Incendiary Beetle
| Incendiary Beetle in-sen-dee-air-ee bee-tl pl. incendiary beetles | |
|---|---|
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| Fact File | |
| Classification: | Insecta |
| Frequency: | Extremely Common |
| Size: | Tiny |
| Lifespan: | 2 - 3 years |
| Domesticated?: | No |
| Diet: | Herbivore |
| Biome(s): | Boreal Forest, Mountain, Temperate Forest, Tropical Rainforest |
The incendiary beetle, which can weigh up to 65 grams, is often an ashy grey or muddy brown colour, long and tapered with ferocious claws for burrowing and folded wings for flight. They have thick, dull exoskeletons that make clicking noises when they move, and they are very sturdy.
When they burrow, they move at incredible speeds and generate intense heat and friction, which sometimes is enough to start a fire (hence the name, incendiary beetle). They are particularly fatal to the flaming gaukh tree.
Incendiary beetles can live nearly anywhere: the only thing they can't survive is intense cold or no place to land after flight (ie: over bodies of water, such as large lakes or oceans).
Incendiary beetles are particularly hard to control as pests because they have no set mating season, choosing instead to mate and lay their eggs sporadically. That way, flaming gaukh farmers can't spray poison seasonally to kill all beetle larvae and end the reproduction cycle, as there are always more eggs or adults present (the only poison that has been developed for them only works on larvae).
