Candle Pseudoplant



Candle Pseudoplant

(Lumensilva arctos)

Introduction
It's night in the northern forests of the Auroran continent. It is the beginning of winter in these parts, and the dropping temperature and increasing humidity single the onset of the bulbugs breeding season. Having lain dormant as larva underground for most of the year, over the past few days, millions of them have metamorphosized en masse to breed and lay eggs. Tonight promises to be a literal orgy of frenzied mating. The darkness is thickly illuminated with glowing yellow dots as these large glowflies flit around trying to find suitable mating partners. Among the thousands upon thousands of light orbs, there are a few that seem a bit different, larger and slightly brighter than others; the bulbugs or course, see no difference and attempt to mate with them just the same, only to find themselves hopelessly glued on some sort of adhesive surface. Their end is quick and certain, as they have been captured by the Candle Pseudoplant, a peculiar species of near-sessile ballfrog which feeds almost entirely on glowfiles.

Taxonomy
As mentioned above, the candle pseudoplant belongs to the clade known as the ballfrogs, and this can be easily seen by its round, ovoid shape and its lack of arms and legs. More specifically it is a type of pseudoplant, a group of sessile and near-sessile anurans within the ballfrogs; they are often confused as boil-mound species, but they evolved independently and are not closely related. L. arctos is monotypical within the genus Lumensilva, but is closely related to the flower-lipped pseudoplants (genera Robolabellus and Flosbura); together they form the subfamily Flosburinae, members of which are distinguised by their unusually long tongues, eight "leaves", and use of bioluminescence in some way, of which the candle pseudoplant's use is unique.

Description
The body of the animal is around 50-60cm in length, including the tail; the specialized tongue of the ballfrog may be over twice of the body. Four leaf-like structures extend from both its sides; they are derived from extensions of the ribs (although the supports mainly consists of cartilage) and assist in both camouflage and limited moving. The tail is short, but large and is arrow-shaped; it is used for rooting the animal into the ground as well as storing fat. As with all pseudoplants, the tongue inflates as it extends as to be able to be so large yet still fit into the mouth cavity. The skin of the candle pseudoplant is similar to most other pseudoplants, being a mottled green in colour to be inconspicuous to other animals. Unlike other species of the subfamily Flosburinae, it doesn't have the distinct petal-like mouth; it probably lost this feature as it became useless for attracting prey at night, as did the colourful tongue. The cloacal vent of L. arctos is large, as with many species of pseudoplant, to allow for easier mating for the very poor-sighted animals. The eyes are covered by a thin layer of skin and their ability to distinguish anything other than extremes of light and dark is limited. They have a reasonable sense of hearing to help comensate, but having highly effective camouflage and spending much of its life immobile, it has little need for most senses.

Biology
Native to much of Northern Aurora, with the majority of their population concentrated in the continent's northmost coniferous forest, the candle pseudoplant's behavior is not out of the ordinary much compared to other species, in all but one aspect; while other species of pseudoplant feed during the day - displaying their colourful flower or fruit-like tongues to attract prey - the candle pseudoplant feeds at night, using a bioluminescent lure to draw in glowflies, which are fooled into believing the light comes from a potential mate. This method of feeding is not unheard of nor unique, many species of invertebrates, ratama and deep-sea hellwogs feed this way, and flower-lipped pseudoplants are capable of producing light as well, but for courtship purposes rather than hunting; this species is however the only terrestrial anuran to use this method of hunting. Glowflies constitute approximately 99% of their diet, other types of flying insects may be caught on occasion, but this is usually accidental. Being distasteful, slightly toxic and otherwise not worth the trouble of hunting, the specialized candle pseudoplant is free of competition.

In the day, the candle pseudoplant coils up its long lure and thus completes its camouflage as an unassuming low shrub, until night falls and it once more extends its tongue and fishes for insect prey. The many diverse species of glowflies that live in the area, as well as the lack of extreme seasonal changes means the candle pseudoplant has an almost constant supply of reliable food. In times where little prey appears, it can survive upon fat stores in its rooted tail until it can replenish itself again. The hunting method of the candle pseudoplant is simple, it simply extends its lure and slowly waved the tip back and forth, occasionally retracting it to scrape off captured insects.

The candle pseudoplant is not a true sessile animal for any stage of its life, because during the nights of the hottest weeks of summer, the ballfrogs uproot themselves and gather in large numbers. They move slowly by a combination of pushing, shuffling and hopping. They call to each other with numerous chirps, and males will try to mate with as many females as possible before dawn when they return to their rooted spots. Females return to their spots after they have mated, but males may uproot themselves multiple times. If they're caught unrooted they risk being eaten, although their flesh is distasteful (a trait likely earned through their glowfly diet), a few predators have grown accustomed to their taste, such as the eastern quarburd and the brown dippbird, which stab through the pseudoplant's flesh with their long beaks. A few weeks after mating, dozens of larval candle pseudoplants will emerge from their mother; they lack any defenses against predators and are only capable of slow, slug-like movement, but the females - having mated at around the same time - synchronize the births to be around the same time as other females, flooding the environment with millions of offspring and overwhelming hunters. The offspring that escape into the undergrowth will spend several months feeding upon whatever is vaguely edible, growing and preparing for metamorphosize into adults. After 4-5 months of feeding, they will root themselves to a location they deem suitable and sprout the full adult "leaves" and tongue (during this time they would have reached a size of around 10cm in length from tail-tip to lip), ready to begin a long life of feeding upon the light in the dark.