Angel Dart
| Angel Dart | ||
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| (Loricatimusca alpinis) | ||
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| Information | ||
| Creator | Coolsteph Other | |
| Week/Generation | 24/154 | |
| Habitat | North Dixon Peak, Central Dixon Peak, North Dixon Alpine | |
| Size | (Walkers) 3 cm Long, (Flyers) 8 cm Long | |
| Primary Mobility | Unknown | |
| Support | Exoskeleton (Chitin) | |
| Diet | Detritivore, Coprophage, Sporeivore (Lacy-Leaf Obsiditree spores), Herbivore (Rustmolds, Testudiatoms, Tepoflora), Scavenger | |
| Respiration | Semi-Active (Unidirectional Tracheae) | |
| Thermoregulation | Heterotherm (Basking, Muscle-Generated Heat) | |
| Reproduction | Sexual, Hermaphrodite, Eggs | |
| Taxonomy | ||
| Domain Kingdom Subkingdom Phylum Class Subclass Order Family Genus Species | Eukaryota Binucleozoa Symbiovermes Thoracocephalia Optidorsalia Polyptera Aculeiptera Aculeimuscidae Loricatimusca Loricatimusca alpinis | |
| Ancestor: | Descendants: |
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The angel dart is named such because it is a dartir and has a social structure and morphs similar to zorapterans, or angel insects. However, its behaviors and diet are also similar to ice crawlers.
Like angel insects, they have two morphs. The most common form, the walker morph, is very small by dartir standards and cannot fly. The wings are inflexible and are permanently bent midway down the length. Angel darts in the walker morph can only move the joints at the base of the wing, which are equivalent to shoulders. Such movement is slow and inefficient, but there is no pressure for the recently adapted wings to become more suited for walking.
The second morph, the flier morph, looks much like a species of dartir. (the same or a similar one as the individual on the left on the Dartirs genus image.) Due to the position of its shoulders, it is a poor flier compared to its ancestor. Angel darts produce fliers when surroundings become inhospitable. The fliers fly off to a better location, whereupon they produce walkers.
Walkers live in loose colonies in dead lacy-leaf obsiditrees. They are not eusocial like ants, but merely use the dead lacy-leaf obsiditree as shelter from the cold.
Fliers can spend a long time flying in search of a suitable place to live. Some become lost on the North Dixon Peak or Central Dixon Peak. While there, they eat whatever the wind blows up. This can be meat, (unfortunate tropoworms or herbivorous tropoworms or their eggs) plant matter, (microscopic photosynthetic organisms, lacy-leaf obsiditree leaf fragments) or waste. (tiny bits of wind-tossed soaring phlyer waste) They are often lost there in storms or on unusually windy days. Some fliers die while lost there, whether from freezing to death in bad weather or starving. Other fliers may eat their bodies.
Walkers tend to produce fliers in the summer, which makes it less likely the fliers will die from inclement weather. However, since they cannot control when an environment becomes inhospitable, they may produce fliers in late autumn or early winter.
As angel darts are blind, they use the pointy bits on their heads like the canes of blind people to investigate the ground in front of them. The pointy bits are also used by males in the walker morph to establish dominance. The dominant males attract harems of females.