Glitterback (Artwork by https://www.deviantart.com/yuujinner)
Species: P. polydens (“many-toothed flying woodworm”)
Temporal range: Pliocene to recent (4.333 mya - present)
Soaring through the dense undergrowth of Xenogaea’s rainforests, the Glitterback, also known by its native Xenogaean name as babunakiri (from babuna [“spider”, “tarantula”, “thing with fangs”] and kiri [“bat”, from a corruption of hakiryt, which literally means “mammal-bird” {haki, “mammal”, “thing with fur”, and ryt, “bird”}], hence having a combined meaning of “spider bat”), is as iconic to the Pacific island nation as it is bizarre. Though it looks like some sort of alien creature in comparison to most other animals living on Earth, the Glitterback is actually a large (roughly the size of a golden eagle), air-breathing, arboreal lobopod which has developed the ability to glide over long distances. Its jaws, not unlike those of a camel spider, are designed to rip and tear through its preferred prey: small birds and bird-like ornithurans living in the jungle canopy. While these animals make up some 70% of its diet, it will also go after arboreal dromaeosaurs, small primates, plesiadapiforms, arboreal therapsids (such as the venyukovioids), small pterosaurs, bats, snakes, and other arboreal reptiles, in addition to arboreal amphibians and amphibian-grade tetrapods, such as reptiliomorphs belonging to the family Dendrosauropidae. Like the avians which it primarily hunts, its sense of smell is rather poor, instead relying on its large, chameleon-like eyes to locate prey in the dense undergrowth. Its eyes are, in fact, some of the best in the panarthropoda clade, rivaled only by those of dragonflies. Its eyes can not only see in UV light, but also fast motion which would otherwise look like a frenzied blur to other organisms. In several tests, Glitterbacks were also shown to be quite adept at distinguishing between subtle color differences. These traits not only help them to spot birds ducking through the canopy, but to also better pinpoint their target’s location for when they go in for the kill. Anecdotally, Glitterbacks appear to have a symbiotic relationship with some of the sauropods found living in their native range, often using the large animals to hitch rides to new hunting locations in exchange for hunting small, hematophagous pterosaurs which often plague the sauropods.
In color, Glitterback tends to be a mottled green color with light blue spots on their backs (hence their name), though other color morphs also exist, including all-black with light blue dorsal spots, red with orange dorsal spots, light blue on the underside with green on top and brown dorsal spots, and, in very rare occasions, vibrant purple with red spots (though these individuals rarely live long in the wild since their coloration makes them easy to spot). Glitterbacks are quite vocal animals, emitting a wide range of calls from clicking to pulsating, guttural drumming to loud shrieking. These sounds are primarily used to convey location to other members of their species so as to establish their hunting territory. Glitterbacks are primarily crepuscular and nocturnal animals, hunting in low light levels and in an environment filled with potential obstacles in their path.
While commonly recognized as belonging a monospecific genus (i.e., it is the only known living member of its genus), studies on its genetics and morphology have revealed that the Glitterback may, in fact, constitute a species complex, with anywhere from 3-8 distinct species, of which at least one is usually considered distinct enough from the rest to be placed in a separate proposed genus, Babunakiriia.
Glitterbacks are notable for their longevity: in the wild, they may live up to 15 years, and in captivity, up to 25. Bizarrely, for an arboreal species, their life actually starts all the way at the forest floor, where the small (only slightly larger than a grain of rice), pearl-like eggs are laid in a small hole in the ground before being promptly buried. Once the eggs hatch after 3 weeks, the young, who resemble tiny, white insect larvae, will spend the next 2 years on the forest floor and in the soil hunting small invertebrates, such as worms and insects. The larvae, at this point, have underdeveloped eyes and no wing membrane between their front 3 pairs of limbs. Once they reach 2 years in age, they bury themselves in the soil and form a thin, elastic cocoon around themselves, emerging as their adult forms in the spring of the following year and making an exodus up the nearest tree to the jungle canopy. While the now 3-year-old Glitterbacks may have their adult forms, they will only begin to reach reproductive age at around 5 years old, when they receive their distinctive dorsal markings. Of the some 100,000 eggs the female lays, as few as just 10 may reach reproductive age, and siblings are not above cannibalism to erase the competition for resources. Once they reach sexual maturity, the female will emit a call which is often likened to a high-pitched rattling (which is made from grinding her chelicerae together rapidly) to significantly to males that she is ready to mate. However, she won’t mate with just anyone: males must present her with a fresh kill, and the more vibrant the prey, the better the male’s chance of her being sexually receptive. Copulation occurs while she feasts on the kill, and afterwards, the male departs back to his own region of the forest, not wanting to risk incurring the territorial wrath of another Glitterback. The fertilized eggs will be deposited on the ground in a few weeks time, and in another two years, she will be ready to mate again, a cycle which repeats up until her death.
Despite their territorial and aggressive nature, Glitterbacks tend to be either timid or inquisitive around humans, and outside of a few unconfirmed reports of attacks on small children in Xenogaea’s countryside, some of which were supposedly fatal, aggression towards humans is all but unheard of. However, being opportunistic feeders, a lone Glitterback which has found itself on the ground may, like many of Xenogaea’s other macropredators, occasionally resort to scavenging the graves of the recently deceased, a practice which has seen many tribal folks placing large slabs over the coffins of the deceased, digging the graves deeper, or exclusively cremating their dead in large funeral pyres.
While Glitterbacks are listed as a Least Concern species, poaching and the illegal pet trade are often listed as threats to their survival, with their ownership as pets being particularly popular in parts of many South American, Sub-Saharan African, and Southeast Asian countries because of their hunting prowess making them invaluable aids in fowling and their adaptations to living in a tropical climate making them well-suited to the environment and with navigating the dense jungle in pursuit of otherwise difficult-to-catch prey. However, as with many of the other indigenous lifeforms of Xenogaea, its export out of the country is highly restricted, with dead specimens being sold to museums for large sums of money, sometimes well in the millions of local currency, and live specimens only rarely being sold to biological research institutions. This has not only led to the black market sale of live specimens being highly valuable, but it has also led to underground breeding facilities overseas becoming a prevalent way to circumvent local laws against the trafficking of exotic animals. This issue of the black market sale of native wildlife is so deeply-entrenched within Xenogaea’s system, that the country’s government has a subdivision, the Bureau of Indigenous Wildlife Protection and Action Against Poaching (BIWPAAP), which is dedicated entirely to stopping poaching and illegal animal trafficking within the country and notifying the local authorities of other countries about the illegal sale and breeding of Xenogaean wildlife within their borders. If caught illegally selling a Glitterback in Xenogaea, the legal repercussions can range from anywhere from 4 years in prison and a $100,00 fine to 20 years in prison and as much as $1,000,000 in fines. It should be noted, however, that while the sale of a Glitterback, whether within the country’s borders and to a buyer outside of them, is illegal, the ownership of one in the country is not, and some native tribes may raise Glitterbacks for hunting purposes, much like buyers outside of the country.
