Agate Krugg

Like Kruggs in general, Agate Kruggs have six legs (although two are almost vestigial), leathery exoskeletons, and lay snail-like eggs in soil (damp soil, in this case). For the Agate Krugg in particular, its exoskeleton is only leathery on its limbs and underside: the top side is calcified, somewhat like a Terran crab's, if not to the same extent. Its crunchy texture makes it a somewhat less appealing food to some of its predators, but it mainly relies on camouflage, hiding, incompatible activity times, and high reproductive rates to survive.

Unlike its ancestor, it is aquatic, and can hold its breath for about 32 minutes. Agate Kruggs spend much of their time at the edges of rocky streams, hidden amid or under pebbles, purple flora, and occasionally scraps of bark or other plant matter. Its flattened, small, sturdy body is well-suited to hiding under heavy pebbles or bark pieces in purpleflora-dominated streams. Its last three body segments are highly compressed. Agate Kruggs have a blotchy, painting-like pattern of purple bands and light-purple blotches. A ridge lies in the middle of its face, culminating in a slight beaky overhang over its mouth. Like its ancestor, its jaws fit closely together.

It is well-camouflaged to hide among swathes of freshwater marbleflora. Its vision is also good enough to allow it to distinguish different kind of flora by color, identifying the purple flora under which they can best hide. Agate Kruggs do not roam far from secure, pebbly areas. They create silken pads from their forelegs to help attach themselves to pebbles in relatively fast-flowing streams. Adult Agate Kruggs, but especially larvae, use silk to bind together pebbles to stabilize particularly good hiding spots by the barely-submerged edges of streams, particularly when predator density is highest. Due to their size, adults have more trouble hiding within burrows between pebbles or underneath pebbles, and so tend to situate themselves underneath larger purple flora, larger rocks, or occasionally in small divots in damp, flora-coated ground beside rocks. Occasionally, Agate Kruggs carried away in floods end up in new areas and snap at resident Agate Kruggs as they try to take over pre-existing burrows to ensure they can have shelter quickly. Otherwise, they are not territorial.

Agate Kruggs live at remarkably high latitudes for a small ectotherm. The adults cannot survive the harsh winters of the higher limits of their ranges, but eggs typically survive, hidden in the soil and under scraps of bark and floral matter. Its third pair of legs is small and not used for walking. Instead, they are used as mating claspers. During the breeding season, silk glands in the hind legs secrete a spongy silk that connects two Agate Kruggs together, allowing them to complete mating, even when the water runs fast.

Most of Agate Kruggs' diet consists of soft organic matter, and it avoids high-cellulose material or large, tough bones. It is nonetheless equipped to scrape away at gristle, small or weak bones, and exoskeletons, and in fact is so fond of small bones and exoskeletons that placing a small bone or exoskeleton underneath a cluster of pebbles and coming back five hours later and lifting the pebbles almost always yields at least five Agate Kruggs. Small bones and exoskeletons fairly reliably tempt them to leave the safety of their pebble nests within streams.

Agate Kruggs have several predators, including the Toadtuga, Spineless Toadtuga, and Thorny Toadtuga. Mottlekraggs sometimes catch and devour Agate Krugg larvae if they are uprooted by strong currents. Agate Kruggs are more common where River Saltgrasses are sparser, for the hunting strategy of one of its predators, the Mottlekragg, relies on hooking onto River Saltgrass. This is despite the fact adults tend to situate themselves more beside large flora: adults are better at evading predators, have thicker shells, and a stronger bite, and so Mottlekraggs rarely try to eat adult Agate Kruggs.

Chainswarmers tend to be more nutritious and tastier than what Agate Kruggs usually eat, so they slurp up small colonies like spaghetti, particularly when the colonies are beached on the sides of the stream and slowly slithering back into the water. As Agate Kruggs are fairly common (if local and well-hidden) small herbivores active in every season but winter, they create a small but notable influence on the density of Chainswarmers in their habitats. As a consequence, Agate Kruggs make their habitats a little more dominated by purple flora than they otherwise would be, helping their camouflage.

Agate Kruggs are almost ubiquitous in their habitats provided their habitat needs of stream flow, pebbles, dense purpleflora growth (e.g., Pioneeroots, Marbleflora) and rocks or large stream-side purpleflora are met. They are hard to see due to their small size, camouflage, tendency to hide and activity times.