... the title says it all. Anyway, here is the finished bug with his back story and a little bit about the little guy :)
Foliculus is a small prey type organism who travels alone, or in small groups of several million, they survive by disguising themselves against hair follicles. If it is caught by a predator (namely Pulgas) its exoskeleton secretes an oil which makes the attacking insect vomit, this action usually doesn’t deter Pulgas, but at least they try. Apart from hiding and oil secretion, they only have one main drive in life, food. The single source of food for these organisms is in fact the one thing they use to protect themselves from there enemies, hair.
A single Foliculus can eat approximately one inch strand of hair every 4-6 hours. During feeding time it burrows under the hair root and devours it, the insect then takes the place of the root and slowly begins eating the strand of hair above the scalp. If a dog, or cat is infested with these tiny bugs you can be sure that within 3-5 days the animal will be completely and irreversibly bald as the hair root is eaten during feeding. As for human infestation, although the Foliculus do not like the taste of human hair they have been known to eat it when another animal cannot be found, in this case balding will happen more slowly as it takes them longer to eat (due to length and taste) and baldness will occur within 7-10 days.
This is before the HORRIBLE paint job:
And this is after the HORRIBLE paint job
Note: If water color paint comes in a paste, it is meant to be added to WATER and not used in place of acrylic paint.... my poor little bug still isn't dry, and its been a week! And since it was so sticky all the fine details started ripping off the poor little guy.... Ooops :)
Paint chip eating-
Greg.
