Dwebble and Crustle Report

Dwebble and Crustle Report:

Dwebble Insectageo Paguroidea capulos

Crustle Insectageo Paguroidea sedimentus

The Pokémon Dwebble and Crustle are found in widespread locations, from seaside rocky cliffs and beaches to deserts and mountainsides. These Pokémon are not selective, as long as the area contains rocky surfaces that are easily accessible.

Dwebble is an orange crustacean,  appearing at around 30cm in height, the Pokémon itself has four limbs, the forelegs have a very sturdy structure with pointed tips. Dwebble possesses two large eyes that stand tall over its body on thin stalks. Its body is small and low to the ground, it wears a large hollow stone on its back. If the stone breaks or has worn the Dwebble will discard it and seek a new one.  It will scurry around stressed and disorientated, protecting its vulnerable body, until it finds a stone of suitable size. Using mucus secreted in its mouth it is able to melt a hole into the core of the stone, it will then heft the stone onto its back and continue to wear it until it too wears out.

Upon evolution the Pokémon's habits change slightly, instead of seeking out a suitably sized stone Crustle will hunt for a large open stone surface, once it is found the Crustle will pace around a 1m by 1m square secreting the acidic saliva on the ground. This will continue until the acid has melted straight down to a sufficient distance the Crustle will then stand around and pull the sides until the strata of the stone at the base release. The Crustle will use the now very strong tail it once hid inside a stone to help keep this massive slab balanced. The evolved form of this Pokémon has eight limbs the hind 6 pairs are thin yet incredibly strong, able to hold these slabs up for days on end. The front pair of legs have evolved into large pincers that possess incredible power. The simple orange colouration of the Dwebble's exoskeleton develops dark brown tips to its limbs and thin tall eyes grow sturdy and thick upon evolution.

Dwebble and Crustle's incredible endurance and remarkable strength have made them somewhat of a symbol of power amongst certain people. The feat of strength shown by a Crustle maintaining the lifting of its slab for days on end has been idolised by martial artists for centuries and have often been adapted into various forms of strength and endurance training.  Crustle has been associated with the start sign Cancer and has thus become the Pokémon nationally recognised as the Pokémon of July in the Unova Zodiac.

Dwebble and Crustle are both omnivores, meaning they will consume almost anything that is made available to them, they are not fussy in the way that they will happily consume anything from grasses and insects to scavenging from a rotting carcass. Their heavily acidic stomachs and exceptionally alkaline intestines allow for the consumption of rotting meat without the slightest fear of food poisoning. This varied diet and adaptable attitude helps contribute to the vast distribution this Pokémon can occupy.

Dwebble live in colonies varying from small groups to large swarms of up to a few hundred depending upon the availability of food and suitable rocks of habitation. The members of these colonies will communicate with various low click sounds and brushing of their claws against each other but tend to pay each other little mind unless competing over food. Crustle however are intensely territorial between males. Females will travel freely between areas, unaware of the brutal power struggle that exists over the territorial borders they so effortlessly wander between. Males will establish a territory once they evolve, they will attempt to gain a territory that is as flat as possible so they may terraform the centre into a large "bowl" with a raised centre. It is this mound they will fiercely defend during the mating season, other males will approach and attempt to either claim the mound as their own or destroy it and return to their own. The males will initiate combat by comparing each other's slab of stone, stronger males are able to carry larger cubes of stone and are thus more likely to scare off smaller less able males without resorting to violence. If however the competing male believes they are able to take on the other they will not hesitate to viciously attack the legs of their opponent with the intention of maiming them and causing them to be crushed by their own block of stone. The winner will then either claim or return to their mound and begin to patrol their area in swift rounds in order to find any female who may be wandering through feeding. He will then pursued her to follow him by showing off how easily he can lift the large slab on his back, if impressed she will follow him back to his mound. Here, over a matter of days he will amass as many females as he can, keeping endlessly busy ensuring all females remain in his bowled out area with gifts of food. Once he is satisfied with how many females he has acquired he will dig out the mound, deeper and deeper until he reaches ground water.  He will then offer it as a place for his females to lay their eggs. They will, one by one, deposit their clutch as he fertilises them into the muddy pool in the centre. Once they have laid their clutch into the earth the females will leave and continue to forage without restraint across various territories, their work completed for another year.

The male however is barely half way through his chore. Once the eggs are laid he will bury them and rebuild his mound, making it appear as identical as possible to the original. It is here that he will be stationed for the coming weeks, making hourly patrols around the immediate area and maintaining his proud structure. Once roughly three weeks have passed the eggs will begin to hatch deep underground, the young Dwebble learning of their surroundings and intuitively burrowing upwards. Once the first few have reached the surface the male Crustle will know he has been successful and leave the immediate area allowing his spawn to seek their first stone to burrow into and form their home.