Carparmo



While the Carpotesta multiteneresca was a passive predator that lured in prey and engulfed it, the Carparmo is a slightly more active parasitoid, sucking out its prey's innards over several hours.

The carparmo's cell membrane is somewhat thicker and firmer in consistency, making it a squishy, pear-shaped capsule. The carparmo's "bait", formerly a long extension of its cell membrane with a tantalizing clump of protein at the other end, has been modified into an "arm". The "arm", rather than developing continuously from the rest of the cell membrane, dips into the cytoplasm from a primitive cellular socket. The arrangement is somewhat similar to bacterial flagella. The protein clump itself, rather than being tasty food, is arranged into a sturdier, thicker configuration. Actin microfilaments run from the hooklike end of the "hand" and up the "arm". When the cell membrane of the hook "tastes" prey (that is, detects certain chemicals on the cell surface) the arm, muscle-like, contracts, gripping onto its prey and pulling the carparmo closer.

Once gripped, the carparmo pumps in enzymes through a thin channel in the arm and sucks out the Photosagnia's protoplasm within a few hours.

It no longer forms colonies, though Carparmo do occasionally stick together when their prey exists in especially high densities.

An organelle equivalent to the rough endoplasmic reticulum, (yellow organelle) which creates enzymes, is bigger than in its ancestor. This helps it create more enzymes, digesting the occasional organelle sucked in through its arms.

It cannot really swim. Instead, it grabs and pulls itself towards small objects, something like a grappling hook. It is motionless almost all the time, only bothering to move when it detects prey nearby. The chemicals that induce a prey response are products of photosynthesis. While it does mistakenly grip tiny, photosynthesizing Binucleids on rare occasions, its enzymes are too weak to dissolve the cellulosic walls of Binucleids.