#grub pupates

[grub-posting]

Hellos! I am back! and I have! LEGS! SO EXCITING! so much easier to typing! love legs! ohs! I took a picture of me too! i look so cutes!

[velvetwyrme]

Could we get something about what the grub/beetles eat? 💕

the cybeetles mostly eat fruit and veg, and beetle jelly!

... also metal shavings :^)

IRL beetles tend to have more specific food sources depending on species, but i imagine that cybugs have a little more variation/leeway in that respect. different species would still have differing tastes and so do individuals.

for example: Prowl would like fruits like blackberries and raspberries, which is... mostly because i wanted to have a visual comparison to pressed energon/black coffee 😂

metal shavings is self explanatory, cybugs are still... well, made of metal! i like to think that some types of metal are sold in little rods that are easy to chew on! (don't let a hungry cybug near your stationery drawer, or else you might find all your paperclips and staples have mysteriously disappeared...)

[cfrog]

"Hey Chay, you havent been posting much art lately, whatve you been up to"

GRUBS

I've been drawing grubs.

initial grub designs r done by @mannekinni its his grub game :]

[circusk]

evil princess

+ purple cousins . its ok peri its the thought that counts<3

[georgebbwbush]

a really funny line from Homestuck that is often overlooked is the one where doc scratch says vriska is "like an insect". well buddy i've got some great news for you

[korven-kuningas]

everybody say happy birthday to my beetle grub. the angriest beast in my collection is now one year old

[alternianstuff]

Grubs! A Kind of Extended Talk

If you are here reading this, chances are you're either a curious extraterrestiral that somehow got hold of this blog's url (greetings!) or you are one of the lucky few who survived the hardships of the first stages of grubhood and somewhat safely matured to trollhood. An applause to you. 👏

Statistically speaking, only a measly 15% of a batch of grubs from a Mother Grub make it to trollhood. The rest either are stillborns, get eaten, get hunted down, or die of natural causes like illnesses or injuries. No matter your caste, you are special.

A curiosity, there is a 2% chance that a single grub egg might have twins. However, the two do not particulary tend to stick together, but they will recognize each other thru scent, both in their larval stage and adult stage.

There is also the typical rivalry that comes with such an occurrence and they might actually try fighting each other, so you might not even know you had a twin in the first place.

Anyway, what happens once the little guy pops out the slimy ball of mucus? Well, at that stage they are VERY small, around the size of your palm. Their eyesight is miserable, and they can barely emit noise. That's when they are allowed a period of stasis in the caves to absorb their egg's slimy nutrients, and grow a little.

Once their eyesight forms a little to the point they can distinguish color and depth, rougly 1.1 feet long, and their horns are no longer little nubs but somewhat a recognizable shape, that's when they're let out on their own.

If you're wondering, at this stage it's virtually impossible to tell a grub's gender (why would you assign it one anyway in the first place?).

Out there they have to survive on their own until they find a Lusus to bond with, unless they meet a horrible demise. Obstacles include the scorching sunlight, Lusii that see them as food rather than kin, and also poachers. Despite their size and apparent helplessness, they do have some tricks up their sleeve.

An example is Rustbloods and Goldbloods just now developing their telekinetic or psiionic powers, which actually makes them slightly more dangerous than a pupated troll, since they cannot control them.

People tend to avoid Cerulean grubs completely (or try to snag them for a ton of cash), because they tend to fire random mind control at their attacker when threatened. It does not last as much as a pupated troll, and feels more like a pounding migraine, but it is very annoying.

Then there's higher castes like indigos and purples, which have abnormal strength. A grub's bite is already nasty by itself as they have some sharp teeth, but when indigos and purples bite, they lock their jaws and don't let go until they're satisfied. And sometimes, they can dig right past your muscle tissue.

You'd think seadweller grubs are an easy catch since they're in confined areas like lakes and rivers and the sea, but those tend to have a strong scent that gets them a Lusus fast (highblood privileges I guess). And those Lusii tend to be very nasty. So, do not try.

Now that we got a look at the castes, what's next?

The Pupation process!

The journey towards trollhood requires some fundamental steps. The grub must be at least one sweep old, have a Lusus it bonded with, and feel safe in an enclosed area like a cave, tree trunk, etc.

