Nayt

Nayts are small creatures that can be found infesting rock crevices in the Anarchic Carication region of the Mortem Apostarium. Though they are generally harmless creatures, there are accounts of Nayt bites carrying Putredine Epidermis, a disease that has not been encountered on the Mortus since the second Aeon.

Appearance
Male Nayts can be discerned by the shape of their wings, and the distinct brown stripes on its carapace. A male's wings will be triangular in shape, pointing backwards, while a female's are ovular and point outwards.

Lifespan
The male variant of the Nayt can live anywhere between 20-27 days. Unlike females, the male dies simply of age, after living a life of constantly feeding and finding new mates.

Breeding
Males spend half of their life seeking female mates. To do this, they nest themselves upon rocks and tap their wings against the surface, leaving behind natural bacteria that carry a strong scent. The stronger a Nayt's scent, the more likely he is to attract a female. He then takes shelter inside the crevice of the rock and waits for a mate.

When the male finds a fitting mate and accepts her, he injects her with a potent chemical that triggers fertilisation, later abandoning the female in search of another, or to feed.

Feeding
Since males must feed to fuel mating with more than one female, they often seek out impregnated female Nayts and cannibalise them, also devouring the eggs. The female is too weak to fight back as she is malnourished, or also being eaten by her children if they are hatching at the time.

Appearance
Females are differentiated from males by the paleness of their carapace, and round shape of their wings. They are rarer than males, as a female spends the majority of her life in shelter as her eggs hatch.

Lifespan
A female Nayt will usually find a suitable mate within the first 3-5 days of its lifetime. After it has fed during that time, it will breed and then take shelter in her rock. Nayt eggs take an average of 4-6 days to hatch, after which the female is eaten by her offspring. Thus, a female Nayt has a statistically normal lifespan of 9 days.

Breeding
The entirety of a female Nayt's life is spent searching for a male, mating, and producing offspring. From birth, a female is fuelled only by the nutrition of her cannibalised brethren as she searches for a male. When she is injected and fertilised, she spends the rest of her days waiting for her offspring to hatch and battle for dominance inside her. Only one infant Nayt will emerge, feeding off the mother's and siblings' corpses. There can be anywhere between 4-9 eggs hatching within a female.