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The Luminescent Canopy Drifter (dragonfly)

'''The information about the animal: ''' A large cousin of the dragonfly, exclusive to the caves of Eglwys Faen the Luminescent Canopy Drifter are nocturnal insects around 7 inches in length fully grown, almost the size of a Robin! They are predatory in nature, hunt only at night, and rest by the day. They weigh around 7 pounds.

'''Predatory methods: ''' The Luminescent Canopy Drifter quite literally drifts through canopies at night outside its nest in caves around 32 miles an hour. This is where they hunt. This incredible creature uses its fascinating ability to produce pheromones identical to that of a fly who is mating. The fake pheromones come from its oderatus, which has a very important function. The pheromones, which come from two thin tubes that spread out from behind it, are to attract prey, primarily flies, in order to easily hunt and kill them from up close; the pheromones replicate that of flies flawlessly. This is a vital part of the insect’s survival.

As is very apparent, the Luminescent Canopy Drifter has fascinatingly adapted to be bioluminescent, as the name suggests. This is because of its bright wings, prey that are attracted to light such as cave moths go straight to it, making for easy food.

Another very important function in this creature comes from their crini, two thermal based types of hairs it has near its posterior. One is called thermal crinis and the other is called detectory crinis. The detectory crinis is a magnificent adaptation developed in need of a way to prey in the dark as their eyes, called oculi, are very incapable of seeing very well in the night when hunting. When prey is near enough, its extremely thermal-sensitive crinis will let it know of its presence and assure it will never miss any prey. Aside from the detectory crinis, this incredible insect has one more trick up its sleeve. Its other crinis, called thermal crinis. Thermal crinis has the magnificent ability to transfer the thermal energy from nearby prey’s rapidly moving wings into heat to boil the acid in its body. This boiling is necessary for digestion because without it, the Luminescent Canopy Drifter would not digest its predatory diet and therefore die of hunger. Hunger was always an issue for these elusive creatures, because the amount of energy they burn with all the numerous tiring adaptations they have is staggering. An average Canopy Drifter requires 175% of their own body weight in food! This fact alone has caused many problems in the evolution of this amazing species, but somehow they managed to overcome those.

The acid inside the stomach of a Luminescent Canopy Drifter is actually extremely poisonous if ingested by another living organism. This is yet another adaptation they have marvelously evolved to have. Since their overpowering adaptations give them a high spot in the food chain, their population has outgrown their food supply, which caused them to ironically evolve an entirely new one. These intelligent creatures betray their own collectively by starving an individual member of their nest in order to attract predators to eat their dead member. This in turn kills the unlucky predator, which is usually an owl or other bird. After that, they scavenge the remains for more food. These insects actually have fights on who starves and usually the loser of those fights dies anyways, meaning they still get what they need regardless. These fights are in some twisted fashion, another of the countless ways they are constantly adapting and evolving. Since the strongest of the insects win the fights, only the strongest survive and move onto breeding the next generation of offspring.

'''Intelligent behaviors: ''' As previously mentioned, these creatures are extremely intelligent, especially for an insect species. Some scientists even believe that this may be the most intelligent insect species in the history of the Earth.

One surprising fact about their behavior is that they have extreme patience in hunting. When they attract prey, they do not kill them immediately; instead they herd the prey into their nest in the cave and kill them there, sharing the food with the entire nest. They even have gender roles! Males hunt at night while females stay with the young and nurture them.

The males that bring the most prey every night to the nest are the most desired in mating for this species. Another quality that is desirable to the females are wide wing lengths and bright luminosities, which are directly correlated to flight speeds and hunting capabilities which makes sense because the offspring will likely inherit these desirable traits.