#vulture grubs are mimics

[slugcatmusings]

Vulture Grubs are Mimics

Adghsdjgsdg so - I was not expecting an actual Rain World Downpour dev to reblog my iterators are colonial organisms post.  Also they said that the brain organisms in iterators are named CoralBrain in the files so???  Is this??? Confirmation??  About my theory?? O.O

Anyway enough fangirling about that, onto more musings!  This time isn’t so grand as the iterators - me and my sis like talking about various rain world worldbuilding stuff (I’ve been coming up with fanfic ideas and I like bouncing ideas off of her in the car when driving her places), and today the topic of “what the heck are vulture grubs” came up!  

(Alongside the topics of “is symbiosis with the Rot possible” and “what would a large population of carnivorous slugcats need to survive in Metropolis” which yes are both related to the fanfic idea.)

Our first thought - and the theory that my sister supported for half the resulting debate - was that vulture grubs are just, you know, vulture babies.  They make lasers like king vultures when summoning vultures, and when distressed call for help and have adult vultures answer.  However, my sister also pointed out that vultures sometimes seem to eat the grubs, and while some species have cannibalism as a thing I’m kinda meh about the idea - it's an actual thing that happens in nature, yeah, but... well, meh.

So what are vulture grubs if not baby vultures?  Baby vulture mimics!  You know how some animals will imitate other, more dangerous animals to scare off predators?  That’s what the grubs are doing!  They’ve evolved to mimic baby vultures in order to discourage predators from eating them.  The structures on their heads vaguely resemble king vulture heads in shape, and the lasers are DEFINITELY a mimicry of the king vulture lasers.  The screech, too, is probably a mimicry - they sound like distressed baby vultures, and that along with the flashy laser light show draws vultures to the noise, which usually means that whatever big predator was attacking the grub is scared away in a panic!

Of course, sometimes that gets the grub eaten by the vulture, but it’d get them eaten a LOT less often by big predators, which would mean they’d survive for longer and in greater numbers than they would normally.

[chaotic-minds-think-alike]

So are lizards evolving larvae that mimic vulture grubs?

No the idea is like.. imagine you’re a vulture and even though it didn’t call out, you spot a grub on the ground. You know how desperate the predators in rw can be; so you swoop down and grab it without a second thought. <- meaning like… no they’re not the same but they are a nutritious snack yk