it reaches the next gash where it can be taken in along with the load of insect prey. Of course, temperature affects this, but for the most part this is a good system. However, inevitably some sap will harden and form resin around the tree trunk, especially if it gets stuck under another dripping layer of sap which runs over it. This means that the build-up of the 'gold bark layer' as it is known, is quite slow. Saplings will not bear the gold layer, but as they mature, their growing will slow. Weeps don't grow very tall, but they can be very old, so the oldest trees will have had a lot of time to develop the gold bark layer, and it can be very thick. In these old individuals, it is possible to see the insects and sometimes other small animals trapped in the resin. Their sap-exuding gashes will slowly rise as they form over a growing bump, to keep it out of the growing layers of resin.

When an old weep eventually dies, it will remain standing upright, preserved by its thick layer of resin. Sap which drips onto the ground surrounding the tree will also harden, forming what is known as amber ground. This will usually be a fairly even circle no more than 1 metre wide, where the sap has spread across the soil. The thickness of amber soil will grow and have more layers added to it more quickly than the golden bark. Therefore, with old weeps, the golden ground around them can be several metres thick, and where the trees grow densely, the whole ground in the area can be covered in the resin. It is an odd kind of place to visit, the constantly dripping golden trees, and the ground which appears to be made of solid amber. If you look closely beneath your feet, you may see little burrows riddling the amber ground, formed by beetles which feed entirely on the resin, and are some of the strongest animals in proportion to body size in the whole of Rainforest Earth. If you was to hold a resin-borer in you hard, the force with which the little beetle can ram its head into your palm is quite astonishing.

It is no wonder the weeping forests are often called the shimmering woods. However, when flooding occurs, a magical, unique new habitat is revealed: the golden lakes.

In areas where the bog-forests are submerged, the result is a petrified, underwater woodland, covered in shimmering golden resin. This is a fairly recent habitat, so there has been little time for golden lake specialists to evolve, but there are a few species. Several species of catfish have evolved golden bodies to blend in with the trees as they move over, hoovering up the algae growing there. Copepods can be found making use of the abandoned, flooded burrows of resin-borers, where they are safe from fish, although predatory annelids can easily slither down the tunnels.

The golden lakes are a beautiful, bizarre habitat and they will definitely be a place to keep an eye on in the upcoming few millions of years. For now, specialized golden lake dwellers are scarce, but who knows what may evolve?

trex841

Nov 28 2016, 10:33 AM

I love it. I freaking love it.

NinjaSquirrel

Nov 28 2016, 10:40 AM

Wow. Beetle, this sounds so fantastical but still so realistic at the same time. Excellent work yet again!

Whirlybirds (Samaridae)

 

If you were to climb one of the huge trees in the rainforests of Amoguay, you way well disturb one of these odd insects, hiding in the canopy where it can suck the sap from plants. If you – or a predator – venture too close to it, it will suddenly fling itself off its perch, into the open air. Has it commited suicide? After all that drop would kill a human for certain. But as you peer downwards, you see that the insect is slowly drifting down in an odd, spinning motion – for all the world like a sycamore seed pod or 'helicopter'.

These true bugs can be found throughout Antarguay, and there are around 1000 species, found only in the rainforests that cover much of the land. They are descended from treehoppers (Membracidae) and share many similar features with them, despite the 250 million years that have passed. Whirlybirds have short, compact bodies which rarely reach any longer than a few centimetres. They generally have no wings, although some primitive genera bear vestigial wings. Their heads are always short and have proboscises or beaks with a sharp, hardened tip for piercing the outer wall of plants to reach the sap within. All whirlybirds are herbivores.

The unusual thing about the whirlybirds are the extensions on their pronotums, the result of millions of years of adaptation and fine-tuning. The technical term for this structure is the thoraxic samara, after the helicoptering seeds of sycamores and other trees, which are known as samaras, and indeed the thoraxic samara is very similar, a delightful case of convergent evolution in 2 very different organisms. This structure emerges from the pronotum of the whirlybird, then veers forward over the head, forming a supporting hard strip which forms the skeleton for a translucent membrane. This membrane is made of the same material as insect wings, and looks very similar. The whole structure looks rather like a helicopter seed, also known as a samara, emerging from the thorax of the whirlybird.
The thoraxic samara is a feature that all whirlybirds have, and is used to make a quick escape from predators. These true bugs live in vegetation, typically rather high up, so that if threatened by a predator, they can launch themselves off of the leaf or twig that they may be on, into the empty air. The samara structure instantly comes into play, catching the wind, and causing the whole insect to spiral, slowing its fall, something known as autorotating. Sometimes this may be a short flight, but given enough open space, a suitable launch height, and a good breeze, a whirlybird can be carried far from danger. Due to the rigours of this helicoptering method of escaping, the pronotum fuses firmly to the rest of the thorax, and that in turn to the abdomen, to provide as much rigidity as possible.
The whirlybird's body is very small in comparison to the samara, and it is streamlined and short to not offbalance the body when helicoptering.

