Çɔli hɐʃhɑn

Giant Comb-Grass

ðɪkɪs nupɾaj is a minute genus of bird, occurring in grassland ecosystems. It possesses three pairs of limbs. The foremost are simple limbs, reduced in musculature and ending in three clawed digits each. The middle and hind limbs form wings - similar to a hummingbird in shape, with the primary feathers occupying the vast majority of each wing. The flight feathers number A12 in the fore-wings and 912 in the hind wings. The flight is similar to a dragonfly, with each wing capable of independent movement. The tail feathers are small, and sit to each side of the base of the tail. The tip of the otherwise bare tail is covered in feathers. The tail feathers act as a stabiliser of the chaotic flight style, where the tail itself acts as a counterbalance to aid in making sharp turns.

Total length: 0.112 ðɛmɪ

Body length: 0.0712 ðɛmɪ

Tongue protrusion: 0.02612 ðɛmɪ

Wing length (fore): 0.A12 ðɛmɪ

Wing length (hind): 0.912 ðɛmɪ

The feathers range in colour according to feather size, with the smaller feathers on the body being mint green, and the larger flight feathers being bright white. This pigmentation is only visible on juveniles, as adults that feed on nectar produce a bright green and luminous waterproofing oil that results in the neon-green adult colouration, which glows brightly at night in the same neon-green. In addition, this oil is also highly toxic, and prevents predation.

The shape of the head is pointed, with a long, narrow snout taking up almost half of the length. The mouth is toothless, instead possessing fleshy ridges to channel nectar to the back of the mouth. The tongue is long, narrow, and highly protrusible. The tip is feathered to soak up nectar. The rest of the head is rounded, with extremely large eyes and six-pointed-star pupils. The ears are highly mobile and end in a sharp point.

The pouch is forward-facing, and contains a row of four nipples perpendicular to the ventral line close to the foremost edge of the pouch. The pouch is filled with exceptionally soft down. When born, the young are pink and featherless, and barely visible due to their small size. They develop a down coat in the pouch, with pin feathers starting to occur before being removed from the pouch, with smaller litters spending longer in the pouch due to the additional room.

ðɪkɪs nupɾaj is a highly territorial and solitary bird, each nesting in the singular flower of the ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ, a climbing herb. ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ lives exclusively at the base of çɔli hɐʃhɑn, and it’s highly specialised flower - the pitcher itself, contains a small chamber which functions as a nest for the bee. As such, each ðɪkɪs nupɾaj territory consists of a single clump of çɔli hɐʃhɑn.

The diet of ðɪkɪs nupɾaj is exclusively nectar, and only feeds on the flowers produced by çɔli hɐʃhɑn. The digestion of the nectar powers the production of the luminous water-proofing oil, which in turn is combed off of ðɪkɪs nupɾaj by the stiff bristles surrounding the nectar well of each flower. A byproduct of this digestion accumulates within the stomach, and is regurgitated, usually after one of the numerous short naps taken each day, directly into the main chamber of the ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ flower. The compounds of this globular waste are then used to produce burr-like seeds in the nest chamber.

The çɔli hɐʃhɑn flowers, once enough of the water-proofing oil is collected, will die. When all flowers have died, the pod in which they protrude from will close, and start to produce seeds. Once the pod has ripened, it will dry over the course of a few days, before loosening and falling to the ground. The impact will trigger a rapid opening of the pod, with seeds ejected at high speed. The impact of a seed is similar to a paintball, causing pain, bruising, and occasionally ruptured skin.

ðɪkɪs nupɾaj produces a litter of one to four young. They are born tiny and under-developped, and are quickly deposited into the pouch by the parent, where they attach to a nipple and remain there until they can no longer be carried by the parent, after which they are kept in the nest and fed between foraging sessions. For litters of four, the young are deposited after around six days, with pouch-time increasing as litter size decreases. The young suckle in the nest until they are fully fledged and capable of flight, whence they are promptly chased off by the parent. The juveniles then leave their parent’s territory, and carry with them the burr-like seeds of the pitcher-flower, which attach to specialized feathers on the belly, and slowly dislodge as the bees disperse. After the young disperse, the ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ flower dies, and another is produced on the same plant within a few days, during which time the parent ðɪkɪs nupɾaj shelters under leaves.

The dispersing ðɪkɪs nupɾaj must find their own territory within a couple of days, or else they will die of starvation or exhaustion. They must either find an unoccupied ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ flower, or contest the ownership of an already established territory. Dispersers will target occupants without a current litter, especially older individuals which spend more time regaining fat reserves between litters, as occupants with a current litter are significantly less likely to back down from a fight.

As the defensive capabilities of ðɪkɪs nupɾaj is limited to its toxicity, contests consist of the world’s smallest scale game of chicken. Each ðɪkɪs nupɾaj will fly at high speed directly towards each other, with one or the other veering to avoid a collision. These rounds continue, with the veering occuring later and later, until one gives up, usually the disperser. If neither give up, they will eventually collide. If neither are killed on impact, then each will grab the other with their forelimbs and attempt to fly each other into the ground. Either one will now give up, or the fight will result in a death. The victor of the fight, either of the initial collision or the following fight, will carry the body into the ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ flower and deposited into the main chamber. If the disperser was the victor, and the original occupant had young either pouched or in the nesting chamber, then the young will be deposited with the parent and quickly drown. The bodies are then digested by the plant. The specialised feathers of the disperser will moult after the ðɪkɪs nupɾaj is established.

ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ is a climbing herb, with leaves 0.612 ðɛmɪ in length and 0.312 in width, obovate in shape with an accumulate apical and a accentuate base. The leaf edge is entire. The flower is highly specialised, shaped like a pitcher with a curled end, 0.712 ðɛmɪ in height, 0.612 in length, and 0.312 in width. A single leaf sits above the pitcher and acts as a lid. The main chamber of the pitcher is filled with digestive fluid. The rim, and part way down the inside walls are covered in coarse hairs that allow ðɪkɪs nupɾaj to grip. The smaller ovary, which functions additionally as the bee’s nest chamber, sits high on the back wall of the main chamber, under the pedicet of the flower, and is coated on the inside with long, soft hairs.

The ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ flower is coloured a bright magenta, with neon green spots at 0.0612 ðɛmɪ in diameter. The inside of the flower is yellower and desaturated, the hairs are predominantly white to cream. The leaves of the plant are slightly darker and lack spots, the stems are bluer in hue than the leaves. The leaves are edible and are sweet and tart in flavour.

To form seeds, ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ requires a compound, which is produced as a waste byproduct of ðɪkɪs nupɾaj's digestion of çɔli hɐʃhɑn nectar. This globular waste is regurgitated into the main chamber and made available to the plant. The seeds form along the ovary’s walls. The tiny, burr-like seeds then attach to specialised feathers on the underside of juvenile ðɪkɪs nupɾaj, which fledge these feathers shortly before dispersing, spreading the seeds with them. After each litter, the flower dies, and another grows on the same plant within a few days.

As fires occur every year or two in the grasslands during the summer months, ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ uses the opportunity to spread its seeds another way.

When a fire is detected, the ðɪkɪs nupɾaj occupant will either flee (if litter-less or carrying pouch young), or remove its nest young from the ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ flower and bury itself with its young in the deepest part of the grass clump under the soil. If a ðɪkɪs nupɾaj has a litter, milk production slows dramatically and the young adjust by slowing their growth to prevent starvation.

ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ will seal itself in response to high temperatures, as the heat increases the digestive juices boil and the gases expand. The flower will then explode, usually with the break occurring in the thinner walls of the ovary. The seeds are spread over a relatively small area. As çɔli hɐʃhɑn usually retains its root systems, it can quickly resprout. ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ germinates quickly after a fire, and rapidly climbs the reestablishing çɔli hɐʃhɑn clump. There is competition between sibling plants, with one eventually strangling the others. If the ðɪkɪs nupɾaj survives the fire, it will return to the clump or unbury itself. The ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ flower is usable as a nest after around six days after the fire. çɔli hɐʃhɑn flowers bloom after around 1612. In the meantime, the ðɪkɪs nupɾaj resident and its young (if present) will hibernate, with the parent sheltering the not-yet-waterproof young.

While the proportion of young surviving to fledging age directly after a fire is dramatically reduced, the proportion of survivors that successfully disperse is much higher, due to the number of unoccupied ɔt̪ɛm gɹɛnɛʃ flowers increasing substantially. Unestablished dispersers, however, have exceptionally low survival rates during a fire, and only very rarely manage to survive both the fire and the aftermath.

çɔli hɐʃhɑn is a tall grass, with blades reaching 2012 ðɛmɪ in height. The blades are thick and notably bent at the midrib, at an angle of 0.412 hɛθ if measuring the outer edge. Each half is 112 ðɛmɪ in width, so the whole blade is 212 ðɛmɪ wide when flattened. The edge of the blade is pectinate, with each indent measuring 0.212 ðɛmɪ in depth and 0.0812 ðɛmɪ in width on average. çɔli hɐʃhɑn forms clumps, with narrow gaps between each clump due to constant competition between neighbouring clumps.

The flowers of çɔli hɐʃhɑn bloom from pods measuring 112 ðɛmɪ in height. The pods have three lobes, each 112 ðɛmɪ wide, and containing three segments. All nine segments contain a single spike of 1112 flowers, with four whorls of three flowers and a single flower at the end. The spike is 112 ðɛmɪ in length. Each flower has two perianth whorls, a calyx with three diminutive discrete sepals and a corolla with three discrete petals. The petals are oval in shape with an obtuse apical and a cordate base. Each petal is 0.112 ðɛmɪ in length and 0.0712 in width. The nectar well in the centre is surrounded by stiff bristles 0.0612 ðɛmɪ in length.

The petals are white, with ultraviolet dots on the tips to assist ðɪkɪs nupɾaj in visibility. The bristles are bright yellow. The blades are a dark blue-purple. The flower pod is a light grey, with faint blue-purple stripes. The seeds, once formed, are black, with a paler attachment scar. While the seeds are variable in shape, dependent on placement on the original floral spike, they are all predominantly flat sides with round corners.

çɔli hɐʃhɑn is predominantly a resprouter, with the vast majority of clumps resprouting after a fire from the roots. The seeds are predominantly eaten, but a few do become buried. Heat triggers germination, and if the seedling is in a large enough space to grow, then it can establish itself enough to compete with its neighbours.