Are Venus Fly Traps Poisonous To Animals

Catachan (pronounced Cat-a-CHAN) is the nearly infamous Purple Death Earth in the galaxy. It is located in the Ultima Segmentum and is covered in dense jungle.

The planet's unabridged ecosystem seems consciously hostile to all foreign life. Each and every element of the native flora and animal of the planet represents a real danger to whatever Human.

Catachan's only valuable resource is its people, who by virtue of being born on the harshest world in the Imperium are invariably tough and cunning. Information technology is home to the renowned Catachan Jungle Fighters regiments of the Astra Militarum.

History

Catachan was colonised by Humans millennia ago during the Dark Age of Technology, long earlier the Imperium of Human was established.

When the get-go exploratory probes arrived in its star system, the planet was a deceptive, calm dark-green orb when scrutinized from orbit, but when the offset colony ships crash-landed on the jungle planet and the colonists had no way to escape, they discovered themselves to have arrived on one of the harshest and near dangerous planetary ecosystems in the milky way.

The colonists only barely survived, holed up in their spacecraft against a living, besieging jungle, a boxing for survival in which undoubtedly many of them died before they finally managed to learn enough about their new homeworld to survive, if non thrive, beneath its jungle canopies.

In time, their skill at surviving on Catachan came to the observe of the Departmento Munitorum, which realised that the Catachans would make excellent Astra Militarum troops dedicated to service in some of the galaxy'southward virtually hostile planetary environments, and the first regiments of the Catachan Jungle Fighters were raised.

During the 13th Black Crusade of Abaddon the Despoiler in 999.M41, Catachan plant itself in the path of both a wounded Void Whale and an Ork WAAAGH! led by the Freebooter Kaptain Badrukk. Even so due to astropathic interference acquired by the Warp Storm Bas Infernia, the Imperium was unable to warn the Catachans of the threats approaching their homeworld.

After the germination of the Great Rift following the fall of Cadia in 999.M41, Catachan was caught within the cancerous Warp rift and exposed to a massive daemonic invasion. Still when Roboute Guilliman's Indomitus Crusade arrived at Catachan, its Astartes found that the local Catachan regiments had already dealt with the threat on their own.

Current Weather

Scanned Image of the hostile Catachan biosphere.

Currently, the few Human settlements on Catachan which tin can defend against the jungle and its predators are behemothic fortresses surrounded by vast plains which have been laboriously cleared to provide improved lines-of-burn. Building on Catachan is hard at all-time every bit vines and lichen have hold anywhere and poisons melt the mortar and vines can vanquish bunkers and tanks.

Buildings must constantly be rebuilt, for it seems that wherever the people of Catachan build structures, the jungle redoubles its efforts to destroy them.

As well as the jungle's flora, the native wildlife gather to repel the Human being invaders and eventually their numbers abound big plenty to push the Humans out of i fortress and then they must institute a new settlement elsewhere where the procedure volition inevitably repeat itself, meaning that no Human settlement on Catachan is e'er truly permanent.

Fifty percent of the planet'due south Man population does not survive infancy, and fifty percent of the residual does not alive past the historic period of x solar years.

Every mean solar day for a Catachan is spent fighting on what is the deadliest planet in the galaxy. In such dangerous surroundings, children are quick to acquire survival tactics and only those who are tough, fast and have good aim can even hope to survive into adulthood. The children of Catachan often learn to shoot earlier they walk, much like Cadian children.

Flora and Fauna of Catachan

All of the animals and plants of Catachan are mortiferous predators who have evolved potent biological attack and defense mechanisms against other lifeforms, particularly Humans. Every known Catachan plant species is toxic, making foraging for native food incommunicable.

Some plants secrete pollen into the air which is poisonous and destroys air-filters. Others secrete sticky liquid to capture passing animals and slowly dissolve them, much similar giant Venus Fly-Traps. Some plants toxicant the basis and turn the immediate area effectually them into boggy wasteland to trap invaders.

