Kiki Ařaga {Kiki Bug} (/kiː-kiː/ /ʌɾʌɡʌ/)

Written by Galixi

This beetle-like creature is found predominantly in the rocky desert steppes of the Zhatika-Agotikipé¹ (Zhatika Desert). These critters are completely blind as the destructive sandstorms that sweep the region force every creature to either burrow or adapt to the skin-ripping conditions.
Kiki Ařaga's burrow deep into the sand, sometimes not seeing the light of day for nearly a week at a time. Only when conditions are right do they come out into the desert.

Basic Information

Anatomy

The Kiki Ařaga is roughly 3 inches (7.6 cm) in length and 1.5-2 inches (3.8 - 5 cm) wide from rear to head. The bug can weigh from 3.5-9 ounces (100-255 g).
The Kiki Ařaga has a hard, dirt-colored shell that protects them from brutal sandstorms and facilitates their camouflage into the sand. It has six legs, four hind legs and two front legs.
The front legs are thicker and more muscular than the spindly hind legs. The front legs also have three joints compared to the hind legs which only have two. These thicker and more mobile front legs allow the Kiki Ařaga to produce very loud clicking noises when tapped against rocks. The fact that the tips of their front legs are completely hollow with only a hard shell on the outside allows these taps to reach up to 60 dB. The front legs also assist the bug while burrowing, acting as miniature shovels to move away the soft sand.
The Kiki Ařaga's head features no eyes, as they are completely blind, but they do have mandibles adapted to eating bones and other parts of small buried carcasses. They also use their roughly 1 inch antennae to search for scents around them.
Kiki Ařaga's are hermaphrodite, meaning that when mating, each bug chooses a role to play, one is the egg layer and one is the fertilizer. This is possible due to the fact that the bugs both have male and female reproductive organs.

Genetics and Reproduction

When there's a lull in the waves of sandstorms, for one night they come out to find a mate and communicate with others. They communicate by tapping their front legs repeatedly on the biggest rock they can find. The higher rock, the better, as the sound carries further over the flat, arid steppes.
Each bug has a unique tapping, or kiking, sequence. This sequence is a mix of both their parents' sequences and can range from under 10 seconds to nearly a minute long. The percentage of each sequence is determined by the amount of time they were fertalized after the eggs were laid.
There are two bugs in each mating process, the layer and fertilizer. Once the bugs have found a mate, the layer lays anywhere from 20 to 100 eggs in a hollowed out sand-cave. After egg laying, the layer promptly dies.
Then, the fertilizer begins fertilizing and incubating the eggs. The fertilizer bugs can only last for so long, usually from 5 to 10 minutes before they die as well. The longer each egg is fertalized before the bug dies, the more of that tapping sequence they will inherit.
Once the eggs hatch, they eat the carcasses of their dead parents for energy to get out of the burrowed cave.

Growth Rate & Stages

Kiki Ařaga's usually live around 10-20 days in the steppes, and less in the foothills, as they are less adapted to the cooler climate.
In the first 2-3 days, the hatchlings are birthed, and leave the cave they were born in with the energy from their parents' caracasses. They instantly start a hunt for food to maintain their growth. At birth, Kiki Ařaga's are light tan, like the sand around them, and with age, as they learn to burrow, they become more dirt-colored.
Once the hatchlings have gotten enough food to grow big enough, they are now adults, strong enough to burrow into the sandy soil around them and hide from the sandstorms. Few hatchlings unfortunately caught in sandstorms before learning to burrow survive.

Ecology and Habitats

The optimal environment for the Kiki Ařaga is arid rocky desert. Rocks are essential to the lifecycle of this beetle-like creature since they are the only means for it to attract mates.
The Kiki Ařaga is adapted to withstand mild sandstorms and they burrow deep underground for rougher storms. The bug cannot easily dig through more compact soil, so it prefers sandy ground.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Kiki Ařaga's are primarily scavengers, feasting on the remains of long-dead animals buried in the dunes. They burrow deep into the sand to find morsels of meat. They have adapted to be able to shave off and digest pieces of bone.
Kiki Ařaga's are nomadic creatures, always moving in an attempt to find new pieces of food that haven't already been eaten. Fortunately, because the desert is so dry and scorching, many species die every day, and the Kiki Ařaga's have a regular supply of food.
Kiki Ařaga's don't bury or hide their food like squirrels, but rather eat as much as they can at the time they find their food. Thankfully, the bugs don't live for very long, and they don't need much food to sustain them, able to go up to two days without food.

Behaviour

Not many predators in the desert can burrow, with most adapting to withstand the sandstorms with extremely thick skin, and few fly above the storms altogether. So, naturally, if a Kiki Ařaga hears a predator, they first stay extremely still, not wanting to waste any unnecessary energy, but if the predator comes close enough, they burrow quickly into the ground while also throwing sand in the direction of the predator, hoping to temporarily blind them.
This strategy works most of the time, but some creatures have adapted to accept Kiki Ařaga's as their only source of nutrition. Namely, the Chikila², a snake-like creature thin enough to crawl into Kiki Ařaga burrows and devour them.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Kiki Ařaga's are solo creatures from birth. After they leave the burrow, they rarely ever see their siblings again, and instantly they must fend for themselves.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

The B'pano people have a delicacy food called the Kiki-Po'ala³, or, the Kiki Bowl. They walk out into the desert at night after a sandstorm, find a sandy spot, and then stand until they see movement or hear tapping. They wield a large, square, cloth net with holes to let the sand spill out. Once alerted to the bug's presence, they scoop the net quickly through the sand to root out any bugs.
To prepare the dish, they cut open the bug, clean out the shell of all the meat, and fill it with various vegetables. They then cover the vegetables in the meat, and slow cook it over a fire. Kiki Ařaga meat tastes somewhat like a mix between mushrooms and duck. The vegetables are covered in the juice from the Kiki Ařaga meat and ultimately it makes a delicious appetizer.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Kiki Ařaga's have adapted to have a very narrow range of hearing, tuned in only to the frequencies of their taps (around 200 - 4000 Hz), but in that narrow range, they are very adept, being able to hear a tap from nearly half a mile (0.8 km) away.
The bugs also have a very keen sense of smell, being able to smell morsels of food up to one mile (1.6 km) away and roughly 800 feet (243 m) under the ground.

^{1: Pronounciation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j67Wpi3xaW3lDpmuoHCnLORLCty1ZYBY/view 2: Pronounciation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MuQ96nT8jWy0uIxCdLtKDxGuWZf3os-B/view 3: Pronounciation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AFuLtOsVLrsbUyQ1vdkwxyivzHLpMRwa/view}

Conservation Status

Least concern: the species is abundant throughout its natural habitat. In fact, the numbers are so large that some must find homes in other rocky areas such as the foothills to the north-east of the steppes.

Geographic Distribution

• Zhatika-Agotikipé