Eventually, a grub will start to secrete a foam-like substance from their mouth that is greenish in color: That is them making the cocoon's silk and mixing it with their saliva.

They will soon find a comfortable spot to cocoon up, and each grub was observed to have their own style based on caste and personality: Some hang by a thread, others literally 'glued' themselves on a surface, some lazily sat on the floor like a sack of tubers, And plenty more creative ways.

The silk, when hardened, is surprisingly sturdy. Some trolls keep it as a memento after they pupate, or reuse it for clothing.

It takes a troll half a sweep to pupate, and what goes inside sounds gruesome, but fascinating: The grub's body 'digests' itself sort of, and some specialized cells start to rearrange that slurry around into the new body.

After they hatch, they will have one last reminder of when they used to be trolls: Troll scars. They're present on the sides of one's body, a little more below the armpits. Apparently the middle legs of the larval stage simply fall off and get used in the pupating process.

Everyone remembers the silly things we did when we first got out that slimy mess. Personally, I fell right on my face, rolled on my back, then went to get some water from my sink, which strangely didn't seem so scarily big and tall anymore. My lusus took a whole day to lick me clean. - SL

[sleepyyghostt]

maybe i just shouldnt give bdubs arms

[grumpy-beetle]

In regards to the rainbow stag beetles in my care

A while ago I noticed one of them has placed itself on the surface and seemingly died. It wasn't responsive and thats typically the behaviour of a dying grub. To go up on the surface and just lay there. I assume its to be picked up by a predator.

Initially I realised this happened when temperatures suddenly dropped and that they now needed extra heat. So they got a heatmat to stay consistently cozy. But I left the dying grub there. I dont like getting rid if grubs that have not yet turned dark brown or black (certain death)

It was still pale yellow/white even if unresponsive. So off it stays in its container.

In the past two days I noticed the heatmat timer started making weird noises and found it probably broke. So during replacing the timer today I checked up on the beetles and lo and behold....

It has. Pupated.

Now if you don't know how beetles pupate, they usually construct a tough chamber using their spit from the soil around them. That chamber is rough and hard and perfectly safe and usually at the bottom of all the soil.

This guy.... Or... Gal.

This gal decided what use is a chamber to her?

She gave me a heart attack, she made me mourn. And now she is springing back from the dead like jesus with a middle finger to all usual signs of pupation and just. Pupated right there. On the surface. In broad daylight.

You know what good for her. Good for this girlboss- or guy with incredibly small horns. Godspeed to you.

I suppose we will check back in with her in a month. And see how shes doing with becoming an adult

[grub-posting]

oh who left this hole here I'll just place my 2500 tonne manhole cover on it

ok. u do thagt. im fouxcesing!

[kalza]

Drew this awhile ago, but here. Have a couple of biologically impossible "what if," Seransi hybrid kids....cuz I thought it'd be a fun concept.

Cad+Ember=Cinder

Ayce+Zaiah=Ivy

[cloudbattrolls]

The Alternian population is sustained despite the rampant murder because caverns just churn those suckers out double-time

[velvetwyrme]

It's ok guys Jeetle just took the bug out for some ice cream

Everything is Fine

(panic)

all is well in the world <333

prev // next

also more notes! some are slightly repeated from this ask i got about mimicry, but theres some new stuff too :]!!

*subspecies typically need to have phenotypic AND geographical differences but im using subspecies as a shorthand that's easily understood lol

...

anyway, the Grub will take some time to pupate so...........

why don't we take a look at someone else for a bit? (post im referencing)

[b1asho]

Now, time for the grub to giant creature speedrun. Oh and there's a guy with stripes there too.

The sundyne life stages are:

'Egg, Early-Stage Larva, Late-Stage Larva, Prepupa, Chrysalis, Juvenile (aka hatchlings, dawns, or stilts) molt 1 (of 4), Subadult (aka drakes or kits) molt 5(of 7), Adult (adult females can be called prongs or sights while adult males can be called crowns or shines)'

Here's some more info:

They follow a pretty similar process to Drecu. Clutches are around 6-12 eggs that the female lays on the male’s lower back/hip area (they're held in place with the male's big gonopods)

Larva are soft n squishy. As they’re growing, they look almost identical to Drecu (even their extra little arms are hard to notice because they stay under the body most of the time) the most noticeable difference is the prepupa size and darker coloring, which sometimes aren’t as pronounced as a drew here. Sundyne grow Very fast (multiple individuals have noted that it’s pretty painful during the juvenile and subadult stages). Unlike Drecu, how they emerge from the chrysalis depends on good ol’ genetics rather than pheremones/enzymes. Even freshly pupated, there is a notable difference between male and female that continues on to subadult and adult stages. They're called dawns because of their muted coloring, or stilts because of their disproportionate leg and arm length.

