Common Name: Oil Glider

Scientific Name: Hemilepistus petroleus

Specimen Length: 165mm

Specimen Sex: Male

First Described: AD 2043

Description and Habitat: Petroleum Seeps are quite common in many areas of the world, but it was in California (USA), after the Great Subterranean Fires of 2029 when oil permanently bubbled to the surface, that Hemilepistus petroleus were first discovered. A terrestrial crustacean (the woodlouse being an ancient common ancestor) it has a basic segmented morphology, a dorso-ventrally flattened body with many pairs of wings in constant motion (even at rest) due to the very hot and sticky environment that forces this fluttering insect to stay permanently off the ground. Specialised appendages perfectly suited for respiration in the extreme heat of this blackland sit alongside the Oil Glider’s legs, which have evolved into heat resistant stumps. Ingesting carbon compounds (made up of hydrogen, nitrous oxygen and sulpha) and any evaporating H2O above and around the bubbling surface of the oil, as well as their own faeces, forms the majority of their diet, but rather than urinating, they get rid of waste by producing a strong ammonia-smelling substance which passes out at the base of their wings as a gas.

The many antennae house an eye at the end of each stalk, delicate balls housed in a hard golden shell used as protection from over exposure to the heat. Interestingly they are calibrated perfectly to accommodate heat shimmer distortion and do not see well if relocated to a cooler climate.

Reproduction: Courtship in H. petroleus populations is a beautiful but dangerous dalliance around the natural eternal flames dotted throughout the oil fields, the light attracting hundreds of thousands every night, many succumbing to either the heat of the flame or the gooey death trap below. To the Californian Tribespeople (the few surviving human populations, mostly those that were already homeless in AD 2029 and knew how to manage in difficult, water starved areas) who populate the more hospitable fringes of the area, Hemilepistus petroleus have a mythical status, perceived to be both of and for the Great Seeps, seemingly coming from and returning their bodies, and the nutrition within them, to the oil.

H. petroleus mate only once in their lifetime, the males dying within 24 hours after copulation, the females lasting a few more weeks, producing up to 60 offspring. Like other peracarids, females carry fertilised eggs in their marsupium through which they provide developing embryos with water, oxygen and nutrients. Young hatch as miniature versions of their parents but receive no further maternal care once they leave the mother within the first week of hatching. Juveniles go through a series of moults before reaching maturity, staying in the relative safety of higher updrafts, slowing dropping down closer to the oil’s highly nutritious surface as they mature and grow in size.

Life Span: Eight weeks.