Helmethead Uksip

Splitting from its ancestor, the helmethead uksip has spread throughout Sagan 4 due to its ancestors already beneficial body plan that favored a glacier-covered world. Becoming highly successful, it has evolved a few modifications to aid its underground colonial life. A leathery head-plate protects their soft eyes and extended jaw. They now produce enzymes that help to loosen both dirt and ice, allowing them to use their modified "drills" to build vast colonies ruled by a single queen. This drill also allows them to filter-feed while also allowing them to eat small flora and drink the fluids of larger ones. They surface at night to feed on flora. The colony is ruled by a 30 cm long queen that is the sole reproducer. Males guard her and the colony fiercely, and only reach 10 cm long while sterile female workers reach 15 cm long. The queen controls her minions through pheromones, using them to give direct orders, and typically produces hundreds of eggs with each mating with an old enough male guard or warrior. Young queens will leave established colonies with a contingent of workers and guards in order to start a new one. Should this or the colony be attacked by other colonies or predators, the male warriors will swarm them, stabbing their sharp tusks into their flesh until either the attacker(s) is(are) killed or flee(s). They have come in contact with the other various burrowing species, leading to some competition at first. In the long run, however, they eventually formed mutualistic relations, though they remain the dominant species in the Global Glacier. They are no longer amphibious when fully grown, but when young, they are kept in special pools tended by female nurses until their respiratory system fully develops, allowing them to take in oxygenated air through the sides of their mouth. The typical nest, which can be hundreds of meters in diameter and house thousands of individuals, typically has several genetically related queens rules by the oldest one, the matriarch. They possess their own burrow where nurses bring them food and carefully remove the eggs and bring them to the nursery which is filled with a thin layer of water and plenty of microbes to eat. Other burrows are used for "farming" microbes which are usually fed scraps and feces, and some are kept close enough to the surface that light can filter in, allowing photosynthetic microbes and flora to grow. Other burrows keep large stockpiles of food, and are usually guarded so as to prevent thieves from stealing their resources.