Cinderwing

The Fireproof Butterfly

The Cinderwing is a butterfly adapted to survive in areas of extreme heat.

Basic Information

Anatomy

The butterfly's carbon body is unusually smooth and supernaturally hard and resistent to all but the most intense flames.
Its most striking feature, though, are its silicon wings, which actually glow with a fiery yellow to red color. Since they are also reflective, they sparkle rainbow flashes in the sunlight (whenever it is out from under the ash clouds of its habitat.)
In its larva stage, the caterpillar is unusually white with black tiger-like stripes on each segment. They also sport several long black spines, making them an unattractive meal (and very painful to step on).

Growth Rate & Stages

Cinderwing butterflies bury their eggs in the ash leftover from wildfires. The caterpillars emerge at about the same time as the tender pyriscent seedlings (pyriscent plants are plants that require the heat of a fire to propagate). The caterpillars of the Cinderwing then feed on the plants until they are ready to mature; at which point they form armored chrysalis out of pure carbon.

A cinderwing chrysalis could remain dormant for several years, waiting for the next wildfire. When a fire does occur, the chrysalis cracks, releasing a brand new butterfly. The fire also causes their superheated, glowing body fluids to expand into the capillaries of their silicon wings, hardening them and permitting them to fly. Typically, the cinderwings take flight during the latest stages of a wildfire to mate.

After mating, they lay their eggs in the leftover ash on the ground and the process begins anew.

Ecology and Habitats

The cinderwings near the yellowstone caldera are given wildfire conditions at least once a year and so their populations have thrived there, allowing the population of Flame Spout flowers to flourish.
They have no natural predators since birds dislike them and few other animals exist in the same post-wildfire ecology.

Dietary Needs and Habits

While these butterflies share the same instinct to hunt for nectar as their more normal butterfly relatives; their particular ecology does not usually present them with such opportunities except on the unburnt outskirts of fire ravaged areas. So they have evolved to live fast, mate, and die young. The Cinderwings in and around The Glow, however, are presented with the Flame Spout flower and the nectar they get from that flower enables them to live long productive lives. As a result the butterflies are everpresent and immense kaleidoscopes are known to form on occasion.

Civilization and Culture

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Armillaria takes great pleasure in cinder wings, since so few creatures symbolize such a cycle of growth, destruction and rebirth as do they.

Conservation Status

Immense kaleidoscopes of these butterflies can be seen circling around The Glow and the Phlegethon River‌.
Since it is the only known pollinator of the Flame Spout‌ flower, the success of that flower is dependent upon the proliferation of this butterfly.