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Dragnt Spardyvern (Draculum maculaviridi)
Creator: Jarlaxle
Ancestor: Long-Footed Spardi
Habitat: Krakow Tropical Rainforest, Krakow Tropical Beach
Size: 18 cm long
Support: Endoskeleton (Bone)
Diet: Herbivore (Honorable Crown Mycostrum, Ghost Mycostrums, Redcap Mycostrums)
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Heterotherm (Basking, Muscle-Generated Heat)
Reproduction: Sexual (male and female, live birth)

The [[Honorable Crownworm]]s were fleeing underground in terror as its winged shadow loomed over their Vermpublic nest, a fountain of toxic spit shot through the air, and any crownworm not hit by the stream spit itself did its best to escape the toxic fumes that emerged from it, making their way through the rubble as sheets of [[Honorable Crownworm Mycostrum]] were torn out of place, mycostrum silk bridges collapsed and ballooning refugees where caught out of the air. Satisfied with its share of destruction, the ''Dragnt Spardyvern'' left, leaving the Vermpublic to rebuild before it will strike again.

It didn't always use to be like that. When the Dragnt Spardyvern's ancestor first made its way to Krakow and split from the [[Long-Footed Spardi]], easily accessible sources of mycostrum on the island where scarce, and it had to use its awkward burrow digging skills to dig underneath the fruiting bodies of [[Ghost Mycostrums]] to get a full meal, or accessing the subterranean mycelial networks of [[Redcap Mycostrums]], building up a degree of tolerance to their poison when eaten in small chunks, experiencing it as spicy. An excellent memory was quickly selected, allowing it to memorize large maps of ghost mycostrum locations even when they were not creating fruiting bodies. It has evolved a flattened shovel-like snout to help its digging, and by extending the secondary sliding blade bones of its lateral mandibles into its mouth, it was able to increase its grip and hold them in place when facing them forward to aid in shoveling dirt while digging a burrow or in search of food.
Still needing to spend most of their time basking in the sun to warm up their wings, and lacking large fauna to hide on, they would use their evolving toxic tolerance to find rest where others will usually stay away, namely mats of [[Hexagoleaves]], who's honeycomb pattern it has adopted as camouflage. It has developed two large mucus glands on its vertical mandibles, one ventral, and one dorsal, each forming the center of a triangle between the nostrils and mandibles, capturing absorbed toxic fumes absorbed along the nostrils and mouth, allowing it to sneeze and spit the accumulated toxins. With the arrival of the Crownworms and their Mycostrum nests on the island, all of these adaptations took a new turn, coming together for the single purpose of assaulting these castles for their delicious building materials.


(Captions: toxic spit collection and squirting mechanism)

Using the accumulated toxin in its spit to fumigate areas of the nest and avoid the painful axes of their crusaderworms, is it able to secure portions of mycostrum. It has developed its mouth to actively collect toxins, resting with its mouth open, with mucus excreted from an orifice under the mucus gland between its nostrils, collecting toxic fumes through condensation along dorsal collector scales, dripping down into the ventral oral moats, where they get absorbed into two spongy ventral pads at its cheeks, stretching between the jaws and lateral mandibles. When it's ready to shoot, it will push its secondary sliding blade bones of its lateral mandibles into its toxin sponges, releasing accumulated toxin spit and folding down it's tongue-teeth to create a long central moat through which to direct the toxic squirt, controlling its spread and target area, while the shape of the outer row of teeth, while flattened on top, have sharp edges towards the center of the mouth to direct the flow, while using its semi-transparent nictitating membrane to protect its eyes from mid-flight backsplash.

Depending on how successful the raid is, it will either fly off with whatever it can take or perch on the buildings to feed before taking more for its young, using the same lateral mandible blade bones to hold onto large chunks of mycostrum in its cheeks to bring home for its young, which will unavoidably get some toxins around them from the pads and help the young build their resistance. Once unfurled, the tongue mashes the edible castle ruins between its teeth like a mortar and pestle, squeezing out the mycostrum from bites of dirt and rubber. When not shooting or holding food, it will rest its lateral mandibles upwards with the sliding blade outside of its mouth, giving them the appearance of horns.

