The twin mandibles of the hobbler beetle have extremely sharp inner edges. It uses these jaws to snip the limbs off of opponents, such as those who would molest it while it is busy feeding.
| Class: | Realistic Beast |
| Hab: | Any non-arctic, non-wetlands |
| Fre: | Common |
| Num: | 3-18 to 20-200 + 4x as many grubs |
| Lair: | 20% |
| Size: | Adults: 100 lb., grubs: 5 lbs. (average of many speceis) |
| Move: | Adults: 20 mph, grubs 5 mph |
| Def: | Hard exoskeleton (grubs: only head armored) |
| Att: | Guillotine-like bite |
| Int: | Barely |
| Spec: | Some semi-domesticable "Surgeons' Beetles" |
| Posns: | Mandibles used for tool making |
Hobbler Beetles and Ankle Biter Grubs
The twin mandibles of the hobbler beetle have extremely sharp inner edges. It uses these jaws to snip the limbs off of opponents, such as those who would molest it while it is busy feeding.
The outer sides of its mandibles have a more chisel-like profile. The hobbler beetle uses these outer edges to scrape mosses, lichens and other growths off of stones and other hard surfaces, such as are found along cliffs or boulder-strewn wastes, amongst ruins, on tree trunks and limbs, or underground.
The damper the environment, the more lush the growths. The more lush the growths, the larger the colonies of hobbler beetles a given area can support. Hobblers in sparse environments such as deserts live in loose colonies of 3-18 adults while those in rich rainforests have colonies of 20-200 adult beetles.
Adult hobblers work together to guard egg cases and also communally care for their grubs, which are called ankle biters. The egg cases are fastened one upon another, forming knobby structures like monoliths or stalagmites anchored to rock the beetles have scraped bare. In regions of rich forest, where the beetles scrape great tree trunks for foods, the beetles will suspend their egg cases in stalactite-like columns dependant form great tree limbs if no great stones are available.
The grubs live in burrows under the thickest growth on the stone (or tree trunk) surfaces and in crevasses between the stones in the area around the egg-pillars. Where the natural crevasses are insufficient, the beetles, both adult and grub, will cut them deeper; their mandibles are quite strong enough to do so.
A colony will have two to four times as many grubs, or ankle biters, as adult hobblers. The grubs are much slower than the adults and so do not pursue intruders who flee; adults will pursue to the edge of their territory.
In some places, healers keep semi-domesticated strains of hobblers called surgeons' beetles. These are able to make very clean cuts extremely quickly.
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