Caraput

Caraputs' strong, heavy jaws allow them to eat hard twinkorals, though they avoid the prickly and spiky species. Their jaws are also strong enough to crunch through the exoskeleton of smaller scuttlers. The proportion of meat to flora varies depending on the individual, with a maximum of thirty percent of its food (calculated by the mouthful) being meat. Caraputs can distinguish between shellphyta and twinkiiros/twinkorals by brightness and contrast. This allows them to locate and stay near twinkiiros/twinkorals. They do this only because twinkiiros/twinkorals are useful to them as food, but this tendency also propels them to stay where they are best camouflaged. The caraput has numerous tough bristles on its tail. The bristles are dead cells anchored loosely in follicular pores in the caraput's exoskeleton-like covering, or armature. When threatened enzymes produced by the caraput's fight-or-flight response dissolve the thin layer of sticky protein that keeps the bristles in place. Then the caraput crouches and sharply wags its tail up and down, producing a cloud of irritating bristles moving in the general direction of the attacker. The bristle mechanism is rooted in the outer layer of the scuttler's armature, and is only regenerated upon molting. This limits how often it can use this defense. The caraput's yellowish color lets it blend into its background of twinkorals and twinkiiros, as well as golden beach sand. Caraputs are most active in the morning and afternoon, with some activity around dusk. The caraput is usually found in the supralittoral zone of the beach, though it may venture beyond that on wet, cloudy days in winter or autumn. While it's better adapted to moving on land than its ancestor, it still requires high humidity to breathe, much like the common roly-poly. Caraputs are most healthy and numerous when twinkiiros and twinkorals occur in dense patches and the sand is high in calcium.