Wormotheon
The Wormotheon has moved its colonies to inter-tidal, brackish water, and freshwater environments in the tropics and subtropics around the Dorite Sea. Colonies now grow to 1 meter wide with individual polyps growing up to 32 centimetres long. The reef's structure is much like its ancestors, with the reef being made up of concentric rings of the polyps with spaces between each ring to house juveniles. The reef’s shape has transitioned from a rather large opening on the reef’s dorsal side, to a very condensed opening. This results in the reef forming a dome with an opening at its zenith. This shape has developed to protect the developing young from potential predators. The outer dome of polyps act as the main defense for the colony, as well as the main photosynthesizers for the colony. The tail segments of each polyp will form a plume of tail thorns which serve as added, low light photosynthesizing surfaces, utilizing the light from the domes opening. This plume also provides the colony’s nutrient secretions to the juveniles and serves as the holding area for recently produced eggs before hatching.
Interior polyps will adapt to lower light conditions as they are slowly shaded by the exterior polyps. As they become shaded they begin to produce more of the calcite layer of their exoskeletons, creating struts that extend out from their bodies at their former joints. These calcite growths are fused with the bodies of other polyps by calcite secretions produced by the juveniles of the colony. These struts serve as reinforcement to the colony’s structure and allow the colony to hold up under the forces of waves in inter-tidal zones. Eventually the interior polyps will be completely covered and will no longer be able to photosynthesize. They will then devote all their energy into creating internal calcite struts replacing their own body tissue until they are unable to function. At which point they will die and the remains of their bodies will be eaten by the reef’s juveniles, leaving behind the calcite layer of its exoskeleton as a support structure for the colony. These calcite structures can be recycled by the juveniles when need be for renovations within the colony. This is done by the juveniles secreting a concentrated dissolving agent from their mouths and reabsorbing the calcite into their bodies to secrete elsewhere.
The juveniles serve the colony as their structural maintenance and as a cleaning service. They have developed hard mouth parts which will develop into body structures in their adult forms. A conical shaped structure with a central grove, that flares out at its end, will in adulthood form the adult’s proximal thorn. The segment the proximal thorn will attach to is formed from a hardened exoskeletal ring. The disk and ring will move across one another, grinding up food between them to then be ingested in the central grove and sent into its digestive system. Their digestive system is a simple through gut, with a cloaca situated at their most posterior segment. They will feed on both the colony’s secretions as well as any detritus that makes its way into the colony and the recently deceased adults. Brackish and freshwater colonies will also feed on Wright Nautstars when able, and on Mellowbulbs that grow in or very near to the water. Juveniles move by producing a trail of mucus and pulling themselves along with their two leaf thorns which they can articulate forward and backward. They will venture onto the outside of the colony to photosynthesize daily so long as no predators are present. They have developed 5 simple cup eyes, situated along the center-line of their heads, which are their main way of detecting predators. They are also capable of chemoreception through the exposed joints of their exoskeleton. Reproduction and colony development are much the same as its ancestor, with juveniles adding to the colony’s size until it reaches its maximum, or founding new colonies should their parent colony reach full size.
The method by which they increase a colony's size has changed. Once a colony has a complete layer of adult polyps, a maturing juvenile will settle at the outer edge of the outermost ring of the colony, rooting itself and beginning to change its shape into its polyp form. They will grow both underneath the colony with their tail and upward along the edge of the colony. Once they reach their full length, their tail segment will erupt through gaps in the colony’s floor to “sprout” inside the colony. Usually this results in a collected group of tail segments forming a central plume, but as the colony increases in size the interior section will instead have many plumes of juvenile tails. The outer sections will be composed of adults which attach themselves to other polyps, allowing the colony to keep the shape of the dome and reach its half meter height and meter width.
The colonies tend to establish themselves in the inter-tidal zones of beaches and the swamps and rivers flowing into the Dorite Sea. During low tide events, the polyps will close specialized ports in their exoskeleton that allow water to contact their internal bodies, which facilitate their water and oxygen needs. The shape of the colony also serves to trap water inside the colony dome, providing a reservoir of water for the adults and young. The system of calcite depositing creates a waterproof interior cavity. This reservoir fills to the height of the smallest interior adults body, which is usually 2/3rds the height of the dome. Each successive layer outward from center will be less watertight and thus the outermost layer will be so loosely sealed that at low tide the layer is only damp. The colony can survive entirely on land for up to 6 hours in this way. Juveniles can survive up to an hour outside of water so long as their environment remains moist. This tends to happen in low tide conditions or when waves knock juveniles off the outer surface of the colony and onto the dry beach. Like their adult forms they will close their body joints and will conserve small reservoirs of water inside their joints. Their motion is greatly limited in this time so they must crawl along the sand and rarely move to dry regions by choice. However swamp and river based colonies will crawl along damp sand and on flora if sufficient shade is present to mitigate them drying out.