Glowlips

Splitting from their ancestor, the glowlips have diversified and spread throughout the oceans of Sagan IV. Primarily dwelling within the deep depths of the Midnight and Twilight zones, they are scavengers which feast upon the dead and dying that inevitably make their way to the seafloor, keeping it clean alongside other scavengers such as specialized Siluros and Umbraworms. Much like the polentling, they will latch onto a corpse and slowly digest its flesh by expelling digestive enzymes, after which they will slurp up the resulting slurry and digest it. A particularly large meal, such as that produced by a chad fall, will lure thousands of individuals all seeking to take their part in the resulting feast. When not feasting, however, their metabolism, alongside their movements, will slow down significantly, allowing them to last months in-between each meal.

Glowlips get their name from their newly evolved "lips". These fleshy projections help them to maintain suction when feeding, and also serve as the location for a unique symbiotic relationship shared by all glowlips. A specialized lineage of Glow Detritis now inhabit these organs, embedding themselves within it, without passing through their guts (though several related strains still do). From the relative safety of the "lips", they are ferried from corpse to corpse, allowing for new populations to form, feed, grow, and eventually spread to other glowlips as the cycle of cleaning up the ocean floor of corpses continues. This relationship goes both ways, for in return for the transportation, these strains of Glow Detritis help to break down ammonia that might prove poisonous to glowlips in high amounts, as well as aid them in digesting the flesh of their food.

Reproduction occurs throughout the year, typically happening whenever two specimens of the same species encounter one another. Being hermaphroditic, both members wind up becoming fertilized, after which they will release a prodigious amount of microscopic eggs, typically within a day or so. The eggs, already naturally buoyant, are aided by currents upwards towards the surface, where they will eventually hatch as they are warmed by the rays of the sun.

The larvae of the the glowlips resemble miniature, translucent versions of the adults, albeit lacking fins. They wriggle about amongst the various planktonic species, ever at the mercy of the currents, but capable of just enough movement in order to reach their prey of choice. The various species of Geletaventria are the primary food source of juvenile glowlips, or to be more specific, their blood is. Seeking out their gills, the larvae will latch onto them with their sucker-like mouths, secreting digestive enzymes in order to bore small holes until blood can trickle through. Over the course of two to three weeks - depending on the species - they will gorge themselves until they are ripe with blood, gaining all the nutrients they need from their hosts. Afterwards, they will detach and begin to make their way into deeper waters, where they will then grow and develop into their adult forms.

The genera's use of bioluminescence and utilization of a foul-tasting mucus that coats their bodies are both utilized very similarly to how they were in their ancestor, the Polentling.