Toxitrop

With the proliferation of understory plants, it has become harder for the Beachtrop to navigate through the forests and find clearings. This almost made them extinct in the forests, until the orpiment jewel evolved. The dead zones the orpiment jewel created provided a safe haven for the beachtrop, as they were hardly affected by the toxins the orpiment jewel pumped into the ground due to their unrooted nature. However, the poison still had an affect on the beachtrop nonetheless, and caused the species to select for poison tolerance, resulting in the toxitrop.

The toxitrop looks very similar to its ancestor, with some minor yet notable differences. The toxitrop has longer, sharper crystal tips. It is here where the poison they take in with their food and water is sequestered. The poison is stored in modified immune sacs. When bitten, the crystal is broken and the sharp fragments cause multiple puncture wounds in the predator’s mouth. The poison is then released from the sacs and into the predator’s wounds, simultaneously poisoning and causing the predator pain. The tips of its crystals are colored orange, and serve as warning coloration. The uppermost crystal’s tip has been modified into a splash cup. Gametes form inside of the splash cup, and are knocked out of the cup when a raindrop hits said cup. As the water splashes outwards from the cup, some of it will land in a neighboring splash cup, resulting in fertilization. The fertilized gametes will then be washed out from the cup and begin developing into a new toxitrop. Because of this behavior, large numbers of toxitrops will congregate in clearings during rainstorms, taking advantage of their close proximity and the falling rain to reproduce en masse. This makes gamete dispersal and collection much more efficient. Because the toxitrop was so successful, it outcompeted its ancestor in the forests.