Despite its aggressive raids, it is still an herbivore, and while there are always casualties in war, it will generally refrain from harming the crownworms themselves, preferring to let them rebuild nests and build new nests in its territory. It uses its excellent memory to remember numerous hive locations, the time since they were last attacked, and their state of disrepair.
This process requires relatively large territories, leading to dispersed populations. To overcome the distances, they will seek out mates in the sky, seeking each other out during the mating season and performing elaborate aerial acrobatics as a mating display, though they are only able to do so for a relatively short time, as their wings can be characterized as dexterous but low on stamina. Once mated, the male will either seek more females or go back to its territory, while the female will dig a larger burrow to give live birth in.

Increasingly more active on ground level, its hind foot gradually regained functionality, from using its toes to get a better grip on the ground while digging, all the way to walking running, and hopping. By growing the 1st and 3rd bones into a muscular secondary femur and tibia and arching its short but dense 2nd bone between them, it can use all 3 limbs to hop into the air, moving from rest to flight in one quick vertical swoop. To be able to do that when pregnant without kicking their developing young when jumping, females developed a heart-shaped womb that splits the litter into two main regions, giving their backside the shallow resemblance to a bubble butt when pregnant.

This post has been edited by Jarlaxle: Mar 5 2023, 08:31 PM

Like with the other spardi you recently posted, there doesn't seem to be enough teeth. (For the record, spardi teeth aren't enamelous either, that's why they're usually brown and dull or matte instead of white and shiny).

After reading most of the entry, I have to say it’s a very creative idea. An herbivore with predatory adaptations so that it can feed on a flora being guarded by a fauna. I’ll have to read up on the crownworms a little more for some context, though.

QUOTE (Cube67 @ Feb 15 2023, 02:38 PM)

After reading most of the entry, I have to say it’s a very creative idea. An herbivore with predatory adaptations so that it can feed on a flora being guarded by a fauna. I’ll have to read up on the crownworms a little more for some context, though.

Thanks. They aren't all required reading to understand each other but the full ecological relationship is like...

Nitrogen rich Bunvil poop leads to Hexagoleaves & Noodleaves
Hexagoleaves leads to Hatted Mycostume
Hatted Mycostume leads to Bundom
Bundom leads to Honorable Crown Mycostrum
Honorable Crown Mycostrum leads to Honorable Crownworm
Honorable Crownworm leads to The Dragnt Spardyvern
Dragnt Spardyvern babies lead to Immortazmenian Bunvil
Immortazmenian Bunvil leftovers lead to Spineybun
Spineybun lead to barefoot wounded researchers
researcher toes lead to Tootsy Nibbler
Tootsy Nibbler lead to the dark side
(of Krakow)

It is the sacred balance of poop of the order of crowworm jedi knights

I still enjoy this idea of tiny dragons raiding even smaller kingdoms. It’s a fun little take on dragons, and it is also good to see more Spardi, I do like those weird little flyers.

This post has been edited by Changeling: Feb 16 2023, 03:24 PM

Fixed its mouth to fit with spardi dental anatomy

QUOTE (Jarlaxle @ Mar 5 2023, 11:33 PM)

Fixed its mouth to fit with spardi dental anatomy

Did you need to fix the supplemental art dental as well?

QUOTE (HethrJarrod @ Jun 10 2023, 10:14 PM)

QUOTE (Jarlaxle @ Mar 5 2023, 11:33 PM) Fixed its mouth to fit with spardi dental anatomy Did you need to fix the supplemental art dental as well?

Already done.

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This post has been edited by Jarlaxle: Jun 10 2023, 02:31 PM