Ornamented Hoby

When some Farmphibians entered the Fermi Temperate Beach, the warmer conditions meant they were not required to live within Hollowdomes. The higher number of predators did mean the farmphibians needed to find shelter, so they began to dig burrows in the beach. Among a variety of other changes, these groups eventually split off from their ancestors and became the ornamented hoby.

Ornamented hobies live within burrows, which they dig out with their claws and faces. These burrows provide the ornamented hoby a useful shelter from potential predators such as Velocidohves. The rim of the ornamented hoby’s mouth is coated in a keratinous sheath, which helps with the wear and tear the critter experiences when pushing aside dirt to maintain its burrow. This “beak” also provides help with snipping off bits of food for their teeth to then crush into an easy to swallow mush. Females obtain food only by going out to forage, while whether males forage varies depending on the status of its particular burrow. While their ancestor did have a row of spines on its back, the spines that cover the ornamented hoby’s back are more abundant and cover the flanks which resulted in it being more difficult for predators to grab them as they forage for food on the beaches.

For female ornamented hobies and younger/less successful males, this is pretty standard behavior. Mature males, however, live their lives a bit differently since they use their burrows to breed and attract mates. They dig out large chambers in their burrows that get saturated with water while another chamber above is where they bring in scraps of food and store it so it then feeds a species of Supershroom that acts as a crop. These require a bit of maintenance and not all males make these burrows themselves, some instead forcing the males that originally made these out and taking it for themselves. These result in clashes between the owner and an interloper, where they bob their heads and flash bright and aggressive colors from their color-changing skin patches on the cheeks. If neither backs down from the display, they will butt heads and push each other in a test of strength. The victor of these scuffles will evict the loser from the burrow.

During the warmer summer months on Fermi, male ornamented hobbies will try to lure females into its burrow by flashing vibrant colors on their cheeks to catch their attention. These color changing patches on the cheeks, alongside the rows of spots on their faces can be pretty dazzling and if it works a female will enter the burrow. The water at the bottom of the burrow makes a pretty good nursery, with the female depositing the eggs there while the male fertilizes them as well as guarding them. When they hatch, the male provides them small bits of food from their Supershroom crop which allows them to grow quickly until they can leave the burrow to start lives of their own.