#okalivember

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 11, parasitoid!

The alarikti, or "comet wasps", are a diverse family of colorful parasitoid wasps.

The twin-tailed alarikti preys on a species of moth, and more specifically its caterpillar. It digs little holes in sandy soil where it drags its prey into after paralyzing it.

The sunset alarikti lays its eggs in the larvae of beetles inside dead, rotting wood. It spends a lot of time inspecting any dead tree it finds until it finds a suitable host.

The darling-faced alarikti is named after its large, cute golden eyes, with pseudopupils that seem to follow you around. It preys on aquatic fly larvae.

The fallen-star alarikti dwells in leaf litter, rarely flying and preferring to hunt on the ground for its larva's meal; a ground beetle.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 3, siphonophores!

In the world of Okali, they may also be called a jejoti.

The blue winged Jejoti, which can grow to be 30 meters long!

The red-tailed clustered Jejoti, which occurs in warm waters near the equator.

The plum Jejoti, which floats on the surface of the ocean, following the currents.

The efflorescent Jejoti, long thought to be a sailor's legend as they only come anywhere near the surface at night, far away from the shore.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 10, mimicry!

The aralawirsin is a large, parasitoid wasp with a painful sting. It paralizes its prey and drags it into a cavity it has found such has a tree hollow. The prey will then be food for its larvae.

All the other animals mimic its coloration, but are harmless!

2. The waterfall jelganitar is an insect whose larvae grow in water, affixing themselve to stone or wood in rapidly-flowing rivers and grabbing food that passes by them. 3. The kovizarala is a large beetle whose larvae are detritivores. Scuttling along the leaf litter, their mimicry of the wasp helps them not look as appetizing to predators. 4. The telinudel is a small member of the nudel clade, and for the first couple months of its life, the vulnerable hatchlings take on this threatening-looking coloration. When they are bigger, they will become entirely green. 5. The kokisjiko is a large, scavenging beetle. It digs holes in the ground, and drags a piece of carrion down there, before laying eggs on it. They stay near the entrance of their hole, and by looking like the aralawirsinu, they avoid getting dislodged by these very wasps who would very much like the burrow for themselves.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 1, Blep!

The Kamablep, who lives in rocky coastal areas and sunbathes in large groups.

The Gladiblep, who uses its fangs to pierce the bark of plants to drink the sap.

The Jantublep, who is known for feisty behavior and angrily squeaking at anything that bothers it.

The Otablep, a tiny blep that lives in tropical reefs.

The Aliblep, the largest species of blep, whose loud calls can be heard over the tundras.

The Teriblep, who digs in leaf litter for worms.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 20; Kulla!

The damjilkulla is a small, colorful, and very active insect-eating kulla. With a hovering flight that emits a surprising amount of noise for its size, it's quick to spot and pounce on its prey.

The wenlieta is a mid-sized active omnivore, feeding on a great variety of berries, mushrooms, and small animals. It lives in steppes and is mostly diurnal, and it has a habit of falling asleep in the first comfortable tuft of grass it sees when night falls.

The mubikulla is rather large and lives on the coast, and hunts various invertebrates within tidepools. It has a mutualistic relationship with a species of bivalve that anchors itself in the kulla's mouth.

The jari is long and agile. It lives in deep, dark forests, and the light blue stripes on its sides emit light using magic. They use different light patterns to communicate with one another.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 26, shells!

The sky-banded balsa is a freshwater shell that populates the bottom of streams in colder areas. Their tough spikes protect them from the many predators that may want to eat them.

The charred spiral snail is pretty common in the archipelago of Otaxel's Ribs. It lives in the rivers that are kept hot by the frequent volcanic activity, and while aquatic in nature, it can survive several hours on land.

The green dwarf nerifabi lives near the coasts, in sandy environments. Sticking close to the bottom, it preys on things that burrow into the sand.

The gold-tipped ajzaa is a beautifully plump little mollusk, with a beautiful shell and shimmering golden accents on its body. It lives in reef environments, at around 20 to 50 meters deep, and grazes on corals with its extremely tough radula.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 22; nests!

This is the nest of a turik, a type of eyed worm. It is made out of blades of great nalken grass, stuck together with the sticky black silk typical of these worms.

This is the nest of a kistruzi, a small kulla. It's made of dried grasses tightly woven together, with thorny twigs strongly stuck within the structure as protection. These can take several weeks to weave, and all three parents work on it.

The hive of an araken, a social insect. Made of wax, with rows of comb to house the eggs of workers, there is a curious cavity in the center; this houses the araul, a tiny kulla they have a mutualistic relationship with. The warm nest incubates the egg and keeps the chick safe, and the adult eats many of the hive's predators.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 27, eyespots!

The green-mantled zviarakulla lives in large flocks in tropical rainforests. When threatened, they all take off at the same time, taking a second to flash the eyespot on their wings to startle the predator.

