Provuci

The provuci split from its ancestor, the hexcrawler. With its relative the leteti specializing in eating more specilized flora, the provuci has adapted a diet eating rotting flora and fauna, as well as the gildrings that are found in the areas it lives. Closely related to the teci, it posseses a similar anatomy. Its four breathing tubes have merged into two tubes with two openings each. It also possesses the same primary oral appendages that remain curled inside of its mouth most of the time, and can be used to break down material and grasp objects. Many differences are apparent, though, especially in the oral region. The most noticeable difference is that the entire mouth can be extended and retracted, like a trunk, allowing flexibility when picking through dead carcasses or decaying flora. Two body appendages have atrophied slightly, and the leathery skin of its ancestor has hardened further on them, making them stiff and rigid. It uses these to scrape at the tough gildrings and scrape off the microneedles of the photocolonius. The first bodily appendage has migrated slightly upward, and bends in such a way as to place it in front of the mouth, supporting the upper body. Because its primary food sources are near the median temperature, and the odors produced by them are stronger, it depends less on its heat sensing abilities and more on its chemoreceptors. As a result of this, while its two specialized oral appendages have grown to a size almost that of its relatives, they mainly remain curled inisde of its mouth. Instead, its breathing have become farther apart from each other, and more sensitive. This allows them to detect the direction of the smell, and the type, as well as any predators. To avoid these same predators, it has evolved limited endothermic abilities, giving it the ability to increase or decrease its metabolism slightly, helping it avoid predators. It will also store large amounts of dung near its lower end, and, upon the sensing of a nearby predator, transfer much of its heat to the dung and eject it from the body. Not only does this lower its body temperature, it creates a secondary, warmer heat source that distracts the predator for a brief period of time, hopefully allowing it to move away. It will lay its gelatin-like eggs in holes dug by its scraping appendages, then cover it in dirt.