would you consider sparing a moment of your time to tell us more about some of your favourite creatures🥹? maybe even in excruciating detail if you so please?🥹🥹
These large creatures are related to nootflies. They bear similar features to other local arthropods but act almost entirely removed from their ancestral lineage. Unfortunately I don’t have much information to list due to only having recently discovered them in my region.
They appear to be migratory and follow warm weather fronts. Usually this brews storms which churn up the environment and thus leads to why these creatures favor them so: airborne debris. Smoghawks feed off of the inorganic material usually thrown into the air. What happens in their digestive tract causes them to generate lots of CO2 which is forcefully expelled through the end of their tail to propel themselves through the sky.
Their wings are fin-like and catch particles in the air as they feed, which then leads them to finding a high perch to preen their wings and suction off all the material using their short proboscis. It’s a time consuming process to gain the daily nutrients necessary I imagine. All these materials are, visually, used to form their ashy-colored exoskeleton. It’s made of a combination of flexible material but as they grow older it cracks and eventually either falls off or kills the individual. Yes, I am saying they grow indefinitely.
I suppose other notable features of this species are that they’re incredibly defensive for being prey animals. They use their highly reflective eyes to blind potential attackers. Unfortunately this being their only weapon it’s only viable if they’re in direct sunlight or if their attackers possess bioluminescence (or any other form of light).