Shard Fly

The Shard Fly is a flying insect more closely related to solitary wasps rather than true flies, and are noted for their hard, crystalline chitin and agressive behaviour.

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Biology
Shard flies are true insects, with six legs, and two pairs of wings. They have hard exoskeletons, large jaws and stingers. With lengths of between five and twelve centimeters, these are some of the largest insects. They appear like wasps, but with a dark, nearly black, crystalline carapace which is often covered in crystal spines.

The differentiation between males and females is easy. Males have a large, elongated stinger from from crystals within the body, and is quite capable of chipping or marking stone. The Females are larger than the males, and have a number of pits and pockets over the abdomen in which razor sharp shards of stone or crystal are placed and the chitin allowed to grow to secure them.

Physiology
Shard flies are solitary, although do form impromptu swarms as they are drawn to each other to fight over resources. They are predators and will attack insects, rodents and birds for food, as well as larger beasts when swarming.

The crystaline stinger, abdomen shards and reproduction strategy all stem from adaptation to a harsh desert environment, primarily on Kere'leh. Targeted by birds and with eggs hunted by other insects, the Shard Fly evolved as a highly armed and armoured hunter, which now lacks any direct predators outside of large birds or lizards, but commonly the only threats to Shard Flies are sapient species who find them aggressive and annoying, able to inflict serious wounds to adults and children alike.

Mating and Reproduction
Shard flies reproduce by the male fertilising the females eggs, which then incubate, and hatch internally, killing the female as the larvae eat their way out. Hatching in the late winter, these insects live for approximately 10 months, dying off at the end of autumn as food becomes even more scarce in their desert habitat.

Interactions with other species
When Shard Flies manage to reach less arid areas, they breed rapidly, with higher volume of prey allowing a boom of flies. This often results in them being a true hazard to people and livestock, with extermination efforts having to be undertaken. People attacked by these insects often bear large, painful, inflamed wounds, as bites and stings both deposit small amounts of minerals into the wounds, making them slower to heal and more subject to infection. Since the singers and jaws are attack repeatedly, people who hesitate to fight off the Shard Flies or scare or aggravate them can even be stung to death, their corpse feeding many Shard Flies.

The sole positive about this insect is that it requires high temperature environments to grow to such large size, with non desert / tropical specimens rarely reaching five centimeters. Additionally, they cannot fly for long periods over water, preventing their spread to other desert environments. It is customary to check for Shard Flies whenever carts or ships leave areas near where they live, especially so near the late summer and autumn, as breeding season nears.

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