Mammoth Beetle
Small and Mighty
Contrary to the idea that mammoth would refer to the size of this beetle, it instead refers to the habitat this tiny bug lives in. The mammoth provides a safe and relatively weather proof environment for this tiny beatle, with pleanty of food. A single beetle may live on two to three different mammoths in its lifetime as it searches for potential mates, they are highly communicable between mammoths, but pose no risk of transfer for any other species.
Life Cycle
The mammoth beetle begins life as an egg that is laid in a pile of dung in the summer months. The egg lays dormant for half the year, hatching is triggered by the length of the day and once the grub has emerged it will burrow into the pile of dung to begin eating it. Once the larva has reached a fair size it will begin to pupate. The adult form will only emerge when triggered by the tremors in the earth caused by the mammoths as they walk and communicate. This adult beetle will then take flight to find a host mammoth to begin the last stages of its life. The adults can live up to two years.
Appearance and Symbiosis
The Mammoth Beetle has a distinctly bright carapace in hues of irridecient blues and purple with small white markings along the center of its back. Males are smaller than the females of this species and tend to have larger white markings. They are rarely seen by people observing the mammoths as they tend to make their home close to the skin and under the protective fur on the large mammal's body. In this environment the beetle earns its keep by eating mites, fleas, and dead skin off the mammoths, keeping their large land lords happy and free from irritation. So long as a mammoth is healthy it will support a large population of beetles, a sick mammoth can be noticed as having irritation or hair loss due the beetles abandoning the creature.
Cultural Significance
The Mammoth Beetle can be boiled down to create a purple dye that is used to create clothing for those of noble status or important spiritual leaders. The making of the dye is a closely guarded secret and passed down in a single permanent camp inhabited by Umera's Shepherds. Those who are ill suited to following the migrations, or the elderly are the only ones who inhabit this camp, druid merchants are sent to collect the dye annually. This insect is also an important component in a stew used in rituals and ceremony.
Umera's Blessings
Vi'layna recoiled at the smell of the stew placed in front of her. There was a suspicious lump floating in the middle of it and she counted entirely too many legs on it she heard mutterings of 'Umera guide and preserve us' as the bowls were tipped up to mouths and she felt a wave of nausea sweep over her. It was the soltice and she hadn't quite been paying attention to the lectures about the rituals, but it seemed that she should have listened a little harder because now she was unprepared to get rid of her helping of beetle stew without putting it down the hatch. She cursed softly instead of uttering the prayer, and quickly tipped the thick liquid down her throat. Her eyes watered as the stew sent a riotous complaint through her stomach. Vi'layna counted the days to graduation.
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