📗Compendium | 9: Watergrub

by Acclaimed Interstellar Survival-Exploration Entrepreneur and Nature Documentarian Sir Davis Astenbarrow

Jul 26, 2024

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📗A Compendium of Beasts, Bugs, and Botany
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📗A Compendium of Beasts, Bugs, and Botany

The Explorer’s Guide to Surface Life

Pale Rock Watergrub

Explorer’s Guide Contribution Written By Acclaimed Interstellar Survival-Exploration Entrepreneur and Nature Documentarian Sir Davis Astenbarrow

This aquatic creature is hardy and nigh-immortal if left to its own devices, capable of surviving nearly all of Nature’s usual methods of extermination: extreme temperatures, drought, floods, starvation, dehydration, and even radiation. But one surefire way to kill it is to pierce its brain, place it face-up on a cutting board, cut it in half lengthwise, de-vein it and remove any roe if present, then brush it with garlic butter and grill 5-6 minutes per side (adding more garlic butter once flipped) until the Watergrub meat becomes opaque and begins to char.

The Watergrub is, without question, the most ubiquitous type of prey animal on the planet Surface, with hundreds of discovered species ranging in size from 12-14 inches at the largest (such as the Pale Rock Watergrub depicted above) all the way down to the tiniest—Fairy Watergrubs are just 1-2 centimeters long, often forming densely-packed swarms in large bodies of water when sufficient resources are present.

Regardless of size, their typical shape is a segmented aquadynamic body, a single broad tail, and a smooth, bulbous, eyeless head. Some, like the Pale Rock Watergrub, have fully developed sets of legs which allow them to traverse dried-up riverbeds and short distances over land when required. However, they still must breathe underwater using the fan-like gill structures studded along the sides of their body beneath the main carapace.

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Using specialized organs inside its sightless head, the Pale Rock Watergrub can sense vibrations, electrical, and chemical signals in the water which effectively allow it to “see” without eyes. It’s also thought to possess a primitive form of aquatic echolocation, but it seems to serve more of a sensory than communicative purpose.

The most astonishing trait possessed by these creatures is their ability to enter a form of extreme hibernation called “cryptobiosis,” during which the metabolism slows almost to a complete stop. The Watergrub curls in on itself, floods its body with a protective stabilizing chemical, and entirely dries out until reaching a state of desiccation. They can survive without water, food, or even air for years like this!

Then, once conditions improve, all it takes is a little water to rehydrate these well-preserved creatures and completely revive them. Unfortunately for these determined animals, they are also an incredibly savory and delicious form of protein which have a naturally long shelf-life when freeze-dried… best served with lemon and butter.