Fire Beetles

The Great Sh'Maari may be one of the harshest environment for any living being to survive in. It is no wonder then that the species that do succeed in living here also become some of the most ferocious.

Anatomy

Fire beetles are big insects, around 10 cm long and 4 cm wide. They have long antennas and large immobile mandibles on the side of their mouth. Their front winds are covered with a hard shell, coloured in black and red. Because of their size, they cannot fly very high, or for very long, and so will typically need the strong winds and updrafts caused by the massive local desert storms in order to travel long distances.

Biology

Fire Beetles get their name from the fact that they are able to produce and spit out a liquid that, upon contact with air, spontaneously ignites, created a ribbon of flames in front of them. For a long time, Scholars believed that the fire was created using some kind of elemental magic, much like the Ajax of northern Mahador, but now most scholars agree that it may be a yet unknown chemical reaction, instead of magic.

Geography Distribution

Fire beetles can be encountered throughout most region of southern Mahador, from the Bone Pass to the Juh'tan hills, and from the Goraanni mountains to the Marching dunes. Indeed, this last location and the Whistling hills to the north are where they are most commonly found.