Ephemeral Sapworm: Difference between revisions

|diet=Sapivore: ([[Maulwart]] (nectar, sap), [[Razorbark]] (sap))

|domainparent = EukaryotaEphemeralidae

'''Ephemeral Sapworms''', which split from their ancestor, live only during wetter seasons. Like houseflies, their lives are short: it takes 4-64–6 days for an egg to grow to an adult, with a maximum lifespan of about 23 days, though most are eaten by predators or mangled by flying accidents before then.

Ephemeral Sapworms are most active at dawn and dusk, primarily in the morning hours. They become active after sunrise, generally hiding and resting after 10:00 AM. They may rest on the trunks of blackflora or within the blooms of [[Maulwart|Maulwarts]]s, and occasionally the spore chambers or blooms of other blackflora of similar size. Ephemeral Sapworms exist in smaller swarms in Fermi Desert, due to the lower density of its hosts there.

Ephemeral Sapworms mate in swarms around clusters of Maulwarts. Unusually for Sapworms, they have some reproductive differentiation: especially well-fed Ephemeral Sapworms have longer cloacal segments, helping them lay eggs deeper into the soil. Ephemeral Sapworms can detect longer cloacal segments while mating and choose to fertilize more of their eggs accordingly. After mating, they all lay eggs (for they are hermaphrodites).Ephemeral Sapworms then investigate Maulwart hosts, tapping at fissures in the host flora’sflora's bark with their tongues and inspecting density of litter on the ground before laying eggs. Ephemeral Sapworms have a lifetime egg output of 180-220 eggs, and lay them in clusters. The eggs, each about 0.1  mm long, are laid underneath 5  mm to 1  cm of floral material, depending on local litter and soil conditions. Usually, the eggs are laid under Maulwart bark pieces, which are hard, bitter, and unappealing to most detritivores until heavily decayed, reducing likelihood of disturbance. Because the eggs are laid under floral material and the larvae remain just slightly underground, predators of their eggs and larvae are different from most sapworms.

Ephemeral Sapworms taste conspicuously different from other sapworms, due to accumulating the taste of the coffee-flavored nectar that is most of their diet. Most predators find them less appealing to eat than their relatives, and the smaller ones more easily poisoned by them may leave them half-eaten or let them go. Some of the smaller [[Silkruggs|Silkrugg]] species with better vision just let them go, without even a bite, once they’rethey're close enough to distinguish them from their similar-looking relatives, [[Nectarworm|Nectarworms]]s. Ephemeral Sapworms are nonetheless commonly eaten, especially by large fauna that need to eat many Ephemeral Sapworms at once to suffer ill effect. Egg-specialist [[Minikruggs]] are a major threat to their eggs, and one species isn’tisn't deterred at all by the coffee-like taste of the eggs.