This is not an elaboration, it is a retcon. Not only that, it's a retcon that limits what biomes they are capable of surviving in and makes several species impossible to have ever existed, including actual members and ancestors of the lineage. I don't think I need to wait for Mnidjm to say this is instantly rejected.

It's a vague xenobee of some kind, presumably a small species.

I've repeatedly reminded @MNIDJM to update it. I guess he still has not.

No, the rule is 3 types now.

I did.

It's "hollow bone" and not "hollow bones" because bone is the material. It would be the same if it were, say, a sauceback, which would be listed as having "hollow chitin".

The wing, being membranous, is prone to tearing, especially with the hands being used as manipulators. Since it stopped flying, keeping it was disadvantageous.

Hexatrunk (Netebaku hexaproboscis)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Dualtrunk
Habitat: Wallace Plains, Central Wallace Veldt, Central Wallace Tropical Scrub, Central Wallace Tropical Woodland, Darwin Tropical Scrub, North Darwin Chaparral, Darwin Veldt, North Darwin Plains, Darwin Bush, Dorite Chaparral, Dorite Subtropical Woodland, Darwin Tropical Woodland, Wallace Tropical Scrub, West Wallace Tropical Woodland, Dixon Subtropical Woodland, Raptor Chaparral, Raptor Veldt, Raptor Plains, West Wallace Veldt, Wallace Savanna, Wallace Chaparral, Wallace Bush
Size: 1.6 meters long (excluding trunk)
Support: Endoskeleton (Jointed Wood)
Diet: Herbivore (Ferry leaves, shoots, and fruit)
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Endotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (Male and Female, Live Birth)

The hexatrunk split from its ancestor, spreading over much of the Wallace supercontinent. It lives in the tropical, subtropical, and temperate plains, shrublands, and intermediate forests, feeding mostly on ferries using its twin trunks to pick leaves and occasionally fruit. It has regained function in its remaining barbels, the middle pair serving to taste and manipulate food close to its mouth and the hind pair being held out to taste the air for scent.

Much like its ancestor, the hexatrunk moves in herds of 7-10 adult members. Unlike its ancestor, though the herds usually consist of several females and a male, these are not really “led” by the male. There is, instead, usually a dominant female which will pick and choose what males are allowed near her herd to mate. This is because an aggressive or rowdy male might put the herd in danger while a weak male is likely to be picked off by predators, so it is in the herd’s best interests to be very selective.

Lacking insulating integument, the hexatrunk does not stay in temperate regions over winter, instead migrating to the subtropics and competing with the subtropical population for the duration of the season. During migration, all herds often gather together and move in groups of hundreds or even thousands of individuals. Come spring, they migrate back to the temperate regions to take advantage of new growth. It is highly nomadic in general, moving from place to place feeding on different species to ensure it can take full advantage of new growth to meet its nutritional needs and never staying in one region for long. It has subspecies with slightly different color patterns, such as being more striped in the wooded parts of its range.

As a relatively small browser, the hexatrunk is innately anxious especially while alone, as it is very vulnerable to predation. This anxiety is alleviated by physical touch from other members of the herd, such as from grooming behavior, as the touch of another’s trunk is a physical confirmation of safety from their presence. It is common to see juveniles clutch their mother’s trunks with their own, and in some cases the mother hexatrunk may pick up and hold the juvenile to comfort it.

Like other plents, the hexatrunk mates mouth to mouth and gives live birth. It gestates for about 7 months and gives birth to only one or two well-developed offspring at a time, temporarily deforming its jaws to accommodate the birth of a baby more than twice the size of its skull. Juveniles are able to stand soon after birth and can run within hours, allowing them to stay close to the herd as it moves along. Juveniles typically stay slightly apart from the main herd while young, hiding in tall puffgrasses and other ground flora, making it more difficult for predators to locate and target them based on the herd’s position. Juveniles don’t have complete control over their trunks right away and have to be brought food while they learn. They take about a year and a half to reach maturity but usually don't begin breeding until their third year.

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sorry nergali for neglecting the swap

I have added a note about soil conditions.

The diversity of fruit size and shape is actually based on the cherry genus.

is my edit still okay?

