HOME | DD

Description
In the more polar areas of Tletonatiuh, the forests are formed by Pines, derived Dandelion, and some resistant Ferns. They all fear the cold night.

During the day, a hungry Caterpillar is feeding on the leaves of a Pine, as did his ancestors, while enjoying pleasant temperatures of 12ºC. Other more primitive caterpillars could not withstand these temperatures, but thanks to the joint action of a larger and stubby body, insulating hairs, and a dark, almost black, coloration, this caterpillar can afford to live in such a cold climate. But the sun falls, and before the Caterpillar notices, it's almost night, and all her sisters and brothers have already taken refuge. The lonely Caterpillar goes to the main trunk as fast as her primitive ocelli detect the rapid decrease of light, undulating her hairy body on the branch which she was feeding. It clings to the trunk and down its rough bark until it reaches the ground again, the sky is now bright orange and the ground plants begin to lose water from their leaves, withering discreetly. The caterpillar does not have much time before temperatures begin to fall to values close to 0ºC. Follow the scent trail to the tree where it will rest, also a Pine tree, a dead one, and start climbing through its thick trunk. Higher up, a large niche made of pine's needles and silk awaits, but the movement becomes increasingly difficult as the darkness hovers over it and temperatures drop, and move becomes practically impossible when it is only a few centimeters of her silk shelter and the sun has long since disappeared, but fortunately for her, manages to enter the nest and the heat of this returns her strength. Inside the nest, the temperatures are relatively higher than outside, touching the 9 º C thanks to the dozens of caterpillars that live and sleep inside it, but not only sleep Caterpillars, so do their Adults.

(...)

In the north of Emesh, the nights are hard, the temperatures drop quickly when the sun goes down and can go down to -5ºC. The plants, unable to move, have had to adapt, and as previously mentioned, the Pines are the best in this environment, having reevolved an antifreeze resin. But they are not the only ones, some species of Dandelion have developed methods to avoid frozen water in their tissues, pumping it from their conductive vessels to the roots, where it is stored in special bulbs that do not suffer too much damage by ice crystals. Some Ferns also have a similar method, but they simply enter a state of cryptobiosis in which the leaves and stems suffer minimal damage from freezing. Even so, the leaves are constantly replaced, with the new stems protected by insulating hairs.

All these plants serve as food for various herbivores, such as Badger-Moles and Blind Cockroaches, which we will see later. But the most important group of forest defoliators are the Colonial Caterpillars.

The Emergency occurs when the set of something has new properties that the individual parts do not have, that is to say "the whole is more than the sum of the parts". The Colonial Caterpillars present in some degree an emergency to survive the cold nights, none of the caterpillars per individual is endothermic, they couldn't generate enough heat to endure a night at almost 0 ° C, but together, they form nests that can keep warm and help them survive. These nests are found in the treetops, where they receive more solar radiation during the day to warm up, and are formed by silk, pine leaves, litter from the soil and residues from the Caterpillars themselves. To build them, several dozens of Caterpillars collaborate with each other to form the great structure that hangs from the branches, this has not been difficult to evolve and is just an amplification of the social aspect of their ancestors, the Pine Processionary, who were already building nests to protect from the cold. But this social behavior has transcended the larval stage, and now adults also form large groups of Moths that fly together, reproduce together and lay eggs on the same trees, which also helps the larvae to find each other. But not only do the Moths of Emesh, various groups of Processionary have achieved this adaptation to survive the predators, where the large number ensures that some survive. So what is special about the social species of the northern continent? They not only recognize each other as larvae or as adults, but both groups are recognized as individuals of the same species. Adults join groups of Caterpillars and even sleep with them in their nests to avoid the cold nights.

From a more individual point of view, the Colonial Caterpillars are still very similar to their ancestors, but now somewhat larger, like most invertebrates of Tletonatiuh, but not in such a remarkable way, this is cause producing so much silk consumes a lot of Energy, and oxygen expenditure is also higher. In addition, instead of growing in a proportionate manner, they have become much wider than longer to keep the heat better, and their irritating hairs have now become insulating hairs (although the irritant function still remains in longer hairs) that have darkened next to its cuticle. Although the nights are spent in the nests, by day they need an external source of heat and the sun performs an excellent function, their dark color allows them to better capture this energy and heat up to carry out their metabolism. The insulating hairs here may seem a disadvantage, but these are also dark in color and therefore also warm, in addition to heating the inner air layer that keeps the Caterpillar stable. When the sun goes away, they lose their source of heat, and although they can stay warm for a while, in the long nights of 9h they would end up succumbing to the cold.

On the other hand, their Moths are even more similar to their ancestors than the Caterpillars, although without the energy expenditure involved in generating silk constantly, they have been able to grow larger. Unfortunately they still can not feed themselves in the adult phase and their life time is decided according to their reserves of fat, so that much of the biomass of the caterpillar becomes fat reserve for the adult, who has a stubby abdomen in his first days of life and lose weight during the following weeks. Another important biomass expense is the wings, as Tletonatiuh presents a thinner atmosphere than the Earth, larger wings are necessary to general the same thrust, and although the gravity is lower, we must also remember that the Moths have grown in size .

Another effect of the planet in the Colonia Caterpillars is in its reproductive cycle, it has been completely broken. As Tletonatiuh has no seasons, Moths reproduce throughout the entirelly year, so in the nests there are Caterpillars of different ages, Pupas and Adults, also of different generations, living together.

These Caterpillars, although there are similar groups in the opposite pole since they do not achieve such a level of socialization, are unique to Emesh, but they are not the only exclusive and peculiar fauna of the Northern Continent.

