Tasty Infectoid

The tasty infectoid split from its ancestor and is the result from a genetic mishap, it now no longer attacks cells to reproduce. It now produces a bubble of protein that mimics the cell membrane of other cells. To be able to do this it needs genetic material of the cell that it is going to mimic.

First the mother cell has her protein bubble (from the previous life cycle), she floats in the open ocean waiting for something to bump into her, during this time she is dormant and uses very little energy, if nothing bumps into her after a while the bubble will deteriorate and appear to be a tiny speck of detritus for whatever passing by to consume, if the thing that bumps into her uses a probosces then she can attempt to pulse away, but normally she dies. Next, when something does bump into her, she is most likely going to be eaten, because unlike the cell she is mimicking, she doesn't put up much of a fight. After being devoured she will break out of the bubble and go to work emptying her victims vacuoles and consuming its cytoplasm, she also takes in and processes the genetic material, carefully separating the blueprints for the cell membrane from the rest of the DNA. The infectoid then integrates these new genes into herself while building new infectoids that have her old protein bubble genetics, she then casts out her old protein bubble genetics, so she is now different from her offspring, who resemble her old self. When this is all done the husk of the victim cell is now packed with infectoids and tears open, allowing the mother and her spawn to float off into the gloom to repeat the process.