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Biology is one of my biggest interests and many of my monsters and such are at least partially inspired by stuff that can be found in the real world. Many of these are things I am planning on using for my creatures, but haven't yet figured something out. I want to keep my wording relatively simple here to make it a bit more accessible to those who are unfamiliar.
I am pretty sure this fact is pretty well known so I won't go into too much depth, but for anyone unaware, several species of horned lizard are capable of spraying a stream of blood at perceived threats. They do this by restricting the flow of blood that is leaving their head, which then causes small blood vessels around its eyes to rupture. The stream of blood can travel up to five feet away and apparently tastes rather foul to canine and feline predators.
Creatures which I have given this ability to:
Certain species of fly are known to decapitate ants, all of the ones I know of are in the family Phoridae, members of the genera Pseudacteon and Apocephalus, as well as some others, lay an egg inside the thorax of a host ant, the larva then moves into its head to feed on its hemolymph, muscle, and other tissue before eating the brain, the head eventually falls off and the larva pupates. Apocephalus borealis does something similar with bees and wasps, though its method rarely results in decapitation. Wormgut and his maggot are actually inspired by these ant-decapitators, and I do plan on having the maggot pupate, so there's that to look forward to! However, the genus I am most interested in and am still figuring out something that's based on it is Dohrniphora. They target members of the genus Odontomachus, the trap-jaw ants, and specifically search for injured ants. The female will assess the level of injury of each ant, leaving those which are too active. Once she finds a suitable target, she will climb onto the ant and slowly saw its head off with her oversized mouthparts. In laboratory conditions, she and her mate will feed upon the contents of the head, and may even lay a small egg nearby. Because it's difficult to find information about Dohrniphora, I'll include this link if anybody wants to read more about it, as it was my main source of information listed here.
Monster ideas I've been throwing around:
Like the flies mentioned in the above section, members of the butterfly genus Phengaris parasitize ants, though their methods are very different. In the first strategy, the caterpillar will leave its host plant and wait on the ground until it is discovered by ants, the chemicals it emits are similar to that of ant larvae, and trick the ants into bringing it back to the colony. It will be fed by nurse ants until it pupates, and will leave the nest once it hatches. The second strategy starts off much the same, but changes once the caterpillar is inside of the nest. The caterpillar will begin to feed on the pupae of the ant colony it has infiltrated until it pupates. Caterpillars using either strategy will also produce similar sounds to that of the ant's queen, which causes the ants to prioritize it over their own siblings.
So far, only one of my creatures does something like this, a dragon known as the Broodtaker. It infiltrates the colonies of an as yet unnamed species of blind, social dragon through pheromones, this tricks the dragons into thinking the Broodtaker is a member of their own colony. The broodtaker will then feed upon any unguarded eggs it can find until it has its fill.
While many animals are capable of autotomy (the shedding of a body part from the body to either distract or escape from a predator), I am specifically focusing on the animals that remove parts of their own skin when captured by a predator. There are likely other species which can do this, but the ones I am most familiar with are the spiny mice (genus Acomys) and the fish scale geckos (genus Geckolepis). Both of these animals can regenerate skin, hair (in the case of the mouse), and scales (in the case of the gecko) with little to no scarring, and in the case of the lizard, they do so without shedding blood.
I don't yet have any ideas for a monster which specifically loses its skin to evade capture, but a good chunk of my monsters are capable of dropping their tail and other appendages to escape the grip of a predator. I've also got an idea for an Aberrant dragon for Draconica which bears independent skin that can remove itself from the main body, similar to Severspawn though in this dragon's case, the main body and skin have separate minds
Many species participate in asexual reproduction, but I will be focusing on the form known as fission, where an organism splits itself apart in order to reproduce. There are two types, binary fission where the organism splits itself into two parts, and there is multiple fission where it splits into multiple parts. This form of reproduction is most common among microscopic organisms, though some significantly larger organisms are also capable of this, including many echinoderms (e.g. starfish) and cnidarians (e.g. sea anemones).
One of my ideas for a creature which utilizes fission is based off of the aggregating anemone (Anthopleura elegantissima), they form massive colonies of genetically identical organisms which wage territorial battles between unrelated colonies. I haven't yet figured out what kind of organism my creature will be, but I am thinking I will bring this even further and make then eusocial. The founding reproductive member of these colonies would grow massive and nearly immobile once it finds a place to begin its territory. It would then split apart into the initial members of each caste and will regrow until it splits apart again. Once they reach a certain age, it will instead split in half, resulting in two reproductive members of the colony, which then increases the rate of production of the nonreproductive members. I haven't quite figured out how new colonies or formed or the mechanism behind how the different castes develop as this creature concept is still in its very early stages.