Plenteater

Split off from the Landasticker, the Plenteater developed the ability to reproduce on land and went on to start eating Asterplents. The locomotory bumps near its mouth are tipped with claws of a similar material to terran rose prickles, allowing it to tear into the comparatively soft surface of asterplents to consume them. It similarly has such claw-prickles at the end of each arm, which aids in climbing onto the Asterplents to feed.

To solve the reproduction problem on land, the Plenteater has developed sets of 5 reproductive organs on each arm, located on the underside near the tip in a pentagonal arrangement—receptive pore-like holes on the females (pictured), and “gonopodia” derived from locomotory bumps on the males. When two meet, they verify one another’s sexes by “investigating” one another with their chemoreceptive patches before mating by connecting their respective parts in one arm, usually one that has not been used for mating recently. Afterwards, the female closes the receptive holes on that arm, protecting and nurturing developing eggs with her own sugars, which are able to permeate the egg's membrane, until they hatch internally and are ready to be released and wander out into the world. Hermaphrodites, which have alternating male and female arms, exist rarely as mutations.



Like its ancestor, the Plenteater performs photosynthesis. It sometimes scavenges for the meat of other organisms, whether it be juvenile Asterplents or deceased members of its own species, but it is not totally dependent on meat for survival.