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[Shakkara]

Rrrr. Shakkara will sponsor moths.

Not just the moths that live on the surface, no. Shakkara is particularly fond of Burrowing Moths, which are large moths which dwell in the darkness below the surface. They live in small groups, and build their nests in small caverns or lairs abandoned by other creatures. Burrowing Moths are particularly fond of glowing or shiny objects, which they will steal and attempt to take back to their nest. Ancient and abandoned nests are often mistaken for dragon lairs, due to the amount of shiny stuff that has been accumulated there over the years.

Unlike ordinary moths, Burrowing Moths lay only a few large eggs, which hatch into juvenile wingless creatures, which already have their six legs. As they grow older, they will start growing their wings without the need to pupate. Burrowing Moths feed on nectar and plant juices, which they can can access by scratching the plant open with their front legs. They are also known to feed on carrion in a similar manner. When consuming certain types of rare food, they excrete a bright blue liquid which quickly solidifies into a small, amber-like stone, which can occasionally be found by Dwarves and other creatures venturing underground.

Burrowing Moths are not agressive and generally harmless as their small leg-claws are only suitable for climbing and feeding, not for actual attacking. As self-defense they will produce hissing and growling sounds and assume threatening poses to make themselves appear dangerous, or they will use their speed to make an escape, as they are able to outrun most predators and angry Dwarves whose items they just stole. Clever Dwarves have recently begun to set traps containing the shiny objects which attract Burrowing Moths, both in the hope to capture them, and to keep the Moths distracted and the rest of the hoard safe from their thieving paws. Although Burrowing Moths are intelligent creatures which are often able to avoid being caught, the value of a rare captive Burrowing Moth makes up for all the traps they rob.

[Urist McDepravity]

Moths, termites and other wood/cloth damaging insects would be truly FUN addition. Like, finding out that some termite hives were grinding on your wooden support for some significant time, and it finally collapses.

[Thundercraft]

Any chance of the late addition of an "Extinct" category? (I would consider sponsoring a trilobite. Or a megatherium.)

The Trilobite suggestion is interesting. It sounds like most of them were "vermin" scale - in the 1 inch to 4 inch range. But some fossils are up to 28 inches long. (And I suppose Toady could fudge the numbers a bit and make an even larger version.)

BTW, there are certain marine species that resemble Trilobites. I think the freakiest of these might be the Giant isopod family, which consists of 9 species of crustaceans related to the shrimp and crabs:

Wikipedia suggests an adult averages between 7.5 and 14 in, but this "Terrifying Sea Critter" published on FOXNews shows they can grow to over 2.5 feet long.

Another is the Triops, which is a genus of small crustaceans. They're called the "living fossil" because fossil records date it to about 300 million years ago and they've hardly changed in the last 200 million years or so. But these are only supposed to grow to 3 inches. A closely related genus is the Lepidurus. And I could be wrong, but I think this "Weird Creature" might be one of them. Both of these belong to the order Notostraca, also referred to as "tadpole shrimp" or "shield shrimp".

One other similar looking critter is the sea roach or "sea slater", which is a marine crustacean that's closely related to woodlice (pill bug family), but it doesn't get much longer than an inch.

Also, the Chitons resembles Trilobites - at least superficially. The largest of these is the Gumboot Chiton, which can grow to 14 inches. Those are marine mollusks and seem a bit like slugs with Pillbug-like armor.

Further, I think the Horseshoe Crab bears a slight resemblance. (This is already on the Animal Sponsorship Drive.) But while it looks like a crustacean, it's actually more closely related to spiders and scorpions. And they've changed little in the last 250 million years.

Then, there are a few insects that resemble Trilobites. The Duliticola Beetle is better known as a "Trilobite Larva". The brief article does not have an image, but a nice photo can be found here. These are native to South East Asia. The males are much smaller and look like regular beetles because the females stay in the larval form.

Also, the larva stage of the "wild olive leaf beetle" bears a resemblance. These are common in South Texas.

I would mention the Woodlice suborder (over 3,000 known species?) here, to which the Pill Bug family belongs. However, I mentioned them earlier. (Besides, these are terrestrial crustaceans and not insects.)

Finally, how many of you have seen Enemy Mine (1985)? Remember those big armored bugs that they used for food and shelter? Here's an image of a Cuca Bug shell prop to jog your memory. Remember how tough those Cuca Bug shells were? They easily deflected meteorites. Perhaps DF could use a critter with shells as hard as steel?

[Draco18s]

Yeah we were talking about them a few pages ago.

[Earwig]

I don't have money to donate, sadly, but I was tickled by earwigs being on that list. 

[Zai]

I don't have money to donate, sadly, but I was tickled by earwigs being on that list. 

Heheh.

[CREATURE:EARWIG]
[SPONSORED_BY:Earwig]

[Mel_Vixen]

96  That sponsoring drivemust net you a new car or something in that category toady

[thvaz]

I bet most people donated the minnimum, $10. It is a nice ammount, but not enough to buy a car.

[Mel_Vixen]

Well for 9600 bucks you get a decent used car. A Ford Ka or a Smart maybe in mint quality if you are lucky.

[Footkerchief]

Well for 9600 bucks you get a decent used car. A Ford Ka or a Smart maybe in mint quality if you are lucky.

I would be surprised if the donations averaged as high as $100 per animal.  I'm guessing more like $4000 total.

[vadia]

Well for 9600 bucks you get a decent used car. A Ford Ka or a Smart maybe in mint quality if you are lucky.

I would be surprised if the donations averaged as high as $100 per animal.  I'm guessing more like $4000 total.

It'll probably be > 100 people when done and while many have given minimum bids I think a few donated for multiple animals and quite a few gave more than the minimum.  I'd be surprised if it was much less than $4000 total [or greater than 6k] (unless some donated without animals being a concern)

On another point, this seems to be a great drive -- what's the next one going to be about?

I have some ideas

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 tools, weapons, mechanics, cooked item, armor, craft, and of course combination of the whole

[thvaz]

Well for 9600 bucks you get a decent used car. A Ford Ka or a Smart maybe in mint quality if you are lucky.

You fail at math  . 96 x $10 = $960. This is the minimum, however, as I think some people may have donated more.

[Mel_Vixen]

Right  hehe ok that happens when i dont have regular lunch.

[Areyar]

heh. Those giant woodlouse critters are pretty nifty too.
Extra competition for the crustacian slot though.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If new crafting material were a sponsorship issue, I'd probably vote for [material] scales, for light scale-mail, that would also be my armour vote. Something that protects the neck would also be popular I suspect.
For jobs/activities I'd vote for those that make use of all the crafts. instruments, mugs, toys etc.
Tools....the broom for sped up cleaning, maybe the mop+bucket, as that works better on fluid contaminants, but not so well on rough mined out tunnels.
Weapons...the maul...or hand axes....or a sharp rock.
Cooked item...I'd have to see some examples, but I'd go for stone soup for now. Ooh! or sausages!
Cooking material: [glob]honey.

[caknuck]

I would definitely donate in a "Recipe Sponsorship Drive". I want my dorfs to dine on +reindeer haggis+ soooo much.