Spotted lies

Spotted lies are an amphibian with hallucinogenic skin from Ashtara who are currently in risk of extinction while trying to adapt to Adea, a fully different environment than theirs.

Anatomy

This creature is similar to a frog, with deep green skin covered with bright yellow and blue spots. On its back, there is a pair of dragon-fly-like wings, covered by a thin carapace of the same colouration as the skin.

Their colourful skin isn't only for appearance, its a warning to depredators as their skin hold a powerful hallucinogen that starts affecting the victim as soon as the lies are touched.

Naming

They are named "Spotted lies" because the spotted pattern they have on the skin and because of all the "lies" from the hallucinations they cause.

Ashtara

These frogs used to live in a swamp that was away from civilisation. When people approached them, they seemed to hide from people, but with a better look, these frogs stalked people until they left their territory. If people stayed on their territory for too long or approached their "home" too much, they would jump (and fly if needed) into their faces, causing them hallucinations from the contact with their skin and they kept jumping into people until these left the area.

A river running through a forest filled with lots of trees by Santiago Fanego

Adea

Only a few of the frogs got to the void and even less reached Adea. In Adea, they don't have their habitat and are trying to survive however they can, which involved getting closer to civilisation and people without making them run away.

In general, its been hard to live closer to the frogs, but some people are trying to keep as many Ashtarian species alive and the lies are one of them. Keeping them alive, unfortunately, means having them in a fairly small enclosure in an environment that's fairly humid but not close enough to the swamp they used to live.

Above-cloud photo of blue skies by Taylor van Riper