Plumottle

The plumottle split from its ancestor. It uses its pincer-like fore- and hind legs to grab onto the greater plentshirshu's butt-bristles. It hangs on until the greater plentshirshu either finds carrion or kills and eats its fill of its prey. As the greater plentshirshu begins to walk away, the plumottle(s) on its rear climb or jump down. The adult females grab internal organs with their holepuncher-like ovipositors and "punch" eggs into the meat. The plumottles preferentially "punch" their eggs into the liver, but if the liver was already eaten or if the liver already has plumottle eggs in it, they will target the fatty brain next. Third options vary depending on the individual. The leathery eggs have little dimples that host the spores of a certain kind of spore tower, called Lignarimorpha icki. L. icki produces chemicals that carpozoans such as the goliath flunejaw find repulsive. This reduces the likelihood goliath flunejaws will accidentally eat the plumottle eggs in the meat, as well as making more carrion available to greater plentshirshus. However, L. icki's chemicals don't make meat icky-tasting to other scavenging kruggs. Therefore, the plumottle lays many eggs at a time, so that even if some are accidentally eaten, some will survive long enough to catch a ride on another greater plentshirshu. Not all of L. icki's spores are deposited on the eggs. Some remain in the female's body, multiplying and thus keeping the female supplied. However, it takes a while, so the plumottle regularly "re-infects" itself by grabbing the spore balls on the towers of L. icki with their ovipositors, re-using the egg-laying motions in doing so. Plumottles mate on the back of a greater plentshirshu. They lay 40 tiny eggs per organ they visit, but the female's body can contain hundreds at a time. Larvae become mature in two to three months, and the adult plumottles live for a year and a half. Plumottles save the liver and brain for egg-laying, but may eat any other meaty part on the carrion. They are especially fond of eating faces, and will tear bits of skin off with their mouthparts and eat it as if it were a large slice of pizza. Plumottles leave the carcass once a greater plentshirshu comes by. They will climb up the greater plentshirshu, staying on its butt-bristles until the greater plentshirshu comes upon more carrion. Plumottles are occasionally preyed upon by burrsnappers, when burrsnappers are bold or desperate enough to risk injury by the barbed spines of the greater plentshirshu.