Hitchhiker Nitroid

The hitchhiker nitroid split from its ancestor, the nitroid, and has adapted to live in the microclimates formed by the orbital voltflora. The massive size of the orbital voltflora generated a lot of heat, which rose and created a vacuum, pulling air toward the orbital voltflora and creating a forceful and almost constant toward the voltflora. This brought the nitroids fresh air, and nutrients they needed to grow.

Their four tentacles have fused, forming a more stable rectangular structure. The growths its ancestor used to capture air have become thinner and more numerous, and spores are now released from the corners of the fused tentacles. Another adaption to hold onto the ground in the strong winds is their ability to send portions of the cell into the dirt, then growing a cell wall around these "roots" to anchor it to the rock or soil.

Like their ancestor they use nitrogen, or rather ammonia, to produce energy. They capture nitrogen and hydrogen using the growths on their tentacles, and then use nitrogenase, along with some added energy, to produce ammonia. The ammonia is then oxidized, which produces energy and nitrates as a byproduct, of which the latter is released into the soil. Although having to produce ammonia greatly decreases the amount of ATP finally produced, the nearly unlimited free nitrogen allows it to make a living off of it, along with some supplementation from any organic material caught in its filter growths. Like many other organisms partially depedent on the voltflora, they have adapted to "hitchhike" on the organism's seeds.

With the strong wind toward the voltflora, some spores inevitably land inside the tube and onto the voltflora's seed. This is not enough, however, so the nitroid has adapted to, if high enough iron concentrations are sensed, develop their "roots", but not its filtering arms, instead growing a thicker cell wall and entering a dormant state until it has been disloged by the impact of the voltflora seed. This has allowed it to spread to all the biomes that the voltflora inhabits, its hard cell wall allowing it to survive even in cold space. Although they are mainly concentrated around the voltflora, hitchhiker nitroids can be found scattered throughout the volcanic biomes of Sagan4.