The lucidum moth has reflective iridescent eyespots. Mostly diurnal, they live in open forest environments, taking advantage of areas of dappled light to make their "eyes" flash before retreating to the shadows.

The eyespot atizo is a large marine crustacean. It lives near coasts, and is very active, flittering its antennae about frantically in search of food, and swimming away extremely fast when it needs to.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 30, silly shapes!

The elongated lace-trim nudel lives in the clear, calm waters of mountain lakes. It almost never comes up onto land, and constructs pretty elaborate nests out of smooth stones.

The purple-lored kislieta feeds on various soil creatures, performing little dances and songs to create vibrations in the dirt that attract them to the surface.

The rust filessar ecloses pretty late into the year, when it starts to get cold. Looking like a dead, fungus-eaten leaf, it crawls about in branches, searching for the leaf buds that are starting to form before winter, and lays a single egg in each. The larva will overwinter there, eat the young leaf in spring, drop dow, pupate over summer underground, and emerge again as an adult to repeat the cycle.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 28, meadow dwellers!

The common wooly liskuvost is a pretty large bug, crawling along on large flowers and feeding on nectar. Its large fangs are there to manipulate or pierce petals to get at nectar in flowers it's too small to crawl all the way into. Its curled tail holds its egg sac and babies.

The prairie nuosani is a predatory insect that often hides in hedges and bushes in ambush, waiting for any prey that passes close enough to grab with their lightning-fast reflexes. The females, more ravenous when they need the energy to make eggs, often hunt in a more active manner, their folding wings letting them divebomb prey.

The wild tailless nakulla is a close relative to a common domestic species. Feeding on a varied diet of both plant matter, fallen fruit, and small animals, their long legs allow them to see far over the tall grasses. Their vestigial wings don't allow them to fly, but serve as fat storage.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 4, Camouflage!

The fern whorl moth, which hides itself in the center of ferns, looking like young leaves.

The lichen eyed worm, which lives in crevaces between rocks in rather dry areas.

The pink petal bualmi, which lays dormant most of the year, until the bushes it lives on flowers. Then, it can hide among the blooms.

The greater bark nudel, whose complex patterns help it hide when laying in wait on tree trunks for bugs to pass near enough to eat.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 16, Monochrome!

The gopakulla is small and lives in dense forests. It feeds mainly on certain varieties of mushrooms, mollusks, and worms.

The usenienok is a coastal fish that lives in rocky areas, where it blends into the many smooth stones of the beach. It can somewhat crawl on land, though inelegantly.

The written talmi is an ectoparasite specific to a species of nudel. Its patterns help it blend into a similarly-colored lichen that grows in its habitat.

The shining filessar is a large insect with a beautiful purple shine to its wings. While its larvae eat the seeds of a local tree, the adults feed on nectar.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 15, desert dwellers!

The northern kokislieta is a large carrion-eating kulla, and its diet even includes bones! It has en excellent sense of smell.

The zviaruvost is a tiny arthropod that comes out of its hiding spot under the sand only at dawn. The small droplets of morning dew gather in the bristles of its tail, and it quickly drinks them before they evaporate. It hunts by ambush.

The vodnimek grows in the open, its dark color protecting it from being burnt by the sun while still being able to photosynthesize. The two dark purple leaves are thick and can store water and nutrients.

The mistalka is a nocturnal animal, who is more often heard than seen; it has a peculiar call like a squeaky whistle that allows it to find others of its kind easily.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 9: Abyssal!

The new moon yani is an elusive crustacean, that usually spends its time on the seafloor. But on the rare occasions that all three moons are new, leaving the sky all black, they come up onto shore.

The many-eyed reksirg is a totally blind, translucent jawless fish that scrapes microorganisms off of deep-sea surfaces. The "eyes" they are named after are actually bioluminescent spots.

The siglalmi is a detritivore nudibranch that floats around in open water, eating whatever particles pass close enough.

The deep nerifabi is an active hunter of the abyss, luring prey close to itself with the electric blue, glowing spots on its arms and shell.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 6, metamorphosis!

The caterpillar (a), chrysalis (b), and imago (c) of the Twelve-Moon Moth. Its caterpillar grows large and fat on the leaves of the Kipnapi tree.

The caterpillar (a), chrysalis (b), and imago (c) of the kipnapi leafminer worm. The common name is in reference to the tiny, rather featureless larva that eats shapes into the leaves and tends to be seen a lot more than the shy, short-lived adults.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 5! Nectar!

The esoblep is a daring little animal that loves getting in places it's not meant to be in. When it's not doing mischief, it's eating the nectar of large flowers and getting covered in pollen in the process.

The highland trumpet lasi is a rather large solitary hymenopteran, with a very long tongue, making it specialized to feeding from flowers with hard-to-reach nectar.

The poramiro is a common flower, with a pleasant smell and lots and lots of tiny flowers growing in clusters. It is always being visited by a variety of insects.