Trikskirt

The trikskirt split from its ancestor and adapted to a more varied food source. Being in warmer waters, instead of attaching itself to thin body surfaces, where it is able to suck cell fluids easily by piercing the cells, the trikskirt will search for pores on the skin, swimming into them until the deeper cells. There, it will pierce and invade the cells and continuously suck their contents, secreting enzymes to help in the degradation and absorption of some compounds.

It will stay attached to the membrane and, while it feeds into it, a thin net, made of proteins and carbohydrates, will be formed into the cap, inflating and hardening, making the trikskirt stay attached; only the pseudopod remains outside the cell. The pseudopod tip is used to release chemical messengers, guiding other trikskirts to the food source.

Usually, due to the chemotactic response, several trikskirts will parasite the same cell. Once destroyed, the cell debris will float outside and the parasites will invade the nearest cells. They reproduce by binary fission and usually form huge groups on infected sites.