Puffball biology part 1: life cycle
Warnings: brief talk of reproduction but nothing explicit just basic biology information for their species.
(I’ve had this on the back burner for a long time so the art a bit older, i will remake the art at a later date)
(I use biology and my own made up terms hopefully this will make reading less confusing!)
facultative parthenogenesis- a type of reproduction were a species can switch btween asexually and sexually reproduction.
Alloparenting- caregiving done by individual other than the biological parents typically by relatives or members of their group.
Bearing parent- the puffball parent who carries/bore the egg.
Anyways! Welcome to your first lesson on my take of puffballs lets get started with the life cycle of puffs and a bit of general information.
Puffballs fall into the heart matter group of Mana energy and are a part of the Astral family. (a heart matter being with an Astral core.)
They are very soicial creatures often times living in family units which can vary in size even living amongst those not of their species whom have adopted them, a very common practice on planets with low puffball populations.
puffball culture is very different from group to group due to living on different planets and growing up in different geographical environments which impacts how a puffball groups forms it culture and traditions. However there are traditions which can be different for each group but are common events that can happen. (birthdays, a youngling learning to fly, courting, marriage etc.)
Puffballs are a facultative parthenogenesis species meaning they can reproduce both sexually or asexually and have both reproduce organs to carry or give genetic material.
They originate from when either a primordial dies/a primordial has an injury that triggers fragmentation reproduction which then forms an thick shelled egg from the energy that will float through space before eventually getting pulled to a plant when entering its range of gravitational pull.
The age stages by either types are generally the same except star borns skip the hatchling stage due to no parents to take care of them while in a incredibly vulnerable state. neither born have any positive/negative effects to the puffs physical health based on the type of birth but progeny borns have a higher survivability chance with parent(s) to care for them.
Puffballs are immortal in terms of aging but can be killed but its often like trying to kill a honey badger due to them having dense muscles and almost rubbery skin but being surprisingly light making them relatively quick.
Hatchlings are completely blind at birth like some mammals typically opening their eyes at around 2 weeks after hatching spending most of the time in their bearing parent's pouch.
Once reaching three they become a youngling which means they start fledgling behavior by becoming way more independent by going off on their own small adventures but returning to their parents for food, protection and affection.
By the time they become a teen a puffballs wings are big enough to start testing them out such as flapping or short bits of gliding getting used to how their wings work before slowly moving onto flying as they get older and bigger.
a full grown puffball means by now they can fully fly, it becoming second nature to them by instinct. Puffballs usually stay near their family unit even after finding a partner as alloparenting is very common for their species to do even if they don't ever have young themselves.