The native animals are as mortiferous to Humanity every bit the plant life. for example, the massive insectoid predator called the Catachan Devil possesses jaws equally big equally a tank and is a major threat to Human population centres on the earth. The Shambling Mamorphs of the volcanic regions are too a great danger to Human being settlement.

Catachan Flora

The Brain Leaf, a vegetative carnivore, is a small tree, not particularly conspicuous on Catachan, just is able to attach its tendrils to the spine and brain of any animal, taking control over their trunk. This fauna may actually be a genetic adjunct of the Tyranid Cortex Leech, a creature with similar abilities, that was cut off from the Hive Listen and went feral.
The Spiker, another deadly institute, fires its spikes into its victims' bodies, which contain the Spiker'due south DNA and unleash a serial of mutative chemical reactions which literally transforms the person into another Spiker.
The Venus Mantrap is a carnivorous plant whose coordinating species are common to many jungle Death Worlds beyond the milky way. It resembles the Terran Venus Flytrap for which it is named, merely is far larger, and different the flytrap, it is non stationary but is able to motility its leaves to attack and consume its prey. The Mantrap consists of a number of mobile leaves attached to a single immobile stalk.
The branches of the Spore Tree hold dangling flowers which launch a cloud of spores when they discover something moving shut by, to carry their seeds to other fertile areas. The spore cloud is and then dense that the creature which disturbed the tree ofttimes chokes and dies. This is also useful for the Spore Tree as its victim's decaying body volition enrich the ground effectually its roots.
TheStrangleplant prefers shady spots to grow in, where its distinctive tube-like trunk is hidden from view. When it detects the air disturbance caused by a passing animal, its long, highly adhesive stamen uncoils, wrapping itself around the casualty and dragging them dorsum to die of dehydration.
TheCanak Floater is a bizarre and deadly plant filled with lighter-than-air gases, and information technology drifts beyond the planet with the vagaries of the wind. It has sensitive feeler tentacles, which detects warmth and wet above the normal local levels. This is normally to uncover streams, hot springs and other sources of water, but unfortunately is as well sensitive enough to detect the temperature of and wet changes caused past Humans. When it finds such a place, the floater explodes, scattering its seed pods over a wide surface area. These seed pods have a diamond-hard outer casing with razor sharp edges, and will scythe through anything within range.
TheMiral Catcher is a footing-hugging vegetation which has roots that are extremely sensitive to vibrations in the footing, such as might be acquired past an animal wandering past. Information technology looks innocuous enough when dormant, but when it attacks, huge tentacles whip from its many frilled maws and lash out. They carry a paralysing toxin, which acts almost instantaneously upon the prey.
TheSucker Tree is a plant that is adequately innocuous looking to the untrained eye; it is simply a fungal-similar growth on acme of a seemingly normal trunk. However, the trunk can twist and turn when it detects casualty, bending over to drib its suckers on acme of the heads of its victims. It quickly drains them of their life fluids and and then flings the corpse abroad to ensure that future victims are not made suspicious by a pile of bodies.
TheSpitting Cactus is a deadly form of jungle cacti, and is able to fire toxin-coated spines directly at nearby casualty.
TheCatachan Mantrap is a plant which, while having a similar proper noun to the Venus Mantrap, uses a much more ambitious hunting technique. Information technology tin move its leaves around, actively searching out prey and clamping its jaw-like leaves around its victims.
The Stranglevine