I must have missed that when skimming ancestors. I'll edit the description to be more in-line.

It probably could happen, probably not super soon though. They'd need to get ear canals and then have a need for really, really good hearing.

I was thinking little pinnae that flick to release the pheromones

Dragonworms (Centipediopteryx spp.) (centipede wing)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Odor-Spray Wingworm
Habitat: Wallace, Koseman
Size: 5-10 cm long
Support: Exoskeleton (Chitin)
Diet: Carnivore (smaller wingworms), Scavenger
Respiration: Semi-Active (Unidirectional Tracheae)
Thermoregulation: Heterotherm (Basking, Heat from Muscle Activity)
Reproduction: Sexual (Hermaproditic, Eggs)

Dragonworms split from their ancestor and diversified. They have taken up carnivory, using a hunting strategy similar to that of both a dragonfly and a centipede where they catch their prey in mid-air by wrapping their many-legged abdomen around it. Unlike their ancestor, they are very strong fliers, and their wing segment is quite bulky in proportion to the rest of their body to fit large wing muscles. Their leech-like three jaws are fully external and modified for biting and tearing flesh, and their mouths can no longer create significant suction. A mutation has placed an eye on the wing segment, allowing them to detect when their prey makes an evasive maneuver and adjust accordingly.

To hunt, dragonworms perch on some kind of flora using their many legs and watch the sky with their many eyes. When they see a potential prey item, they let go of their perch and take off. They aim to fly above their prey, and they swing their abdomen forwards to snatch it from the air. Still in flight, they wrap their body around their prey and drop to the ground, hidden from their own predators so that they may consume their catch in peace.

Dragonworms breed several times a year. Like nearly all flight-capable wingworms, they have wings as hatchlings and can fly all throughout their lives. Juveniles usually hunt even smaller wingworms, but the smallest species have few food options at such a young age and will also scavenge.

Dragonworms lack the ability to spray odor. The odor glands are tiny and instead secrete pheromones. However, the “nozzle” structure remains quite large. On close inspection, the pheromone gland is off to one side while a membrane of skin stretches over the inside of the tube. Part of the respiratory system runs under here, and the membrane is sensitive to vibration. The dragonworms have transformed their odor-spewing nozzle into a primitive ear, complete with a mobile ear canal.

There are many species of dragonworm. They vary mostly in size and color, but some species have more robust jaws for crushing shell-winged worms and others have longer jaws for more effectively grappling with smaller prey. Temperate species are migratory and those in Koseman and the temperate islands are capable of soaring over short stretches of ocean. They cannot survive in alpine or subpolar conditions; otherwise, they are present anywhere in Wallace or Koseman and the surrounding islands where other kinds of wingworm can be found.

It's the torso length. I never use wingspan because it's difficult to judge how big a creature actually is from it alone.

This was resolved days ago and only lasted a few hours

Uniwingworms (Unipteryx spp.) (one-wing)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Odor-Spray Wingworm
Habitat: Wallace, Koseman, Driftwoods, Barlowe, Drake, Fermi, Lamarck, Ramul, Steiner, Vonnegut, LadyM Ocean (Floating Flora), Jujubee Ocean (Floating Flora), Mnid Ocean (Floating Flora)
Size: 3-4 cm long
Support: Exoskeleton (Chitin)
Diet: Frugivore, Detritivore
Respiration: Semi-Active (Unidirectional Tracheae)
Thermoregulation: Heterotherm (Basking, Heat from Muscle Activity)
Reproduction: Sexual (Hermaphroditic, Eggs)

Uniwingworms split from their ancestor and diversified. Contrary to their name, they do not have only one wing nor only one pair of wings. In fact, in a rare case of atavism, they actually have all twelve ancestral wings. However, the wings are all zippered together, like barbs on a feather, producing a single pair of flight surfaces. All the wings making up the “compound wing” grant them great flexibility, similar to the wings of a batworm. This makes them stronger and better fliers than most wingworms, and the broad surface allows them to soar somewhat like a terran butterfly. They have switched to frugivory, biting distinctive triangular holes in larger fruits and sucking out flesh with their leech-like mouth structure. If there is no fruit available for whatever reason, they remain capable of consuming detritus.