Notable Whirlybird Groups

Harlequin Wingnuts (Bicolorcerosidae)

These whirlybirds can be found mostly in the dry forests of north-western Antarguay, bordering the coastal deserts. Here amongst the semi-arid, spiny sandfig forest, there are splashes of colour against the browns, sandy yellows, and dull green: blurs of reds and yellows as they spiral downwards from the trees when disturbed. Animal activity nearby can alarm the insects, causing a shower of brightly-coloured miniature helicopters to suddenly fall from the trees.

Harlequin wingnuts are not particularly unusual in morphology or behaviour, being your average, helicoptering bug, although they are one of the more social species. However, they are notable for being packed with a nasty array of toxins, which would put off many predators. The reason for this extra defence is partly due to the envioroment: the dry forests are more open than the usual rainforests, which allows birds to swoop down upon an airborne whirlybird more easily than in the denser, damp forests. Therefore most harlequin wingnuts have developed social behaviour, so if threatened, then can all fall at once, confusing a predator, but they also feed upon poisonous plants, sequestering the toxins, and showing that they would be a bad meal with bright aposematic colouration.

Spinning Jennies (Phyllopteridae)

The 'typical' whirlybird. They can be found in rainforests rather than the dry forests as with the harlequin wingnuts. They can be gregarious or solitary, but all are herbivores, with extendable ovipositors with a scythe-like tip for cutting into the cambium of plant stems, laying their eggs in the resulting crevice, whereas the wingnuts lay well-camouflaged eggs on bark. Gregarious species of spinning jenny may lay all of the colony's eggs in one area, so that when the female's various young hatch out, they will already be in a group for safety against predators.
Whirlybird nymphs are more vulnerable than the adults, as it is not while the fifth and final instar that the thoracic samara is fully developed and capable of autorotating the whole insect. Until such a time, the nymph must find other methods of keeping out of danger. Some opt for camouflage, while others form large groups for safety. One of the most interesting examples of this can be seen in the nymphs of the deltoid whirlybird. They have unusual roughly kite-shaped bodies which fit together to form a well-protected plate of nymphs, and while the individuals on the edges may seem in danger, the idea is that the group together look like a single body, putting off any potential predators, so all nymphs in the formation are relatively well protected.
A group of deltoid whirlybird nymphs would look like this:

CaledonianWarrior96

Nov 28 2016, 01:25 PM

The whirlybird reminds me of those aerial spiralling fan-lizards seen briefly in Avatar. Nice work on them

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Lots of interesting concepts here (especially the prior-lauded weep trees and the parasitic cacti), and the first bit of leafhopper spec I've seen on the forum.

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-With the marsupial gulls, what exactly prompted the pouch development (perhaps something like what emperor penguins possess)?

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-Given that about 90% of extant avian species are marsupial-gull derivatives, what constitutes the remainder? Perhaps some passerines and anserogalliformes? Parrots? Remnant paleognaths (probably not)?

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-With the golden lake biome, does the amber-sap only form a shellack-esque layer on the bottom, or has it tinted the water gold to an extent?

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-Have any prominent "new" groups (or really derived ones) appeared and spread over the course of 250 million years worth explicit mention at this point (other than the marsupial birds), or are they for later?

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-With the fully-aquatic turtles (nifty idea BTW), how exactly did they get over the hard-shelled egg problem?

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Looking forward to what lies ahead! Cool stuff Beetleboy!

BeetleBoo

 

The eggs are kept inside a special pouch inside of the mother's rear end, where the soft-shelled eggs are kept warm and protected until the babies hatch, at which the eggshells are simply reabsorbed by the adult.

CaledonianWarrior96

Nov 28 2016, 02:18 PM

BeetleBoo

 

The eggs are kept inside a special pouch inside of the mother's rear end, where the soft-shelled eggs are kept warm and protected until the babies hatch, at which the eggshells are simply reabsorbed by the adult.

I don't know if this a feature that all aquatic testidunes can develop but I know a species of turtle where if the nest is flooded by torrential rain then the water actually triggers the eggs to hatch and the young to escape (it was a species of freshwater turtle but I don't remember the exact species). That might be an easier trait to evolve than the pouch idea in my frame of mind.

I just remember that the pouch idea wasn't very feasible when it popped up in the Whale Bird discussion long ago