Pitelubarnus
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The pitelubarnus split from its ancestor and adopted a new style of life. While young, they are much like the ancestor, acting like worms and burying in the sand until they find a suitable place to settle. Unlike the spoisoreth, pitelubarni have small teeth and attach inside the skin of larger creatures, allowing them to travel by the ocean and gather food residues from their host, while also can grasp smaller creatures that swim close to it.
Newly born pitelubarni are able to perceive the environment around them due to their heat sensors placed around the mouth. If a large creature comes close to it and the worm has the chance to crawl over its skin, the pitelubarnus will try digging a channel in the skin on the host, eating flesh tissues and installing inside. Once installed, it starts a slow metamorphosis, drinking the blood of the host while it curls the body, develops harder shell plates, membranous graspers, abandons the swimming paddles and turns the mouth to the outer side. After the full metamorphosis, the pitelubarnus resembles a barnacle and shows only the grasping tentacles placed over the five shell plates, with the mouth in the center. At full-grown they can have up to 20 cm long coiled inside the shell, but only the outer part can be seen.
Like the ancestor, it has a very elastic body, but due to its setting it can't swallow entire creatures anymore. If something touches the tentacles, the pitelubarnus will try to sting, immobilize and grab it inside a membranous bag. If it succeeds, it will open the shell plates in a star form, while keeps the bag over the mouth in order to eat the food inside. They have a slow metabolism and a single prey will keep them nourished for a long time. The digestive system improved and now the few remaining wastes are expelled directly into the body of the hosting creature.
These creatures can attach to any part of the host, but usually grow larger and in great number near to the mouth and tail, where the food is more abundant to them. Smaller host creatures will have one to few of these parasites and these won't be able to grow to full size, since no many pitelubarni can survive in a small area; if they settle over very small creatures, both parasite and host can die. They can be found covering ample areas of the host skin and can hurt it once installed, due to the movement of the shell plates while eating, the release of waste fluids and the bloodsucking by the young pitelubarni. From all those attributes comes its name, V. astirponos, the star of the pain.
Living Relatives (click to show/hide)