Uniwingworms are one of the several kinds of wingworm that fly backwards, abdomen-first, to better see where they are going. They will land on top of a fruit, abdomen-up, allowing them to watch for predators while they nibble. They have replaced their odorous fluid with a bitter one secreted from a gland only visible on close inspection, which they spread over themselves rather than spraying out. This makes them taste bad, so some predators will leave them alone. However, their defense isn’t perfect, so they must always keep an eye--or six--out.

Uniwingworms can bite through fruit with fairly thick skin. This often attracts the attention of sweetworms, some species of which will follow uniwingworms to lap up the sweet juices that dribble out of the fruits that they would otherwise be incapable of consuming. The uniwingworms tolerate this, as they themselves primarily consume the flesh.

Uniwingworms breed several times a year and lay their eggs in soil. Like other wingworms, juvenile uniwingworms are capable of flight just like the adults. After hatching, they climb up onto flora and stretch their wings out, separated rather than joined, so that the barbs on the wings can harden into the correct shape. Once dry, the wings zip together with only a little bit of shuffling.

Uniwingworms are migratory. They cannot survive cold winters, so in the fall, temperate species will migrate to the tropics or subtropics, sometimes crossing the ocean to do so using their ability to soar. Those in Drake and Dingus migrate to Darwin and Ramul, those in Lamarck migrate to Barlowe, those in Fermi migrate to Raptor, and those in Vonnegut and Koseman migrate to the Driftwoods. When spring arrives, they migrate back to take advantage of the fruiting season and remain until the following fall. No species can survive alpine or subpolar conditions.

There are many species of uniwingworm. Strong fliers capable of soaring and with a fairly untapped niche for their size range, they have spread to many landmasses through both island hopping and taking advantage of floating flora. They usually have coloration that allows them to hide among flora. Some species have preferences for specific kinds of fruit, such as only consuming shroom berries.

I've decided that specifying so many species-specific things as poison resistance is against the spirit of modern genus groups. Species like that should be splits.

They aren't strong fliers, so they'd not be able to get into or stay in trees consistently.

I'll edit in more clarifications in a little while

Nachoetoes sound like they would make sense as a genus group.

Spearsore makes more sense as a widespread single entry, but I wonder how that interacts with the wildcard system; I personally wouldn't count it under wildcard since it's a microclimate thing, but Mni might. Alternatively it can be a notable subgenus in a broader genus group that does similar things.

Since it's a genus group that might potentially outlast the nodents, I don't want to be too clade-specific. Anything that would be poisonous to an insect can probably be assumed off the menu.

I think you forgot to mention it serves to let them have a higher, more genetically healthy population in the same amount of space

I'm already tempted to make a descendant that adds a third female type resulting in a stabilization into a rock paper scissors arrangement

god damn autocorrect

Stinkers (Fetidusvermis spp.) (stinky worm)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Odor-Spray Wingworm
Habitat: Wallace
Size: 2-8 cm long
Support: Exoskeleton (Chitin)
Diet: Herbivore (Wallace Puffgrasses, Crystal Entourage Swordgrasses, small Ferries, Sunstalks, and other small leafy flora), Scavenger (while breeding)
Respiration: Semi-Active (Unidirectional Tracheae)
Thermoregulation: Heterotherm (Basking, Heat from Muscle Activity)
Reproduction: Sexual (Hermahroditic, Eggs)

Stinkers split from their ancestor and diversified. They have returned to herbivory and modified their leech-like three-jawed mouths for chewing. They are named for a trait which they inherited from their ancestors; when disturbed by a predator, they will fly away, spraying odorous fluid behind them. Like a skunk, this leaves a strong stench on their unlucky attacker, which then might itself become the target of predators. If the spray gets in the eyes, it can also cause temporary blindness. They never fly far, but they rarely need to--most predators will think twice before bothering them again.

Stinkers are generally found in small ground flora such as “grasses” and small shrubs, making them most numerous in the plains and shrublands. They can also be found in younger stretches of forest that have not yet been taken over by shade trees, feeding on the undergrowth. They are less common, but not nonexistent, in deserts, where they flutter between patches of flora. They cannot be found in trees because they are too weak of fliers to consistently scale and stay in them. They cannot survive cold winters, so species in such regions have eggs that can lay dormant in soil until spring arrives.

