Hidestrider

The hidestrider lives in helmethead uksip colonies. There, it is protected from the elements. However, this lifestyle required specialized adaptations to avoid retaliation by its host species. While the helmethead uksip are tolerant of other species they find underground, they have guards at their food stockpile burrows and understandably will defend themselves if attacked. The hidestrider has broader wing membranes than its ancestor. It uses the bigger wing membranes as attachment surfaces for debris, such as clods of soil or helmethead uksip excrement. This helps it evade detection by the guards; if a guard brushes by it, the guard will perceive only dirt or excrement, and not anything dangerous. Indeed, the guard may be inclined to groom itself after coming into contact with the dirt or excrement, which will momentarily distract it as the hidestrider feeds. The hidestrider is protected not only on a tactile basis, but also a chemical one. Its wing membranes are absorbent, helping it smell like whatever it is in contact with. Thus, if covered in excrement, it will smell only of excrement, and not like itself. It will even "mug" helmethead uksips that are alone to acquire helmethead uksip scent, which helps it travel through more crowded areas where a moving clump of soil or excrement might cause suspicion. Like a mosquito, the hidestrider requires protein to make its eggs. It will suck the blood from a helmethead uksip to do so. Due to their similar sizes, a helmethead uksip rarely survives being fed upon by a hidestrider. However, most of the time it feeds only on any flora or dead bodies it finds. The flora could be tepoflora it finds growing unsupervised in a tunnel, or flora found in helmethead uksip "farms" or food stockpiles. Its mouthparts can only feed on liquids, so it feeds by sucking the juices out of its food. Hidestriders are only minor parasites of helmethead uksip colonies. While it can reproduce by itself, it can also reproduce in a hermaphroditic manner. It will stab others of its kind with the spear-like reproductive organ on its "chin". The one that is stabbed must give birth. This is a fatal process, as the young, once matured, burst out of the abdomen. There's not as much light in the tunnels as there is on the surface, so the hidestrider's antennae are now much more sensitive. They are shaped like a moth's antennae, and operate similarly to give them a sense of smell.