Swarmers

Swarmers are an offshoot of the shovel heads that went through neoteny. (To be specific, the ancestor was the strainbean) The first swarmer was the green swarmer. Swarmers are extremely common in the oceans of Sagan 4, and even compose two globe-spanning genus groups, the miniswarmers and microswarmers. An early offshoot from the green swarmer, the cloud swarmer, even lives airborne.

Anatomy
Swarmers usually have only one eye. They are typically green.

Diet & Energy
Diets vary, but most swarmers are capable of photosynthesis. Some microscopic species rely on photosynthesis only and do not eat.

Senses
They usually have one eye on the tops of their body frames.

Types of Swarmers
As such a major branch of plents--comparable in scale to, say, all of Earth's bony fish--there are a lot of different kinds of swarmer.


 * Marine Swarmers: The basal/ancestral group. The basal-most swarmers were jawless and had just 2 fins, 4 tails, and 1 eye.
 * Dark Swarmers: The now-extinct descendants of the Dark Swarmer.
 * Armored Swarmers: The now-extinct descendants of the Plated Swarmer.
 * Flying Swarmers: Descendants of the Gliding Swarmer.
 * Terrestrial Swarmers: Descendants of the amphibious Vegehopper.
 * Skimos: Descendants of the Vegeskimo.
 * Triwalkers: The now-extinct descendants of the Northern Triwalker.
 * Tripodians: The now extinct group of intelligent species descended from the Tripodian. Includes a sapient species, the Tripodician.
 * Scaleskimos: Descendants of the Scaled Diveskimo.
 * Tiny Swarmers: Descendants of the microscopic Mini Swarmer.
 * Scuttlers: Descendants of the Scuttler.
 * Hammerheads: Descendants of the Hammerhead Scuttler.
 * Shelled Scuttlers: Descendants of the Hitchhiker Scuttler.
 * Sucker Swarmers: Descendants of the Sucker Swarmer.
 * Flat Swarmers: Descendants of the Flat Swarmer.
 * Electric Swarmers: Descendants of the Electro Swarmer.
 * Scooters: Descendants of the Mudscooter.
 * Long-Faced Scooters: Descendants of Nectascooter.
 * Oceanscooters: Descendants of the secondarily-aquatic Common Oceanscooter.
 * Slenderscooters: Descendants of the Slenderscooter
 * Jawed Scooters: Descendants of the Jawscooter
 * Three-Finned Swarmers: Descendants of the South Polar Swarmer, now represented only by plyents.
 * Plyents: Plant-like swarmers descended from the Lazarus Plyent.