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Glaciestinea infansnix (Snom)

Glaciestinea elegansnix (Frosmoth)

Snom (#872)

Snoms are an ice/bug-type larval Pokémon that hatch in the fall. They average at around 8.4 pounds (3.8 kg) and are a foot tall. When they sleep, they extrude threads from its little mouth to anchor themselves to a branch, disguising themselves as an icicle.

Habitat: Snoms are found in cold climate zones, places that experience below freezing temperatures for at least 65 days a year collectively. The mother Frosmoth lays her eggs in a cold cave during the late summer, where she hides from the heat in that cave and protects her brood. They are found throughout the northern hemisphere.   

Life Cycles: Snoms hatch from their eggs at the onset of autumn, typically around late September/early October. The entire brood will hatch within a short period of time together. During the time they were eggs, their Frosmoth mother had been guarding over them almost the entire time, and she continues to care for them at least for the first few days after hatching. As the many Snoms venture outside the cave to explore and eat and even make friends, the Frosmoth eventually leaves the ice cave to go and continue her own life.

Snoms are highly susceptible to predation by anything that would be inclined to eat an ice-covered caterpillar, and most will not survive to evolution. They will spend the fall and winter consuming food and bonding with other Pokémon, including each other. If a Snom does not evolve by the time winter is over, which greatly increases predation risks as the winter snow disappears, then they will often try to return to the ice cave that they were born in and hibernate through the summer. Frosmoths rarely turn away Snoms from their caves.

Behavior: Because Snoms evolve through high friendship, they are in fact quite amicable creatures that readily bond with friendly Pokémon and trainers! This bonding also increases their survival rate, too, as a Snom who successfully bonds with another Pokémon or trainer are less likely to be eaten by predators. This amicability also makes Snoms truly excellent companions for trainers!

Diet: Snoms eat snow and ice! Well, actually, they eat the micro-organisms inside of the snow and ice. In absence of snow and ice, Snoms can also be given very cold water. They will also eat larger things like fir and pine needles, cones, and junipers, but they cannot grow up healthy and strong without snow and ice to eat, as the ice helps strengthen their spikes and keeps their internal temperatures cool.

Conservation: Least Concern

Relationship with Humans: Snoms are a frequent starter Pokémon in the upper regions of the world, such as Canada, Siberia, Alaska, and so forth. They are much beloved Pokémon, and there is even a brand of candies called Gummi Snoms that originates from Eastern Europe. These gummies are quite popular, coming in a variety of flavors and colors, and all of them in a delicious sour coating!

As with many Pokémon that are common and weak, Snoms are often used as bait for hunters, trappers, fishers, illegal dog fighting, and more. They are easy to breed, easy to hatch, easy to catch, and easy to raise, which makes them perfect for such purposes.

Snoms and Frosmoth are both highly studied Pokémon.

Classification: Snom and Frosmoth are distantly related to Larvesta and Volcarona, though the split occurred before the onset of the last ice age.

Frosmoth (#873)

Frosmoths are ice/bug types that average at 4’03 feet tall (1.3 M) and 92.6 pounds (42 kg). They are the evolved form of Snom, who evolve into Frosmoth with high friendship at night. The scales from their wings may fall like glittering snow as they fly over fields and mountains. The temperature of its wings is less than -290 F. While usually crossed and obscured, Frosmoths do actually have paws with little heart-shaped pads at the end! When in use, they emerge as little hearts on their chest.

Habitat: Frosmoths are found in cold climates throughout the northern hemisphere, but do not seem to proliferate in areas that experience less than 2 months of below-freezing temperatures.

Life Cycles: Once a Frosmoth evolves from a Snom, it becomes reproductively viable and it will begin the process of seeking suitable mates. Female Frosmoths will mate with as many other Frosmoths as they can find with little discretion on sex in order to increase the genetic variation of their own offspring. Mating/courtship usually occurs during the dead of winter into Spring, and eggs are laid in clutches of 150-300 at a time. The female Frosmoth will guard her eggs until they hatch, only leaving her ice cave on rare occasions to feed when the temperatures are low, but these occasions greatly increase predation risks on her eggs.

Behavior: Frosmoths are quite amicable with each other and to other non-predatorial Pokémon, and wild Frosmoths have even been known to let trustworthy trainers take their eggs because a Snom under trainer care is near-guaranteed survival compared to wild ones. In the wild, Frosmoths mate with eachother rather indiscriminately, which also serves the function of increasing inter-species bonding and encourages male Frosmoths to be protective of Snoms, too.

In preparation for the summer, Frosmoths will find a suitably cold cave to hide in and nest for the summer. Often they use their own ice powers to manipulate the air around them, creating a microhabitat within the cave so that they may rest peacefully as their eggs gestate. Some Frosmoths will share ice caves.

 Mother Frosmoths will take care of her baby Snoms for the first few days after hatching, but once they start leaving her cave she becomes unable to keep an eye on all of them and lets them live their lives, and she leaves to continue her own life. Their babies may be small and fragile and delicious to predators, but if a Frosmoth happens to be nearby, they will defend that Snom from predators.

Diet: Frosmoths eat lichens, moss, conifer needles, and nectar. They are a pollinator for many arctic flowers. Trainers can feed them specialty Pokémon food (made available from many companies!) as substitute for a natural diet, but you should still take your Frosmoth outside and let it enjoy some fir needles or something. As both Frosmoth and Snoms enjoy tree needles, they can be quite a pain for Christmas tree farms.

Conservation: Least Concern

Relationship with Humans: Throughout human history, it seems there has been a relatively low rate of Frosmoth and Snom predation by humanity. At most, Frosmoth fluff has been used for cold-weather insulation and occassionally eaten by the desperate, but by and large it seems humans have found Frosmoths to be unappetizing and not worth the effort. Which doesn't mean they're not ever eaten by humans, just not typically, and when they are the Snoms are usually seen as the much easier target than the Frosmoth. Instead of direct consumption, Snoms were historically used as bait for larger creatures, and in regions where this is still practiced the Frosmoths are quite hostile to humans.

Because of their little heart-shaped paws, Frosmoths are sometimes utilized in love-themed imagery.

Frosmoths are excellent defenders of remote mountains and forests, and many rangers utilize and work with Frosmoths in defending their homelands from invading threats.

Like many fully-evolved bug Pokémon, Frosmoths are common enough Pokémon on the teams of trainers in the regions that they frequent. They are seen as easy to raise and generally agreeable to co-habitating with others.

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