Sauceswarmer

The sauceswarmers split from it ancestor hemoswarmer. They feed exclusively on saucebacks. In their natural habitat, they are limited to sanshehs. They preferentially target the unfeathered parts of the sansheh's body.

They like places that are warm, shady and humid. They have two generations per year, one in spring and one in midsummer. The springtime generation is especially numerous, to the point sanshehs are constantly attacked by pesky clouds of the bloodsuckers. Sauceswarmers are easily frightened, so they immediately take off whenever a xatakpark riding the sansheh approaches. However, they quickly alight on the sauceback again once it passes. As the xatakpark lacks tasty binucleozoan blood, sauceswarmers have no interest in them. Thus, while the rest of the sansheh's body is plagued, the xatakpark appears to have a pest-free halo.

The sauceswarmers' sheer numbers in the springtime drain the adult sansheh's energy, occasionally making it haggard with featherless patches. It's worse for the larval sansheh, as they have less blood. Some larval sansheh die from the blood loss.

They no longer rely on photosynthesis for energy, though they still conduct a form of photosynthesis to breathe. Their photosynthetic panels act as a sort of lung or gill, producing carbon dioxide that then saturates the Sauceswarmer's watery body fluids. The panel-lung also works as a sensory organ for detecting fauna it feeds on, for it can detect the carbon dioxide sanshehs emit. However, neither its vision nor its sense of smell is very good, so it often bumps into things as it flies. Bumping into things is no hindrance to the sauceswarmer, for it is small and light, and all its vital organs are enclosed in the cellulose capsule of its thorax.

Its grasping limbs are longer and its tail shorter. Thus, while feeding, it stands as a tripod. The grasping limbs extend from a ventral hollow in its thorax, making them fairly aerodynamic.