| INSECTS Ant: There is a particular variety of ants referred to as the marchers, that inhabit the rainforests near Schendi. This is a huge mass of black ants that move through the jungles, usually forming a column that is about a yard wide but that could be pasangs in length. The column widens only when food is found and may then spread up to five hundred feet wide. To cross small streams, the ants will make a bridge of themselves. During a rain, they will separate and seek shelter, reforming after the rains stop. A knowledgeable individual could guide the marchers on a specific path. The bite of these ants is extremely painful but not poisonous. Bee: Honeybees are domestically raised for their honey. Though the books only depicted an instance of such breeding in Torvaldsland, the wide availability of honey throughout Gor seems to support bee keeping in many other regions. Beetle: One variety of beetle known to exist on Gor is the marsh beetle. Centipede Flies: There are many types of Gor including sand flies, arctic flies, and sting flies. Sand flies live in the Tahari and appear after the rains. The flies in the arctic are black and long-winged. Sting flies, also known as needle flies in the southern regions, usually live in deltas and similar wet areas. They generally lay their eggs on the stems of rence plants. They tend to be attracted to eyes and cause a painful sting. Several stings can cause nausea and a swelling that will go away after a few Ahn. But, in great numbers they can kill. The hatching time is the most dangerous period and last for four to five days. Luckily, that season is predictable so can be easily avoided. Gitches: These are insects that cause a painful bite. Some can grow quitelarge Golden Beetle: One of the most unique and dangerous creatures in the Nest is the Golden Beetle, that lives in the unlit caverns beneath the Sardar caves of the Priest-Kings. This is an insect the size of a rhinoceros. Its back seems divided into two thick casings which once long ago might have been horny wings but which have fused into a thick, immobile golden shell. It has glowing eyes and its head can almost withdraw beneath the shell. It can still use its jaws when its head is beneath the shell. It has two multiply-hooked, hollow, pincerlike extensions that meet at the tips about a yard beyond its body. These suck a creature's fluids out. Its antennae are very short, curved and topped with a fluff of golden hair. There are also several long, golden strands that extend from its head over its domed back and fall almost to the floor behind it. Its bite has a paralytic venom. It hisses and can move fast but only for a brief time. Its greatest weapon is that it exudes an odor, somewhat oppressive, that induces sleep in people nearby. This is even effective on Priest-Kings. Its primary food is Priest-Kings. It lays its eggs, each about the size of a fist, in a host. The egg has leathery shell and the baby is the size of a child's turtle. The host will not die if the eggs are removed before they hatch. Grasshopper: In the rainforests, there is a red grasshopper that weighs about four ounces in weight. Hinti: These are small, flea like insects though they are not parasites. Leech: A salt leech is one type of known leech. A marsh leech is another. A marsh leech is about four inches long and half an inch thick. If a leech is stuck on you, burning it or placing salt on it will cause it to let go. Lice: Lice vary in size from very tiny to the size of marbles. The larger variety infest tarns so tarnsman must remove them. When they remove them, they might feed them to the tarn. Lice can be dangerous though as they transmit the pox. Rennels: These are crablike desert insects with a poisonous bite though it is not too lethal. They leave little red bites. Roach: This is commonly an oblong, flat-bodied black creature about half a hort long. It has long feelers and is basically harmless. Scorpions Slime Worm: This is a long, whitish, wormlike animal that resides in the Sardar. It is eyeless and has a small, red mouth on the underside of its body. It inches its way along, hugging the angle between the wall and floor. It once functioned as a sewerage device but it has not done so for thousands of years. It now scavenges on the kills of the Golden Beetle. Snails Spiders: One unique type of spider on Gor is the rock spider. They are usually brown or black and when they fold their legs beneath them, they look almost like a rock. Rock spiders can be huge, almost eight feet thick. They live in the rainforests. Cell spiders are tiny creatures. Termites: They are also called white ants. FISH Bint: There are two types of bints. One is a small, carnivorous freshwater fish like a piranha that inhabits the rivers of the rainforests. A large school of these bints can strip a carcass bare in minutes. The other type is a fanged, carnivorous marsh eel. Carp, Vosk Clam, Tamber: Their polished shells are generally used in making cheap jewelry though certain shells can be quite valuable. Crayfish Cuttlefish Eels: There are several varieties including dock eels, river eels, black eels, spotted eels, carnivorous eels, and Vosk eels. The dock eel is a black freshwater fish, comonly about four feet long and weighing eight to ten pounds. They are carnivorous, living in the shallow waters around the docks of most river ports Gint: There are two types of gints. One is a tiny, six-inch freshwater fish inhabiting the rainforests. It has bulbous eyes and flipper-like fins. It is amphibious and capable of walking on its pectorals. It is often found feeding off the scraps of tharlarion kills. It is similar to the Earth lungfish. They sun themselves on exposed roots near the river, remaining close to the water. They may even rest on the backs of resting or sleeping tharlarion. There is also a giant gint in the rainforests that is about ten feet long, weighs a thousand pounds.and has a four-spined dorsal fin. Grunt: There are a few different types of this fish. One type is a large, carnivorous salt-water fish that inhabits Thassa. It is often attracted to the scent of blood like a shark. The blue grunt is a small, voracious, carnivorous freshwater fish also attracted to blood. It is particularly dangerous during the daylight hours preceding its mating periods. During its mating period, they are harmless. They are also more of a threat when they school and not when a solitary individual is encountered. The white-bellied grunt is a large game fish which feeds on parsit fish. Lelt: This is a small, five to seven inches long, blindfish. It has fernlike filaments at either side of the head which are its sensory organs. It is white with long fins and swims slowly. It inhabits the brine pits and is the main food of the salt shark. Parsit fish: There are several types of this slender, silvery fish with brown stripes. They are migratory fish and the principal prey of sea sleen. Pike: This is a carnivorous fish about fifteen inches long. Sharks: There are several varieties of sharks on Gor, saltwater and freshwater. The common shark is nine-gilled and its skin is very rough and abrasive. Varieties include river sharks, salt shark, marsh shark, white sharks of the north and the Vosk and Laurius sharks. The salt shark is commonly over twelve feet long, with a sickle-like tail. It has several rows of triangular teeth and a sail-like dorsal fin. It inhabits brine pits such as those of the Tahari region. Vosk sorp: This is giant-shelled mollusk that creates pearls like an oyster. Its blood is used for dye. Its shell could even be used as a chair. Toos: This is a crablike creature, covered with overlapping plating, that resides in the Sardar. It lives on discarded fungus spores. Turtles: There is a variety of Vosk turtle, a hook-beaked creature, that can grow to be gigantic. It is a persistent carnivore that is almost impossible to kill. The marsh turtle is another variety of turtle on Gor |
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