Hemoswarmer

Splitting from its ancestral genus, the hemoswarmers have spread throughout most of Barlowe Island, adapting to a new diet as they did so. Unlike cloudswarmers, hemoswarmers are blood-drinkers, using their specially modified lower jaw for piercing the skin of their prey, such as the woodland gossalizard, in order to reach the life-sustaining, iron-rich life fluids just beneath. An evolutionary adaptation that has aided them in this endeavor is the presence of a pair of primitive grasping limbs that help them to hold onto their hosts while they feed. While not that strong, combined with their prehensile tails they can ride relatively comfortably without fear of falling off. In terms of reproductive behavior they have not changed all that much from their ancestors, though they have begun to breed at a quicker pace, producing many more young with each spawning, giving rise to huge, pestering clouds of these bloodsuckers.