Moultworm

lepidracora seculmori

The Moultworm is a species of xenid dragon moth in the genus lepidracora. Its shed skin is prized as the sole source of material which is processed into the rare and exotic Celestial Silk.

Anatomy

The moultworm is a typical species of dragon moth, while it bares no relation to the dragons of Draconidae, the head bares a similar shape.
Larval moultworms take the form of large green and grey caterpillars covered in stubby spines. It feeds exclusively on the curled fronds of snap ferns, upon which it munches for a few weeks as it grows. It moults five times as it grows before it abandons the snap fern and finds a sheltered overhang so it can pupate in safety.
The adult moultworm is a large, white, and fluffy moth with large wings and a fat abdomen. Unlike many adult dragon moths, the moultworm retains its mouth parts and is an important pollinator for many flowering plants. It has large eyespots on its wings which seem to deter most predators, making it calm and docile, but it does not seem to fool the Sting Tailed Wyvern.

Moultsilk

When the moultworm larva prepares to moult as it feeds and grows, its exoskeleton becomes infused with an amber oily substance. After moulting, the discarded exoskeleton slowly becomes fibrous and turns into a tangled mass of organic fibers. These moults can be collected and soaked in boiling water rich in tannins to loosen these fibers, which are then slowly and painstakingly untangled and pulled out one by one. The fibers can then be spun into fine threads, and then woven together into a soft, translucent, almost ephemerally thin silk fabric called Moultsilk.
Moultsilk is a fabric highly prized across the Great Constellation. It fetches a very high price at market, as the artisinal manner of manufacture, the time and effort involved in its making, and the astronomical number of moultworm sheds required to make a single bolt of moultsilk cloth is nowhere near enough to keep up with the demand.
Moultsilk can be treated with mordants and dyes and then tailored, or it can be further processed into Celestial Silk.

Aberrance

Like most xenids, and most things that exist in the Great Constellation, moutlworms are susceptible to the hostile effects of aberrance. It is believed that they only become afflicted with aberrance when eating tainted plants as larvae.

Aberrant Occulism

The eyespots on its wings seem to stare directly at you. A slow, languid blink? Or just a trick of the light?

A minor, but strange aberrance where the eyespots on the wings of adult moths shift and move with a life of their own. It is more dramatic on the larvae, the caterpillars are covered in eyes that point and stare in all directions. Moultsilk made from afflicted moultworms never quite turn out entirely right.

An unassuming caterpillar-like xenid, yet one of the most important to our culture. Their products are found in every market and in every house of nobility.

Clade Structure

Xenidilia
xeninvertebra
lepidracae
lepidracora
l. seculmori

Keywords

Xenid, Dragon Moth, Flying, Fleshy,