A new family of animals

This is a relatively diverse family, with big differences in colour and size. The genera can be separated by close observation, but this is not usually convenient  to manage. The species can only be identified by experts and connoisseurs. The animals in this family are highly structured in their habits, and these differ throughout the year. The juvenile animals go into hibernation during the winter, while the adult ones simply change habits.

These animals change morphologically throughout the year, with different anterior and/or posterior protrusions marking the different stages. The stages differ from species to species and according to environmental factors. An animal can sometimes revert to a previous stage during a season.

The mating protrusion varies between species, but during the laying of the eggs, the animal devours all available food in its territory. This is necessary to make many large eggs, which are lain uniformly distributed on the whole of the animal's territory at the end of july and the beginning of august in places with clearly defined seasons, but this can vary according to geographical position. After a while, the animal gathers the eggs, which can vary in colour - some observed colours are green, grey, white, and black - in highly structured collections. The eggs are short cylindrical, and are lain on their side. They are not incubated, and hatch evenly throughout the winter, seldom any two at the same time from the same batch. The young animal is small, and therefore goes into hibernation until it is sexually mature, which takes about five years. Relatively few animals survive their first and second winter, usually due to hunger or neglect.

These animals are hermaphroditic, and most of them, when it is too far from the closest individual of the same species, uses self-fertilisation. The complications of this are insignificant for the animal's health. The adult's winter morphology includes an anterior mouth part which is used to eat or move snow, which is its main food during the winter. Some species can have a posterior protrusion for the dispersal of excrement or for camouflaging its trails.

These animals have in recent times been bred to need regular interaction with humans, which is why wild specimens of this family are rare. They are kept as domestic animals. It is unusual that one family owns more than three, as they can be demanding and need large territories with a lot of available food. They are herbivores during the egg-laying, but at other times they can eat humus (especially in the spring and autumn) or snow (during the winter season). Some examples of genera are John Deere and Kubota.


As you can understand, I have been brainwashed this summer...