Will 'o' the Wisp

Not all the strange things on Underhill are a result of the Gene Wars and their bombs. The planet was weird and dangerous before the humans started trying to change themselves. It's why they tried to change themselves. To adapt before they ran out of the technology needed to hold the planet at bay.

One of the dangers didn't seem a danger at first. An insect, reminiscent of a butterfly, only much, much larger. Its wings came in a variety of colors, depending on the region, and they trailed thin filaments nearly a foot behind them. Originally the rangers exploring the forests around the settlements wondered how the insects survived, with enough hanging off them for most amphibians and birds to catch.

Eventually though, the people learned how they survived. And how dangerous they were. The insects glowed at night, faintly. At first it was uncertain whether they were bioluminescent, as some other animals and plants on the planet were. Or if they reflected light somehow. The trailing filaments shone the brightest.

And they were generally only found near boggy areas, of which there were many on the flatlands and along the river mouths where people settled at the start of the colonization process. These bogs and marshes were home to various predators, along with sucking mud and sinkholes. People would often follow the insects, disoriented and thinking they belonged to someone ahead with a lantern, or the lights of the settlement nearby, and fall victim to the predators lurking in the grasses, under the water, and the marshes themselves. Eventually someone dredged an old story out of the history books, labeled the insects will'o'whisps, and a ban was placed on any more research of them, since the marshes were just as dangerous during the day, even though you could see where you were going.

(Later discoveries were made, although not recorded officially. The will'o's are targeted by certain avians and batlike creatures, but the sticky secretions of the marsh grasses would often stick the predator to the plants. Also, the will'o's seem to be able to survive losing their filaments, and since many of their predators go for the glowing, trailing targets instead of the main body, they are often able to escape, at least once or twice.)