Soggy Patricia

The Soggy Patricia split from its ancestor and spread across the Drake beaches. Like their ancestor they are detritivores, feeding on the diverse debris that washes up on the beach from high tide. The majority of their active time is spent in the wrack zone of the beaches during low tide, with no particular socializing between individuals. They're fairly common, and often can be found in groups feeding on large piles of debris. Though squabbling can occur, rarely does it actually result in any prolonged confrontations. More typically it simply ends with one giving up whatever piece of food they were fighting over and quickly pursuing the next piece of food down the beach.

During high tide the Soggy Patricia stows away among the flora and driftwood found along the edges of the tidelands. They remain inactive, hidden from possible predators. Flipping a large piece of driftwood will often expose whole clusters of them sharing temporary shallow burrows they had created for the moment. Again during this period of the day they are not particularly social, but are rather indifferent to the prospect of sharing their space with others of their own kind.

Breeding season occurs at the end of winter. Unlike their ancestors snow is not involved in the creation of nests at all. Rather the males will dig burrows underneath driftwood outside of the reach of tides. These tunnels can reach 50 cm in length and dead end without a chamber. The males advertise these burrows by standing on top of the driftwood and waving their front limbs at passersby and honking a distinct call "Aaaay-wazheckzhev-Aaaay". If they notice any predators they will quickly flee between and underneath the driftwood.

Females that pass by will stop for a day or two to mate and lay eggs, after laying eggs they will leave to continue on down the beach. Once the tunnel is filled with the 2 mm long eggs the males will stop advertising availability and crawl down to fill the entryway with sand or dirt and guard it. They rarely travel the mere meters down the beach toward the detritus, preferring to simply fast during their guard duties. A body part that now exists on them that aids in both self-defense and the defense of their burrow, found on them from the time of hatching but at its greatest size in the old males, are spurs that occur on the top of the end most segment of their front limbs. These are used for punching and scratching and pinching and are very tough and sharp.

After about 24 days the eggs begin to hatch, the young scramble out of the burrow pushing past one another and spill across the dunes of the beach. When this happens the guarding male abandons the burrow location to begin the usual period of wandering and feeding to build their strength back up. Once recovered from their period of fasting the male will once again go through the process of finding a length of driftwood to dig a burrow beneath. They will repeat this cycle until the end of summer.

Due to the sequential hermaphroditic nature of their lineage, all the hatched young start life as females. As 2 to 3 mm size morsels upon hatching they are skittish by nature, this aspect hardly wavering as they increase in size and age. They are fully capable of caring for themselves upon leaving the egg, and like the mature females they spend low tide scouring the beach for food and high tide hiding among the flora and driftwood of the upper beach dunes. They sexually mature as females after about 70 to 80 days. This means that, at least for those hatched from eggs early in the year, Soggy Patricia are able to lay a clutch of their own during their first summer of life.

Winter survival for these tiny organisms is rather basic. At the end of summer they wander more inland to find logs and rocks and other large objects that they may dig a burrow beneath for protection. In response to cooling temperatures their metabolism slows down and their body produces threitol to prevent damage from freezing. The species is capable of performing this task even shortly after hatching, allowing the breeding season to continue on until nearly the end of summer without major mortality of young to the cold. Though, it's fairly common for a newly hatched Young to hide away in the burrows created by larger individuals simply for convenience. While waiting out the winter individuals survive purely on fat stores, this is actually the most common cause of death for young during winter as opposed to dying from the cold. The youngs simply lack adequate storage to survive that length of time without venturing out to eat. In temperate regions winter does have daylight, and occasionally even somewhat warm days during which the starving Young may attempt to venture out to a low tide in order to replenish their energy stores. In subpolar regions this may kill quite a few of them however, as winter lacks adequate daylight to warm them if they venture away from their burrow. Exposure to the air of the winter night maybe too intense for them to survive, and if they do they risk the potential of getting lost in the darkness or if the entrance to its burrow gets buried with snow.

Unlike it's ancestors the Soggy Patricia does not willfully engage sequential hermaphroditism. This transformation from female to male is not influenced by population, or demographic density of the sexes, it's purely caused by time. The first two years, whether hatched at the beginning of the year or the end of summer, are spent as females. At the end of their second winter they will develop into a male and go through the process of digging burrows and advertising them. Into their third winter the individual is lacking in adequate storage to be able to survive, in subpolar regions this is enough to fairly quickly end the male. In temperate regions and individual may be able to survive further along into winter by scrounging some food during warm days. But by the time that spring comes around they're simply too worn down to survive.

Physically the species is fairly similar to their ancestors; rotund bodies and thick limbs with their eyed posterior flipped up and over their thoractic center. Their digestive system superficially looped due to this body arrangement, so that the mouth and cloaca essentially lead to the same point. Fat deposits throughout their bodies for winter survival. Their body form folded reminiscent to the development of Terran crabs, though simultaneously flipped on their backs.

Many aspects are slightly different however, one being the cloaca preferentially held to the side of the mouth at all times, no longer immediately above. Though this prevents hygienic issues frass is regularly consumed in order to extract further nutrients and pass what was eaten through digestion multiple times. The eyes that exist along this posterior length of their body are now set off center, initially aligned as hatchlings they move to the sides as the organism ages and grows. This allows for better depth perception in all directions. The mouth is even larger now with thick muscles for grinding and processing the wrack from the ocean. This already large orifice can expand further to accommodate scarfing mouthfuls of organic matter to take full advantage of the short time it's available. The front limbs have developed defensive spurs on the tops of the ends, as well as lobes for greater grip and manipulation of their food and digging.

One interesting development that deviates from the body structure of their ancestors is their ability to vocalize through their tracheal system. Like most other wingworms the Soggy Patricia has a unidirectional tracheal system that is semi active. This tracheal system spans from the mouth back to the cloaca, which in Janits is looped back around toward their front. Being semi active in wingworms this tracheal system is capable of moving air through itself, though typically via the moving activities of other parts of the body not explicitly designed for that action. Most commonly this would be powered by flight, or the movement of wings, in the more taxonomically localized lineage it would be the movement of legs derived from wings. The Soggy Patricia has taken advantage of this and developed air sacs closely associated with their hindmost legs which are capable of being pressed and deflated to give a burst of air through the exit holes associated with their cloacal region. The "kissing lips" surrounding their cloacal region associated with mating are now longer and more muscular in order to manipulate the sounds created by this escaping gas. The hatchlings and females commonly blow raspberries using this process, make pooting sounds, or hissing sounds, the males create more complex songs for their burrow advertising.