Nészárnyú

Description

A droning sound reverberates through the caverns of Jégoria's Downside, as dozens of horrific insects fly past looking for prey to pick apart.
The nészárnyú, also known as 'stingflies', are a small type of insect that roam the caverns, carried by their four transparent wings. They possess a pair of large, multifaceted eyes that allows them great eyesight and depth perception, which they use to hunt smaller insects or other tiny animals or fish. They will usually first sting their prey with the hook on their tail-end to inject a nerve poison that will weaken and potentially blind its prey, before biting down on a vital point to finish it off. Occasionally during a food shortage a swarm will form which will even attack larger prey in groups, tearing apart the flesh with hundreds of small bites.
Its carapace is rather tough as well for a creature capable of flight and with such low weight, something it has evolved into to deal with the myriad other small predators in the Downside. Interestingly, it seems like it continues to grow for all of its (relatively short) lifespan. Most stingflies are around 20-30 centimeters in length when they reach adulthood, but individuals of around 60 centimeters are not uncommon, and there have even been rare (likely exaggerated) tales of stingflies nearly a meter in length.

Intelligence and Behavior

They are predatory insects, both when they are young and their wings haven't fully developed yet, as well as when they are winged adults. Their lifespan is short, it can be up to two years if they die of old age, but that rarely happens. Usually they die after a few months as an adult to other predators or due to food scarcity.
They are also fiercely territorial, both against their own species as well as against other species. Usually they stay alone or in small groups, but they revert to swarming behavior for the mating phase, during which females release pheromones that draw in the male stingflies. Swarm mating involves female choice and male competition. The increased level of interaction increases the stingfly's serotonin levels, which can cause an increase in breeding, eating and result in swarming behavior. This is how stingfly plagues are formed.
These plagues scour the land until they either run out of food, are slowly whittled down by other predators, or break up due to internal predation.

Statistics

Geographic Distribution

• Jégoria