Shrugg

Shruggs are fairly adaptable, though due to their skittishness, they are found only sporadically in areas with sparse undergrowth. Shruggs’ large, heavy, not particularly flexible or fast bodies makes them unable to swim.

Shruggs have snapping turtle-esque, shearing, hooked jaws, which allow them to shear chunks of hard foods and rip apart flesh. While Shruggs hatch with tooth-like protrusions on their lower jaw, much like in the jaws of Aardmites, these pseudo-teeth’s function is only to help it break open the chitinous shell of its eggs. It eventually wears down its "egg teeth" with its diet of hard things.

Though primarily herbivorous, Shruggs do scavenge, much like armadillos and skunks. It will eat nearly any plant matter if hungry enough, but prefers tender roots and digestible purpleflora. In natural conditions, though, much of its diet consists of small, whole crystalflora (including young, tender, non-petrolignum trees) or their crystals, less from preference and more so from great availability due to less competition and more crystalflora-dominant biomes. It prioritizes bigger crystals, with proportionately more tender, digestible fungus-flesh, and as such rarely eats Creepincrystals. The preferred tender, easily-digested purpleflora found close to the ground are often eaten by faster, less skittish species, such as the False Hogtrok or Bigmouth Arthrothere.

It emerges from its burrows only to forage, as it cannot sustain itself by nearby roots indefinitely. Its guts are notably bigger than the Aardmite’s, helping it digest chitin, although, in a panda-like way, it cannot digest its food as efficiently as long-time specialists like tauroks. Given its relatively poor ability to digest chitin, it makes for a good spreader of Rootfroots and Soilpods, although there’s a chance it will excrete within its burrow and doom the crystalflora’s seeds.

They live much longer than Aardmites do, although the average lifespan is a matter of months, and the maximum lifespan is four years.

Its sense of smell isn't quite as good as its ancestor; its antennae are largely digging structures. It relies more on its vision, which is slightly sharper than its ancestor's.

Orpiment Interactions
As a byproduct of its very strong immune system, it has gained the ability to neutralize certain kinds of venom. Its poison resistance, along with its proportionately thick exoskeleton, small size, and the fact its eyes are set low to the ground helps it withstand or avoid not-fully-grown Brown Daggergrass. (Fully-grown Brown Daggergrass are so tall it cannot accidentally step upon them.) It has some resistance to Brown Daggergrass and Minidagger venom, allowing it to withstand low doses of Brown Daggergrass venom and shrug off the bee sting-like venom of some Minidagger species. When it comes to other orpiments' venom, however, it is not substantially more resistant for its size than other arthrotheres. Shruggs' poison resistance is especially useful, given how Brown Daggergrass smells like and somewhat resembles Soilpod fruit, one of its favored foods, and so lures it into Brown Daggergrass patches and even taking a nibble out of them.

Diet
The exact proportion of its diet varies depending on availability; a greater proportion of its diet is carcasses if there are more around. Though its poison resistance expands its diet somewhat, it dislikes the taste of orpiments and cannot withstand orpiments so well as to subsist on them, unlike the Swinetrok.

Though their diets overlap with several Binucleid bugs of its biome, it coexists in its environment through nocturnality, a preference for smaller flora or flora in younger life stages, different predators and predation likelihood, the ability to scavenge, low likelihood of getting killed by eating or stepping on toxic crystals, and immunity to Wormrot, Sentrok Flu (for it is not a taurok) and most Arthrophage varieties. Of all its competitors at time of evolution, the Swinetrok is perhaps the greatest, as it is a similarly-sized Binucleid bugs who favor roots and eat Rootfroot fruit. However, Swinetroks having exclusive access to entire orpiments sets them apart, among other reasons.

Predation
Due to their thick, armor-like exoskeletons, adult Shruggs are not the favored prey of any predators at time of evolution. Nonetheless, Shruggs do have several predators, especially as juveniles, including the Mottleback, Mitted Gnaw, and other big, strong-jawed fauna. (Kronosids may try to eat the juveniles, but their well-protected necks thwarts them) Its brown coloration and countershading helps it blend with brown dirt and Brown Daggergrass. Though its coloration only crudely mimics Brown Daggergrass, precision is unnecessary, given it is nocturnal and spends much of its time hidden in burrows or in the undergrowth.

When threatened, its default response is to freeze for several minutes, avoiding notice while hidden by vegetation or the dark. If attacked, it can curl up on itself slightly or kneel on the ground to make it harder for predators to attack its body joints or limbs, as those are its most vulnerable areas. Only after sustained threat or fear will it strike with its antennae-claws and bite.

Reproduction
Male Shruggs (shown above) do not have a sharp-tipped ovipositor, but otherwise look identical to the females.

Its courtship rituals consist of awkward steps and shuffles while intermittently looking down and "shrugging" by lifting its body, reminiscent of a shy male human asking a human female to go to prom. Territorial disputes between males use the same ritual, making it seem as if they are trying to aggressively "out-awkward" each other.

They do not inject their eggs into carcasses, but rotting vegetation (largely purpleflora). It carries vegetation into its burrow to make "nests" of sorts. In the year-round hot, humid conditions or most of its habitats, the vegetation decays rapidly, consuming some of the burrow's oxygen by the work of microbes. Between living in burrows and depending on decaying vegetation within said burrows, its oxygen supply is sometimes low. It’s adapted to survive on slightly lower levels of oxygen than its ancestor, especially in the young.

Much like Shrugg exoskeletons, the shells of Shrugg eggs are extra-thick and chitinous, with pores in it to allow oxygenation.

Immune System
Like their ancestor, Shruggs have notably strong immune systems: it can carry diseases without being strongly affected by them. It is not sickened easily by Arthrophage, and Arthophage infection is rarely fatal, making it a living reservoir of Arthrophage in its habitats. The Arthrophage strains which do cause symptoms within it tend to be the fastest-reproducing, with the strongest effects per level of infection. Occasionally, big, strong predators successfully tear it apart and eat its body, only to perish of disease four days later from the Arthophage strain it carries.

As Shruggs cannot swim, they can be caught unaware by rare flooding of streams in their habitats. Their corpses tend to sink to the bottom, and can contaminate ponds with Arthrophage.