Catachan Fauna

One of the most famous mortiferous animals of Catachan is the Catachan Devil, a voracious insectoid predator, looking somewhat like a many-limbed Terran scorpion or centipede. They can exist as long equally a state train just are very bulky and deadening-moving, which means that escape is possible for the unlucky Humans who face up ane.
The great quadrupeds called Grox, although originally native to the Soloman System, are besides found on Catachan, possibly brought by the early Homo colonists. The animals are prized for their highly nutritious and tasty meat, and have been introduced to many worlds throughout the galaxy, so that the Grox is now the most ubiquitous livestock animate being in the Imperium. The Grox however are extremely ornery and virtually impossible to keep under control without some form of encephalon-implants or lobotomy - on Catachan they take become wild, and are mortiferous predators. Grox are used by a galaxy-spanning food consortium to produce the famous 'Grox Burgers'.
The Shambling Mamorphs of the volcano lands are tough fighters and put upwards a practiced fight even against the Catachan Devil.
There are also many types of reptiloid serpents on Catachan, including the Flying Swamp Mamba, the Coiling Death Cobra and the Catachan Blackness Viper, and all are mortiferous to most living beings. Some accept toxin that is and then powerful it can kill in nether 30 heartbeats.
Swell Barking Toads, although actualization benign and harmless, are literally volatile creatures: the creature is easily startled, and anything it finds threatening is liable to cause it to explode in a cloud of toxins which kills anything within a very wide (one-kilometer) expanse, including the Barking Toad itself. The Barking Toad toxin is virulent enough that even respirators and sealed suits such as power armour offer no protection, and no other known substance can halt its devastation. They are known equally the well-nigh toxic creatures in the galaxy.
Blood Wasps are swarms of small, mortiferous insects that are known to eat their prey alive, stripping them to the bone in nether an hr.
Heretic-Ants are named on the account that they always attack their casualty'due south anxiety (or "Soles") first. One bite from these insects volition put a fully grown human being in the hospital for a month, two bites will give them around a 24-hour interval to observe treatment before dying, and three volition simply kill them outright.
Vein Worms secrete an ooze that numbs their prey when they bite, then that they cannot feel a thing. The Worms then dig their fashion under their prey's skin and into the bloodstream to lay their eggs. The eggs will spread all around the host'south body, and when the larvae hatch they will eat their fashion through the host's brain, heart and bones. There is no known cure for Vein Worms one time they have entered the bloodstream.
Drakebats are Ogryn-sized, winged, pseudo-reptiles that lurk amid the upper canopy of the equatorial jungles of Catachan, descending from the treetops to ambush and devour unsuspecting casualty.
Decease Flies
Catachan Water-drakes
Catachan Bloodflies
Catachan Pusworms
Spinebore Leeches

Incidence of Affliction

The threat of illness is also a abiding hazard on Catachan, equally at that place are many varieties of poxes and fevers that can kill a homo within a few solar hours due to the world's fecund microbiosphere. Many of the planet'southward native insects also carry virulent diseases on top of being poisonous, meaning that a single bite can be lethal in more ways than one.

The world does not just breed diseases in its fauna. Most of the more virulent microbes cannot be seen at all, floating through the air until they find a host and enter their bloodstream. At that place are lethal swamps where a single breath of the fog will burn an intruder's lungs out, causing a long and agonising death.

Fifty-fifty the h2o on Catachan can prove fatal to beverage as diseases and poisons flow through information technology. Pes Rot can occur after but a few solar weeks inside the jungle, where the rotten anxiety will detach from the host'southward legs, producing a vomit-inducing stench. Every bit such, many Catachans consider affliction to be a greater enemy than any beast or man-eating institute.

Sources

Codex: Astra Militarum (6th Edition) (Digital Edition), "Regiments of Stardom - Catachan Jungle Fighters"
Codex: Imperial Guard (fifth Edition), pp. 27, 64
Codex: Purple Guard (third Edition, 2nd Codex), pg. sixty
Warhammer 40,000 Chapter Approved - The Volume of the Astronomican, "Introduction," pg. ane
Warhammer twoscore,000: Rogue Trader (1st Edition), pp. i, 212
White Dwarf 388 (UK), pg. 77
Gathering Storm - Part II - Fracture of Biel-Tan (seventh Edition), Affiliate 2: Empire of Ash, "Intervox Mechanicus" (Sidebar)
Codex Adeptus Astartes - Infinite Marines (8th Edition), pg. 20
Codex: Majestic Baby-sit (5th Edition), pg. fifteen
But War Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 44-45
Straken (Novel) by Toby Frost, Chs. iv, 12
White Dwarf 242 (Uk), pp. 81-85
White Dwarf 286 (US), pp. 104-106
Death World (Novel) by Steve Lyons, pp. 71, 94, 136