Dergimar Fly

Usually I don't post half-finished entries, but I leave tomorrow for North Carolina, and I don't have time to finish this entry before then! It's downloaded on my laptop, so I'll be working on it along with a number of others. You can comment on what I have right now. I hope to finish it up soon!

Joy and Love to you all! :heart

EDIT: Finished it up. More Love and Joy! :heart

Dergimar Fly

Overview: The Dergimar Fly lives in various rocky and weedy terrain in the Northern Sarvonia region, really all over, from the areas in and around the Northwestern rivers and lakes, to the Wilshire Heath, to The Stone Fields of Peat. They are a small and rather common insect and travel in small swarms and typically feeding on plants and rotting animal carcasses. Their small dark grey bodies and thin, translucent wings make them rather ordinary flies, but they remain an important part of the ecosystem in their environment.

Appearance: A Dergimar fly is approximately a nailsbreadth in length. Their bodies are made up of a head and a thorax-abdomen section., both of which are covered with dark grey to black scales, though some believe them to actually be flakes. They have compound eyes, which appear as large bulges on either side of their head. They have small mouths that protrude from the bottom of their head. This mouth is very sucker-like in quality, though they don’t just eat by sucking up. They have small teeth on the inside of the sucker that they use for tearing up the things they eat.

The Dergimar fly has two antennae that stick up from the top of their head. These antennae help them to find their way around, and to hear vibrations in the air. They are small and covered with small hairs, just like the legs protruding from their body. These flies also have transparent wings that extend over the length of their body, and despite their thinness, are extremely strong. They are able to carry the body of the fly over long distances.

Special Abilities: The Dargimar is a very hardy insect, able to take the extreme temperatures of Northern Sarvonia and Cyhalloi. Even after times of extreme colds during with nearly all of their population is killed, they are able to bounce back with a boost in reproduction, with thus helps lead to the revival of many other animals populations, especially those who feed on them, including a variety of lizards and birds. They are also able to live many different regions in Northern Sarvonia and Cyhalloi.

Territory/Habitat: The Dargimar Fly lives in Northern regions, usually in plains and heaths, though they can be found anywhere there is adequate nutrition for them to survive, so basically anywhere with good plant to eat. They are found almost anywhere in Northern Sarvonia and Cyhalloi, in particular the Wilshire Heath, the Peat Fields and even the Stone Fields of Peat. Though the flies often live around sources of water, they don’t seem to need it to survive. They seem to get all the water they need from the plants they eat.

Dargimar flies require obscure areas in which to hide, usually places in or surrounded by plants. In these places, they lay their eggs such that their babies, when they emerge from their grey eggs as larva, will be have enough food to much on before forming their small puparium and developing finally into a full-grown fly. They tend to prefer soft grasses and moss for their tasks.

Behavior: Dargimar Flies live in swarms of anywhere between 20 and 400 individuals. These swarms act similar to tribes, though they have no real leader. They stick together for protection against birds, the way schools of fish travel together for protection against sharks. These swarms change constantly. Randomly two smaller swarms will come together, or one large one will split apart, sometimes into multiple smaller sections. It is yet unknown why swarms split up. Most flies will mate those of their own swarm, but do not differentiate between those of different swarms.

Though Dargimar flies are active all times of the year, including the winter, they tend to be more sluggish in the winter. They typically stay around one small area, usually about a dash in diameter, though they may migrate a bit is their supplies run out. During the summer, they make large migration patterns, eating more quickly, though never leaving an area completely empty. They leave an area is too avoid predators for flocking to their general location and wiping them out.

Diet: Dargimar Flies usually eat plant, more specifically grasses and moss. Studied have found that these flies find most other plants too tough for their digestive system, or perhaps too dry. It may just be that they don’t like the taste of most leaves, save those of grass. Theories go on to say that perhaps the juices in the leaves are poison to the fly. For one reason or another, grasses and mosses are the only kinds of plants that they eat, though in rare occasions of such things being less readily available, they can move on to some kinds of algae, even moist bark.

Plants, however, aren’t the only thing they eat. They have also been found dining on the rotten flesh, organs, and meat of carcasses. They do not eat or attack living animals, whose meat is still fresh. They prefer rotten meat and organs that has been tenderized by time and is gentler on their stomach. Because they prefer food of this kind, they are usually the last to dine on a dead animals, and are seen as the ones to clean up the carcass and leave only the fur and bones.

Mating:Mating typically occurs in mid to late summer, while things are still warm. During approximately a three-week period, the flies furiously mate. It is unknown whether the male or female initiates the mating process, but most researchers believe that both genders try to mate with as many flies as possible while the swarm or swarms are still in heat.

During the mating process, the male typically boards the female and they remain connected for about 10 minutes, though it has been recorded of these flies staying together for several hours. In this three-week period, congregations of swarms will meet together, seeking out more mates, and thus cause giant swarms that tend to be something of a feast for hungry predators.

Approximately a week and half after this process, the fly will lay her nearly 100 eggs, usually in thickly grassed areas, or places sheltered from the cold. Many flies hide their eggs in mossy areas, sometimes in dense thickets of grass. These eggs are very small, usually only a few grains in diameter, and are colored a dull brown, which helps them to camouflage themselves in their habitat. The flies will lead their children typically, moving to another area as not to disturb the food source of their young, and to find an area to hide from the cold.

In early to mid spring, as the air grow warmer, the eggs hatch into tiny worm-like caterpillars that hungrily munch up their food sources. These brownish white larvae are usually about half the size of their parents, and far thinner. It is often a harsh race for these young. There is rarely enough food in their small area to sustain them, and if a larva doesn’t keep up with his or her brothers and sisters, Queprur won’t be slow to fall on it. Of the nearly 100 eggs, only about 65% will hatch. The remaining larvae eat up the unhatched eggs to help them sustain themselves. Likewise, if a larva dies, his siblings may eat him up.

For the rest of spring, the larva will eat, doubling in size. In the beginning of summer, the larvae build their puparium out of a sticky mucus secreted from their skin. It surrounds them, and for over a month they will grow within this brown-colored casing. The pupa, within its shell, goes through a transformation, and in mid-summer, will break from their puparium as a adult fly. After a few moments to dry their wings, they will head off to join a swarm.

The fly will mate the following year, and Dergimar flies typically live between four and five years.

Researchers: The fly gains its name from a Remusian researcher name Eldrey Dergimar who was said to have studied the fly long ago in the Age of Myths, though none know if it is true. In an orc raid, it is said that the majority of his research was destroyed or lost. Most of the information known about the fly today comes from the Remusian researcher Derkier Gelbin (1124-1166 a.S.) who did in depth studies on the fly for 26 years. He died after journeying too far into the Stone Fields of Peat and died when he was unable to make his way back.

...Ripples in the Dream Pool...

Edited by: Artimidor Federkiel at: 3/6/04 10:46