Cord Waterworm

The cord waterworm split from its ancestor and began a parasitic lifestyle inside the stem of the river bubbleweed plants. The body of the worm has become very thin to allow it to crawl inside the plant, its fins have become thread-like and delicate, they are used to help keep from getting stuck. Its eyes now have a thin layer of skin covering them, that they develop shortly after entering a host, to keep the sap that they live in from irritating them. The jaws are thin and razor sharp when young to allow the parasite to enter its host while causing as little damage as possible, later in life it will cut holes in the stem of its host to allow oxygen into the sap. Its tail at the beginning of the worms life is large so it can swim to a host with ease, as it ages the tail degenerates into a simple, useless, cord. A river bubbleweed can support several cord waterworms at once, and the worms tend to coexist peacefully. During breeding the worms in one stalk will cluster together and cause galls on their host. The females, after breeding, will travel down into the roots of the river bubbleweed and lay thousands of eggs. When the larvae hatch they tear out of the roots and swim as fast as they can to the first bubbleweed they see, during this time many are eaten by predators.