Strawberry Pescocha

Artwork

Weight:
15lbs

The **Strawberry Pescocha** (*Nudihystrix roseatus*), also known as the **Roseate Pescocha**, is an original species created and designed by TheAgent41. The Strawberry Pescocha inhabits the *The Hole* universe, an original universe created by TheAgent41.

## Appearance and Anatomy

The strawberry pescocha, also known as the roseated pescocha, is a small antepesaform that lives primarily in reef-like environments and the shallow waters along sandy beaches. Its slimy body can reach lengths of nearly a foot and weights of 15 pounds or so. Closely related to the giant beachdragger, the strawberry pescocha is famous and named for its bright pink coloration, which is broken up by a large patch of mottled magenta on its back. The strawberry pescocha has a long slug-like body, the front end of which has four featureless, pillar-like legs.

Between the two innermost legs is the organism's mouth, a small toothless hole that vacuums up small particles of food from the sandy sea floor. Above the pescocha's legs are a pair of small pit organs capable of detecting the body heat of other species.

Members of the family Nudihystrixidae are notable for the clusters of porcupine-like quills emerging from their backs. These quills, made mostly of keratin, are attached to small venom sacs at the quill's base, underneath the epidermis. Hollow and lightweight, these quills have evolved to inject paralyzing toxins into any organism that puts sufficient pressure on them.

## Ecology

### Behavior and Intelligence

The strawberry pescocha is a skittish, demersal creature that, unlike most marine carnevites, is incapable of actually swimming. Instead, it crawls along the seafloor, usually in shallow water near beaches or in reefs. It is much faster than its relative, the giant beachdragger, clocking in at seven miles per hour at its fastest. When threatened, the strawberry pescocha will attempt to flee toward the nearest rock formation to escape its predators.

The strawberry pescocha, like many of its relatives, has been known to bury itself in the sand, leading many a researcher to accidentally step on the protruding spines. The pescocha's venom is highly dangerous and leads to such symptoms as muscle cramps, muscle spasms, the skin being hot to the touch, the swelling of the tongue, and eventually death if not treated within 30 minutes. Thus far, no antidote has been synthesized, but experiments in "milking" a pescocha are ongoing.

### Diet

The strawberry pescocha is a demersal bottom feeder that feeds mainly on microorganisms and shed skin flakes lying in the sand. While the beachdraggers in the family Lapidotestadae secrete their waste and excess sand they consume through their epidermis to create their rocky shells, pescochas lack this ability and instead produce large rocky mounds from their cloacas. It has been hypothesized that the rocky defecations of early pescochas formed the foundations for the crystal reefs that exist in Achlys today.

### Reproduction

The strawberry pescocha is an oviparous creature that lays gelatinous eggs. When two pescochas are ready to mate, each will dig a small hole in the sand and lay inside it a cluster of 10-15 eggs. Next, each individual will externally fertilize the eggs laid by the other. Pescochas are not parental creatures and will immediately abandon each other and their eggs as soon as the eggs are buried. Pescocha parents make sure to bury the eggs in the sand just enough to hide them from predators but loosely enough that they can receive oxygen from the water.

## Trivia

* The scientific name *Nudihystrix roseatus* loosely translates from Latin as "strawberry naked porcupine".

## Gallery

Artwork