Plentmowers

Plentmowers co-evolved with Grassterplents. They move through Grassterplent patches, essentially mowing down their leaves as they go like some kind of living star-shaped lawnmower. Indeed, much like a Terran lawnmower, they gradually rotate as they move through patches of Grassterplent--with their radial symmetry, direction is just a theory. They will also feed on Fern Asterplents where Grassterplents are unavailable. They have developed a light, near-invisible covering of cellulose filaments on their top side, which protect them from various environmental threats such as freezing or drowning through insulation and trapping air, respectively.

There are many species of Plentmower, too many to describe beyond general trends. Though species in hot regions retain their heat-releasing membranes, the membrane is generally smaller the colder the given species’ general habitat is. Polar species are generally more stocky and usually develop hibernation to deal with the dark winters, partially burying themselves as their desert ancestors once did and slowing their metabolism almost to a stop. Temperate, subtropical, and montane species, meanwhile, are able to sustain themselves over at least part of the colder parts of the year with photosynthesis and by digging for any Grassterplents living or dead which have been buried in snow, though some temperate species still have a hibernation period.

Like their ancestor, Plentmowers eat using prickle-like spikes on the locomotory bumps near their mouths. They tear off leaves and feed them into the mouth one at a time. They reproduce sexually using their 20 reproductive organs (5 per arm)--gonopods in males, and pore-like openings in females. They determine the sex of a potential mate by scent, and they copulate by connecting their corresponding reproductive organs on an arm which was not used for mating recently. Developing embryos are nurtured by the female’s sugars until they are ready to be born and live on their own. In theory, a female can carry the offspring of four separate males at a given time, one for each arm, or even more if she happens to be a mutant with extra arms--an uncommon but not unheard of mutation allowed by their radial symmetry.