Though primarily herbivorous, there are circumstances where stinkers will consume meat. When they breed, they will seek out protein sources to help them produce their eggs. This can lead to them scavenging for fresh meat from carcasses or open wounds. Species which mostly eat crystal entourage swordgrasses don’t usually need to do this, as the crystals are very rich in protein.

There are many species of stinker. They nearly all have warning coloration, which manifests in mostly black coloration with white, yellow, or green stripes or spots on their backs, somewhat like a skunk, as well as bright colors on the undersides of their wings. Species which mostly eat black flora such as sunstalks may be entirely white. Many species are generalists, but some will specialize for a specific genus of flora; for example, there are species which specialize in ferry bushes and have more robust jaws for chewing through the tougher leaves. They speciate too readily for every single one to be feasibly recorded. They are rare in polar biomes, but they can still be found shockingly far south, their ability to remain dormant in eggs allowing them to colonize small pockets of the polar barrens where flora can grow in the summer.

Though they are existent in islands very close to Wallace, because they can’t fly far, stinkers have failed to colonize Koseman.

Beakworms never had endoskeletons and the ones that randomly have them got there from misinterpretation

Large flora genera have a size limit of 20 meters, which is not even close to the maximum size for a tree, so to make bigger stuff people have to make individual species. I don't think individual species submissions are likely to be hurt by this. That said, I think that primarily submitting plants and insect-analogues that are not biome-specialized as regional genus groups is probably the best for Sagan 4 long-term because they can withstand periods of inactivity from the comparatively tiny number of people who are actually interested in making them.

My thoughts on genus groups are difficult to explain briefly. They serve a very important purpose in Sagan 4 both from a game perspective and from a realism perspective. For some strange reason, the types of organisms that people are the least interested in submitting just happen to also be the types that are the most specious on Earth, so limiting them to single species submissions not only potentially harms Sagan 4 game-wise but is also unrealistic. These fundamental organisms end up being absent from where they need to be and become vulnerable to sudden, ecosystem-devastating extinction, which ruins the fun for everyone. Plant groups that should be successful peter out from lack of interest and both wingworms and scuttlecrabs almost entirely went extinct from habitat loss.

Though the genus system originally served just to fill in pioneer species, once I joined the project and as I started experimenting with them, I slowly realized their potential to resolve the above problems and represent realistic specious genera. In case you haven't noticed, the culture surrounding genus groups has completely changed. Tons of overly-broad groups have gotten broken up, new overly-broad groups are being discouraged and rejected, and the genus system itself has been completely redesigned to encourage regional groups. This has largely been the result of my own pushing, and it has completely transformed the system from a restrictive mess that somehow allows "these are all the bees everywhere in the world with every diet a bee can have" to something better resembling single-species submission in nearly every way. This is because that is exactly what a specious genus on Earth typically is--it's a cohesive group of organisms with defined biology and behavior that are generally found in a broad region and simply speciate too fast to be feasibly represented species-by-species. You yourself have also had a hand in this change, as we also legitimized a habit of yours--elaborating on a specific species in a genus group as part of another submission--as something actually noted in the rules as a thing submitters can do.

I don't think ferries will be a problem for future tree submissions, apart from there probably being no redundant "x species in Y new location" splits. They aren't, and don't pretend to be, all sun-loving trees and shrubs of their size and habitat range, nor are they all the ferines. They are, specifically, all generic ferries, which are a type of fast-growing sun-loving woody flowering plant with berries and a frond-like leaf structure--and if someone wants something that is not a ferry, they can, should, and have to make it.

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As for the other comments...

Leaf shapes would be variants of the frond. I ran out of room and decided it wasn't important enough to have more than just a textual elaboration, since it wouldn't vary a whole lot between species.

The flower colors are just flavor at the moment because we don't have enough pollinators for specialization to exist yet.

I'm not sure how to elaborate on flavor. I based it on how some Wikipedia articles I looked at describe the range of fruit flavor in a genus.

I feel like a shade-tolerant ferry would be better for a descendant that keeps the same genus, since that's not standard for the genus group.