Clustered Infectoid

The clustered infectoid split from its ancestor and is now a colony. The individual cells are arranged in an overlapping spiral, closed at one end and open at the other. The colony takes in prey at the open end, engulfing the cell alive and whole, the colony cells then take it apart for building material and energy, the new cells built from these materials are added to the walls so the colony can get larger. There is one specialized cell at the closed end of the group that acts as a simple ribbon-like tail for swimming, it is also how the colony itself reproduces.

At the very end of the ribbon cell are beads, these beads break off one by one and are single cells that, during the first moments of life, live very much like their ancestor. After its first victim it and its offspring will clump together and become a tiny clustered infectoid, the original cell will become the ribbon cell for this colony.