Aurora-Sail Sea Butterfly
They glide close beneath the ice on two broad, thin wing feet and feed on the aurora-algal film. A visible orange-cyan storage gland runs inside the milky mantle. Before a de-icing pulse arrives, the group folds its sails and sinks in a coordinated line. Once the first mismatched cable connector is switched off and the trough turns cold and dark again, the sea butterflies spread their wing feet and resume their own course beneath the ice.
Observation LevelCoastal field note
First SeenDay 01 · Day 01 · Frostlamp Under-Ice Window
HabitatThe underside of the split floating-ice platforms east of New Scandia Ice Harbor, along aurora-algal films, brine openings, a sunken under-ice data cable, and the Frostlamp Sunken-Cable Windbreak Ring.
VariantsTransparent juveniles about the size of a fingernail, palm-sized milky-white adults, and bands of filter feeders drifting along the under-ice aurora-algal film.
Habitat and Mechanism
The underside of the split floating-ice platforms east of New Scandia Ice Harbor, along aurora-algal films, brine openings, a sunken under-ice data cable, and the Frostlamp Sunken-Cable Windbreak Ring.。Aurora current, the under-ice brine tide, and natural windbreaks sustain the Frostlamp–Sunken-Cable Rhythm. The harbor restarted a fixed-frequency cable de-icer to reconnect outlying research towers. Its mis-timed heat pulses warm the sunken cable, melt through snow ridges early, block brine breathing openings, destabilize the windbreak, and mask the low-frequency cues used by living things. The sea butterflies furl their wing feet and descend together before the pulse reaches them; their line appears thirteen seconds before the harbor de-icing alarm, showing that the pulse has crossed its intended cable boundary.
Enter Frostlamp Sunken-Cable Windbreak Ring ↗Behavior and Ecological Role
They glide close beneath the ice on two broad, thin wing feet and feed on the aurora-algal film. A visible orange-cyan storage gland runs inside the milky mantle. Before a de-icing pulse arrives, the group folds its sails and sinks in a coordinated line. Once the first mismatched cable connector is switched off and the trough turns cold and dark again, the sea butterflies spread their wing feet and resume their own course beneath the ice.
Their synchronized furling is an early warning for a human-made heat pulse, not an attack or a signal to capture them. The thirteen-second lead exposes a fault in the de-icing system while their feeding links the aurora-algal film to the wider brine-opening habitat.
Form and Identification
Transparent juveniles about the size of a fingernail, palm-sized milky-white adults, and bands of filter feeders drifting along the under-ice aurora-algal film.
- Two broad, thin wing feet moving like sails immediately below the ice
- A milky-white mantle with one orange-cyan storage gland
- Transparent fingernail-sized juveniles and palm-sized adults
- Bands filtering the aurora-algal film
- A coordinated furl-and-descent line before a de-icing pulse
Observation Rule
Fang and K keep noninvasive instruments at a safe distance. K turns off active scanning, keeps his weapon low and secured, and stands between Fang and the incoming wind pressure. They change only the human-made connector: they neither chase nor aim at the sea butterflies, and never make them bear the cost of proving the harbor repair.
At Frostlamp Under-Ice Window, K turned off active scanning before the team approached the ice. Fang observed from a safe distance with noninvasive equipment. The sea butterflies folded their wing feet and descended together before the de-icing pulse arrived. Their line gave the team a boundary to measure without touching an animal.