Description
In the more polar areas of Tletonatiuh, the forests are formed by Pines, derived Dandelion, and some resistant Ferns. They all fear the cold night.

During the day, a hungry Caterpillar is feeding on the leaves of a Pine, as did his ancestors, while enjoying pleasant temperatures of 12ºC. Other more primitive caterpillars could not withstand these temperatures, but thanks to the joint action of a larger and stubby body, insulating hairs, and a dark, almost black, coloration, this caterpillar can afford to live in such a cold climate. But the sun falls, and before the Caterpillar notices, it's almost night, and all her sisters and brothers have already taken refuge. The lonely Caterpillar goes to the main trunk as fast as her primitive ocelli detect the rapid decrease of light, undulating her hairy body on the branch which she was feeding. It clings to the trunk and down its rough bark until it reaches the ground again, the sky is now bright orange and the ground plants begin to lose water from their leaves, withering discreetly. The caterpillar does not have much time before temperatures begin to fall to values close to 0ºC. Follow the scent trail to the tree where it will rest, also a Pine tree, a dead one, and start climbing through its thick trunk. Higher up, a large niche made of pine's needles and silk awaits, but the movement becomes increasingly difficult as the darkness hovers over it and temperatures drop, and move becomes practically impossible when it is only a few centimeters of her silk shelter and the sun has long since disappeared, but fortunately for her, manages to enter the nest and the heat of this returns her strength. Inside the nest, the temperatures are relatively higher than outside, touching the 9 º C thanks to the dozens of caterpillars that live and sleep inside it, but not only sleep Caterpillars, so do their Adults.

(...)

In the north of Emesh, the nights are hard, the temperatures drop quickly when the sun goes down and can go down to -5ºC. The plants, unable to move, have had to adapt, and as previously mentioned, the Pines are the best in this environment, having reevolved an antifreeze resin. But they are not the only ones, some species of Dandelion have developed methods to avoid frozen water in their tissues, pumping it from their conductive vessels to the roots, where it is stored in special bulbs that do not suffer too much damage by ice crystals. Some Ferns also have a similar method, but they simply enter a state of cryptobiosis in which the leaves and stems suffer minimal damage from freezing. Even so, the leaves are constantly replaced, with the new stems protected by insulating hairs.

All these plants serve as food for various herbivores, such as Badger-Moles and Blind Cockroaches, which we will see later. But the most important group of forest defoliators are the Colonial Caterpillars.

The Emergency occurs when the set of something has new properties that the individual parts do not have, that is to say "the whole is more than the sum of the parts". The Colonial Caterpillars present in some degree an emergency to survive the cold nights, none of the caterpillars per individual is endothermic, they couldn't generate enough heat to endure a night at almost 0 ° C, but together, they form nests that can keep warm and help them survive. These nests are found in the treetops, where they receive more solar radiation during the day to warm up, and are formed by silk, pine leaves, litter from the soil and residues from the Caterpillars themselves. To build them, several dozens of Caterpillars collaborate with each other to form the great structure that hangs from the branches, this has not been difficult to evolve and is just an amplification of the social aspect of their ancestors, the Pine Processionary, who were already building nests to protect from the cold. But this social behavior has transcended the larval stage, and now adults also form large groups of Moths that fly together, reproduce together and lay eggs on the same trees, which also helps the larvae to find each other. But not only do the Moths of Emesh, various groups of Processionary have achieved this adaptation to survive the predators, where the large number ensures that some survive. So what is special about the social species of the northern continent? They not only recognize each other as larvae or as adults, but both groups are recognized as individuals of the same species. Adults join groups of Caterpillars and even sleep with them in their nests to avoid the cold nights.

From a more individual point of view, the Colonial Caterpillars are still very similar to their ancestors, but now somewhat larger, like most invertebrates of Tletonatiuh, but not in such a remarkable way, this is cause producing so much silk consumes a lot of Energy, and oxygen expenditure is also higher. In addition, instead of growing in a proportionate manner, they have become much wider than longer to keep the heat better, and their irritating hairs have now become insulating hairs (although the irritant function still remains in longer hairs) that have darkened next to its cuticle. Although the nights are spent in the nests, by day they need an external source of heat and the sun performs an excellent function, their dark color allows them to better capture this energy and heat up to carry out their metabolism. The insulating hairs here may seem a disadvantage, but these are also dark in color and therefore also warm, in addition to heating the inner air layer that keeps the Caterpillar stable. When the sun goes away, they lose their source of heat, and although they can stay warm for a while, in the long nights of 9h they would end up succumbing to the cold.

On the other hand, their Moths are even more similar to their ancestors than the Caterpillars, although without the energy expenditure involved in generating silk constantly, they have been able to grow larger. Unfortunately they still can not feed themselves in the adult phase and their life time is decided according to their reserves of fat, so that much of the biomass of the caterpillar becomes fat reserve for the adult, who has a stubby abdomen in his first days of life and lose weight during the following weeks. Another important biomass expense is the wings, as Tletonatiuh presents a thinner atmosphere than the Earth, larger wings are necessary to general the same thrust, and although the gravity is lower, we must also remember that the Moths have grown in size .

Another effect of the planet in the Colonia Caterpillars is in its reproductive cycle, it has been completely broken. As Tletonatiuh has no seasons, Moths reproduce throughout the entirelly year, so in the nests there are Caterpillars of different ages, Pupas and Adults, also of different generations, living together.

These Caterpillars, although there are similar groups in the opposite pole since they do not achieve such a level of socialization, are unique to Emesh, but they are not the only exclusive and peculiar fauna of the Northern Continent.