Edurusconchia insectumcaptor

Edurusconchia insectumcaptor is a highly derived ambulospeculid characterized by living in a symbiotic relationship with the bioluminescent celestiphyte Vitastratum lux. Edurusconchia insectumcaptor lives in temperate forests and is a 2 meter long nocturnal predator of smaller ambulospeculids that are attracted to the light produced by Vitastratum lux.

Edurusconchia insectumcaptor is a heavyweight ambulospeculid with a tough upper shell made of thick fused bony plates. Coloration is highly variable among individuals, ranging between different dull shades of brown and grey. Vision consists of two complex upward facing eyes, important to quickly distinguish between prey, predators, and members of the same species. Two of the eight articulated legs are modified into mandibular appendages that help break the hard parts of its prey. The lateral proboscises are long and soft tentacle-like structures with enlarged and sticky ends to capture prey. The central proboscis is reduced in comparison, helping in food manipulation and chemosensory reception.

Vitastratum lux is a celestiphyte that grows on top of Edurusconchia insectumcaptor shells in dense soft blue-green mats, with roots that burrow into and underneath the shell. It captures light during the day as part of the photosynthesis process, with the special characteristic of re-emitting part of the absorbed radiation as low-energy yellow light during the night. Due to its compactness, Vitastratum lux requires only a small portion of the available energy to survive and is able to produce a significant brightness without being negatively affected by it.

The symbiosis between both organisms helps each other in their nutrition and defense against other species. Vitastratum lux bioluminescence attracts smaller ambulospeculids that use moonlight to orient themselves, providing an easy way to Edurusconchia insectumcaptor of getting food by swinging any of its main proboscises towards a nearby prey. Also, Vitastratum lux helps Edurusconchia insectumcaptor camouflage with its habitat while it sleeps during the day. In exchange, Edurusconchia insectumcaptor gives the celestiphyte a safe place to grow away from the large number of herbivores living in the forest, and the minerals in its shell serve as important inorganic nutrients to Vitastratum lux.

Although an adult Edurusconchia insectumcaptor is capable of eating smaller ambulospeculids up to 75 cm in length, it prefers to eat more moderate sizes, which are the bulk of most of its abundant diet. The large volumes of their food, coupled to their very slow metabolism, are responsible for the size and longevity of these organisms, which can live up to ~150 Wallace-II years. Their life habits mean that they don’t need to move much, relying on symbiotic camouflage to hide during the day and hard shells to protect themselves against attacks from bigger and more aggressive predators.

Respiration in Edurusconchia insectumcaptor consists in the typical Ambulospeculida respiratory system of inhaling orifices and exhaling orifices. The inhaling orifices are three pairs of slit-like spiracles located at the sides of the head, next to the eyes. The exhaling orifices are another three pairs of similar spiracles, located under the neck.

Edurusconchia insectumcaptor and Vitastratum lux have annual reproductive cycles. Mating in Edurusconchia insectumcaptor occurs at the start of the spring in big groups of around 40-50 individuals reunited in a single place, randomly determined by the greatest pheromone concentration due to proximity among individuals. This mating behavior produces a distinctive and unique spectacle: a herd of glowing creatures with swarms of small flying ambulospeculids above. The most dominant and attractive males reproduce with a bigger number of females, based on their sex-exclusive branched ornamentation in the front part of their shells and the bright produced by their celestiphyte symbionts (which can grow on the shell branches too). This sexual selection depending partially on bioluminescence leads to a huge coevolution pressure in producing the brightest Vitastratum lux and the Edurusconchia insectumcaptor with the biggest shells to provide an area where the former can grow. The latter fact and fossils of ancestral species in the Edurusconchidae family that shows them to have had generalist diets are evidence that the symbiotic relationship started with sexual selection purposes and later also developed into the specialized diet of modern Edurusconchia insectumcaptor.

After fertilization, which occurs internally, the female digs a hole with their appropriately adapted legs and lays 4-6 spherical eggs with a calcareous case and an approximate size of 15 cm in diameter. Hatching occurs after 25-30 Wallace-II days. When emerged, the new individuals are soft-bodied but with all the other adult structures, slowly building their hard upper shells as they grow. Parents scrap off pieces of Vitastratum lux and rub them onto their offspring’s protoshells when they’re born in order to provide them the advantages of the symbiotic relationship. Vitastratum lux develops from spores produced around the time of the year when hatching happens, so they are deposited onto the protoshell and grow from there until reaching their optimum extension during the adulthood of Edurusconchia insectumcaptor.