Arthrophage

This widespread parasite afflicts nearly all varieties of terrestrial arthrothere. As it is highly airborne, it does not rely on chitinase to break down the shells of its victims, and it often keeps the victim alive. This has led to its production of chitinase decreasing. It usually gets into the organism by entering an orifice on the organism, be it the mouth, eyes, or reproductive organs, leading to an infection. They can survive for up to a week outside of a host, but this may vary depending on what species it infects, as usually they need to cling onto crystal flora in order to be ingested by an herbivore. They are highly airborne, leading to their spread across all areas containing arthrotheres. In the event that it infects the reproductive organs for a long enough time, the organism may be rendered unable to have offspring. This is not detrimental to all arthrotheres, however, because it does not happen often enough to cause a large-scale extinction event.