Not all adult females have these, but the one I drew has those branches on her horns as an indication of fertility/matriarch status. Reproductive females will drop their horns and regrow them with this new feature; the more clutches they have, the greater the size and number of prongs. Nonreproductive females might drop and regrow their horns due to environmental changes (such as better nutrition or isolation from other sundyne), but they won’t get the prongs.

Males can’t shed their horns at all! However, as you can see here, they are generally more brightly colored and yellowish than females. The male pictured here actually has an absolutely goated color scheme, he’d be seen as extremely attractive and popular thanks to his dark black and prominent yellow coloration. They see yellow as their special royal color, since that pigment is what makes their signature bright orange patterns (as opposed to the simple red of Rox. The black is actually just a very dark blue). I was playing around with how much yellow tone the average Sundyne could have, as opposed to the mutation where they *only* have the yellow color (an extreeemely special and cool thing for them)

Misc fun facts:

-The random guy for scale has several splice traits going on at once: stripes, whiskers, and naturally growing pink hair! This is pretty common (I just haven’t drawn a lot of humans for example XD). Now that they aren’t being monitored or intentionally tailored, these naturalized gene mods just mix n match randomly.

-he’s not pictured here duh, but the current Seru (Emperor) has the all-yellow mutation, which was part of why he was able to take the other clans by storm ( thanks to that “born holy” type charm that they just couldn’t ignore. ). His giant angry wife, however, is fairly standard as far as Sundyne females go.

-As you could’ve guess from what I just said about the average Sundyne egg clutch size, Maro actually *had* around 5 blood-siblings from the same clutch as her! I wonder what happened to them…

[duckdotcom]

in 100 years the beatles will emerge from the british soil as helpless grubs, freshly experiencing the world a second time, and it will be humanity's choice whether to nurture them as they grow and learn or to end them quickly before they can pupate

[cuddledot]

What is the time period between the eggs development and when the egg is laid? (I'm sorry for the multiple asks about clown reproduction but it just seemed to suddenly peak my curiosity)

Nah, you're fine! I thought I had answered this before but then I realized it was posted from my old Twitter before deactivation and didn't post it here. So here it is, kinda old but again, I'm shocked that I never showed this here. My memory is very jogged.

Welp, it's a good time to talk about Baby Clowns! Aka, Jollies! (Or grubs. Jolly is more endearing though!)

So this may come as a shock (for those that don't know) Clowns are oviparous!

As for egg development, it's much shorter than humans. It's like One in a half-ish month and an extra 20 days of proper incubation.

Now these jollies are tiny when newborns. I can't think of a proper metric for these in-universe clowns but then I realized "Oh my Mewni, the newborns can literally fit in your hand oh DEAR." They're definitely growing bigger, don't worry. Like caterpillars, they start out small when they hatch but go BIG—literally!

And of course, Jollies are different depending on the clown type they are!

One of the Cons of raising a jolly: Newborns tend to eat ALOT, luckily as they grow, they don't need a requirement of so much food to eat than before but STILL. Like I said, they're literally grubs/caterpillars that's sorta like a tadpole.

Of course, duh they need to start off eating liquids and soft foods until their teeth develop enough not only to eat hard foods and chew, but also tasty snacks and meat. Yes, meat. Just like wasp larva kinda!

So once they're about to reach the age of five, that's when their metamorphosis begins!

So if you see these signs of your Jolly showing this below, no worries! It's a sign that they're about to begin pupation!

It won't look pretty, but it'll start excreting out glooze from its intake and use it to make a cocoon pod for itself.

Seems gross, but hey it's the way of things! Gives them a comfortable place for pupation. From the inside, is where the magic begins!

After like a week or two going to their fifth birthday, a clown child finally emerges! Just make sure to give them a little wash-up.

Welcome to the second stage of your childhood, little buddy! And Happy Birthday!!

So yeah, Dirtherian clown development is very wacky and interesting!