Eusuckers

Eusuckers replaced their ancestor and spread globally, their diet of iron-based blood allowing them to reach any habitat which had water and iron-blooded fauna. They parasitize anything with iron-based blood, even the highly unusual Grabbyswarmers. To avoid Muller’s Ratchet, they have finally developed sexual reproduction in the form of spawning. They have a pair of gonads on each body segment, and they spawn in water. Their eggs have thin iron shells, which are penetrated and then replaced when sperm fertilizes them. Hatchlings will eat their eggshell to give themselves an iron boost until they can find a host. Those without hosts will also eat dead fauna and graze on iron found on the seafloor.

Eusuckers come in both fully-aquatic and semi-aquatic variants. Semi-aquatic species wait in wetlands and rainforest soil for some unfortunate creature with iron-based blood to pass by, at which point they latch on and start sucking like a Terran leech. Aquatic species may have a similar lifestyle in the benthic zone, but they can swim short distances to get to a new host even in the open ocean.

The exterior of Eusuckers is softer than that of other iron fauna, an adaptation which makes them more flexible and better able to avoid crushing, and they are able to breathe through their skin. As such, their “gills” now serve mainly for scenting rather than respiration. Like their ancestor, they can reproduce asexually through budding, the new budding offspring growing off the side of the body like little iron tentacles.

There are many, many species of Eusucker. Many are adapted for cold and even the crushing depths of the abyss. They vary little externally, however. The number of body segments varies from species to species.