Honeypot Pukai

The honeypot pukai is descended from the mini pukais of the Maineiac Polar Coast. The numerous planktivores of the Maineiac Polar Coast competed with the mini pukais, lessening the amount of food the mini pukais could acquire. Those mini pukais that settled in the nearby biome of the Maineiac Temperate Coast fared much better, for there were substantially fewer planktivores there. There were even two organisms (the snapperbeak hookphyler and crushermaw scylarian) that ate scuttlers, the only predator mini pukais from the Maineiac Polar Coast encountered.

The lack of competing filter-feeders and a reduced predator population allowed the mini pukai population to drastically increase. Eventually, it reached an unsustainable level, causing widespread starvation. Those mini pukais that could capture larger organisms, such as krillpedes and miniswarmers, were better adapted to surviving the starvation event. The descendants of those mini pukais are called honeypot pukais.

Honeypot pukais are called such for their yellow stomachs, which they can evert (turn inside out) to capture krillpedes and miniswarmers. Honeypot pukais have taste cells on the rim of their stomach openings, allowing them to taste/smell nearby krillpedes and miniswarmers. However, since they can only detect prey by taste, they are not very precise. They frequently fail to capture prey. However, they can make many attempts in a day, for their stomachs evert by means of hydraulics and spend little energy in the movement.

They are very common. If population densities in a patch of honeypot pukai are too great, individuals will switch to a more carnivorous diet. Once the population density decreases, it will return to filter-feeding.