Turret Krugg
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The turret krugg split from its ancestor. As a type of silkrugg, it has the ability to produce silk from its wrists. Unlike most silkruggs which spin small nets to capture prey, however, the turret krugg flings its silk from a distance to capture various types of wingworms—and occasionally small biats—mid-flight as they flutter by.
The turret krugg is named for its behavior of sitting atop a tube-like dwelling catching anything that comes too close. The tube is made mostly of mud, rocks, and bits of foliage bound together in silk, and leads down to a burrow, called the bunker, below ground. The tube may sometimes be damaged or washed away and need to be rebuilt, but the bunker usually survives even floods, due to the hydrophobic properties of the silk lining the walls. The turret krugg sleeps in the bunker at night, and in the subtropical parts of its range the inside of the tube will be lined with additional silk to keep out the cold over winter. Although the turret krugg is an ectotherm, activity in both the tube and the bunker generates a small amount of heat from simple friction and muscle activity, which the silk lining can help retain.
The turret krugg is diurnal and hunts by sight. One pair of eyes points sideways and watches for movement. When something small flies near, it turns to watch with binocular vision using its other pair of eyes, which points forwards. When its target comes near enough, it pounces—half-leaping from the tube and throwing out its arms to toss the silk as far as it can. If it succeeds, it proceeds to reel in the catch to be eaten. Sometimes, it accidentally catches something it can't eat, such as a leaf. However, this doesn't go to waste, as it can be incorporated into the tube as support. The turret krugg can easily catch prey as big as itself, however any larger and it will struggle to reel it in successfully. One can occasionally find a turret krugg flipped on its back, limbs flailing, next to its toppled tube with feathers everywhere after it tried to catch something far too big and strong, such as an adult krikrees.
When it comes time to breed, a male turret krugg will abandon his station to seek out a female. He will climb her tube and attempt to court her with a dance. If she is unimpressed, she will shove him off, but if the courting is successful, she will invite him into her bunker to mate. In nearly all cases, this ends in the death of the male, as after mating the female will kill and eat him for energy to produce lots of eggs. However, sometimes, the male will escape and seek another mate, in which case the female will end up laying fewer eggs. She lays her eggs in her bunker and takes care of the hatchlings, feeding them a share of her kills until they're big enough to go out and make their own bunkers, at which point she ousts them. Females can live up to 2 years and breed once every 2 months. Male turret kruggs rarely live long enough to breed more than once or twice, but if they are especially lucky—or unimpressive—they can live just as long as the females.