Calago Bug

The Calago bug is one of the pollinators of northern Levis. With 8 wings across a double thorax, and a large abdomen, the Calago bug is most well known for its poisonous mandibles, and its production of the syrup Septum.

With a hive made from the burrowing of the worker class into the soft topsoil around trees, and digging and burrowing to make a hive for their queens, those who would collect the septum build their own dirt hives to collect the fluid that would be used to feed their young.

Septum itself is a thick syrupy liquid, often tart in its flavour and a blue-ish purple fluid. It has a higher crystallisation temperature than honey, but is also naturally thicker.

Calago hives are large spreading to 50cm in diameter, with the workers giving each cell a pile of Septum and pollen upon which an egg is delivered and sealed in. People who farm the calago do so by milking the bees between collection of the pollen and nectar and the conversion of the nectar into Septum.

Milking the calago is usually done by applying luxwood smoke around the areas the calago bugs are feeding from. The keeper then collects the bugs, before gently massaging the abdomen of the bug to release the nectar out of the vent that it would usually deploy it with. Due to the time intensity of the process the keepers usually trade septum at a premium to honey. Really good keepers will also feed the milked calago some sugar water after to help them recover.

Genetic Ancestor(s)