Futsu Kabuto

Kabuto

The clang of metallicised chitin is a surefire indicator of the presence of male kabuto wrestling over a female's egg clutch. Kabuto is the term used for the loosely related assortment of horn-bearing beetles native to the Tofuoka Hills. From the tiniest rhinoceros beetle to the huge take kabuto, and even a legendary kaiju kabuto, all of these arthropods share

a few traits.

Breeding

Female kabuto—identifiable by their engorged abdomens—spend the days leading up to their breeding periods feeding on sulphur deposits. Their digestive system metabolises this into sulphuric acid which they spray to acidify small bodies of water. These breeding pools ensure their eggs can properly gestate and are protected from egg thieves, and the act of spraying releases pheromones that attract males of the species. Unfortunately, there is considerable overlap between the pheromones of different species, and males of many species may be erroneously summoned to the breeding ground, only to while away hours looking for the potential mate they were sure they'd find.

Wrestling

Male kabuto are identifiable by their large horn and propensity to wrestle one another when a female's pheromones are in the air. In the wild, they gather to a spraying female and compete in wrestling matches, with the winner able to fertilise the eggs between bouts. Though an impressive male specimen may see off many opponents, eventually, it will become exhausted and have to retreat. In this way, the genetic diversity of the population is maintained; a single clutch of eggs will see many males reign over it, ensuring that the hatched offspring have many different fathers. In Kihōsō City, pheromones are collected and sprayed over the arena in the Horn Pits to stimulate the kabuto into fighting.

Larvae & Chrysalises

After hatching, a kabuto larva eats whatever it can find in its pool—dirt and metal particulates, algae, and even other larvae. After several moults, the black-skinned maggot-like larva crawls out of the pool to form its chrysalis, at which point it is at its most vulnerable. If the kabuto larva can form a chrysalis, it emerges several weeks later, females by dissolving the rear of the chrysalis with their acid, and males by cutting their way out with their horn.

Reinforced Chitin

While burrowing, kabuto ingest nuggets of metal which their digestive system dissolves and uses to form the metallo-chitinous building blocks of their exoskeletons. This hardened chitin increases their longevity, though the poachers of the Tofuoka Hills hunt kabuto to acquire these valuable carapaces, which they sell in Kihōsō City. Local legend says that the bigger the kabuto, the deeper it can delve, and the rarer the metal it ingests, with stories of some being impervious even to adamantine-tipped arrowheads!