user posted image

Plentwerms (Florambuloparasita spp.)
Creator: Clayren
Ancestor: Parasitic Floats (Volaparasitiphyta spp.)
Habitat: Global (Sagan 4)
Size: 0.5-2 cm wide segments, 10-45 cm long colonies
Support: Cell Wall (Cellulose)
Diet: Photosynthesis, Parasite (Photosynthesizing Plents)
Respiration: Passive (Stomata)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (Hermaphrodite, Spores), Asexual ()

Plentwerms split from their ancestor the Parasitic Floats. Plentwerms are long colonies of parasitic flora that spend the majority of their lives inside photosynthesizing plents. When ingested or breathed in Plentwerm spores will use their sticky tendrils to attach onto the interior walls of the plent’s body and digest a hole from which nutrients may be accessed. With a stable source of food, the Plentwerm will begin to undergo macroscopic binary fission. Rather than separating into two organisms, however, they will instead remain linked by their digestive tendrils. When a colony of Plentwerms becomes very long the organisms at the end of the colony will become filled with spores and their connected tendrils will become weaker. Eventually they will tear off from the end of the colony like a ticket being taken from a roll and will be discarded with waste. The discarded organisms do not die, but remain alive within excreted material. Cryoutines endosymbiotes provide hydrogen to these detached organisms, helping them to slowly rise to the top of any excretory deposit. From there the lone Plentwerm will survive for a time on photosynthesis, collecting and fertilizing spores released by other Plentwerms in other nearby deposits. After a couple weeks of this the organism will release its own load of spores and then die.
Spores will then be spread by detritivores or by organisms treading through or close to deposits of excrement or by breathing them in. These juveniles contain a copy of their mother’s symbiotic Cryoutines and are capable of floating slightly above the excretory deposit from which they hatched. Aimless, the juveniles are easily inhaled by organisms sniffing or breathing near these deposits. They will then swim through the interior of the organism until they hit a surface. These Plentwerms will then begin the process of sticking to and digesting a hole in said surface. If the host proves compatible the lifecycle will repeat again.

While the first Plentwerms developed among green-winged Phlyers such as the Rosybeak Phlyer, Azure Phlyer and Golden Phlyer, today there are many species of Plentwerms. Some are highly specialized to only a single species of plent, others are more generalized and each species has a morphology suited to its host species. They spread easily thanks to flying and ocean-going plents and can be found worldwide wherever there are photosynthesizing plents. Plents that have abandoned photosynthesis or have very weak photosynthesis are immune to Plentwerms, however, as their body chemistry is too different. So too are plents which have lost and re-evolved photosynthesis.

user posted image

Parasitic floats are purple flora. They don't have the motility to "grasp" things.

Okay, now that I'm looking more closely, there's another issue.

To be submitted as a global genus, there must be at least 3 species depicted in the image. As there is only one species pictured, it must either be edited into a single-species submission with a single range or two more species need to be added to the artwork.

I'm also not sure if "worm" should be used in the name, as it's a plant and on Sagan IV "worm" refers to a specific group of organisms which it is not a part of.

Plentwerms.

Modifications made, a lot of them look like raviolis.

"Inside of" is redundant: "inside" is sufficient.
All other genus groups portray at three species example in the same image. It makes more sense to make the second image the first, official image, and then make the first image a supplemental image. Perhaps the supplemental image could be a focus on an exceptionally large but otherwise not especially notable species. Alternatively, you could merge the two images together, placing the smaller-looking species beside the original example.


"spores will use its" should be "spores will use their".

"plents body" should be "plent's body".

I recommend adding a comma after "stable source of food", although that particular sentence does fall within normal amounts of spacing. It sounds as if someone is speaking quickly to not pause to provie a comma.

"fertilizing organisms"? What do you mean?

"Florambulatioparasita" is quite a mouthful. Is there a shorter name? It's ten syllables. In comparison, the tapeworm order Diphyllobothriidea is seven syllables.

Why is there an empty pair of parentheses in the reproduction line?

When you say "plents", do you mean the entirety of the Phytozoa phylum? That's quite a lot to cover at once. It's not impossible, though, as tapeworms cover birds and mammals (chordates) as well as mollusks, but it might help to specify their various adaptations to major kinds of plents.

What about plent lineages that gave up photosynthesis, but regained it, or regained a weaker version of it? Consider Gesistratidae. A Shroom Herder, one species in Geistratidae, comes from a long line of non-photosynthetic nodents, but it has weak photosynthesis.

They gently "swim" through the air, but do they have a particular direction? It's not out of the question they could grow in a particular direction once they grow, like dodder vines, but it should be specified.

Personally, I would suggest "plentwerms", due to the Vicewyrm and Shearwyrm of Alpha having pretty distinctive names. (And also the more relevant Burrowyrm, released in the Alpha timeline, and in this same Generation, too.)

Approval Checklist:
Art:
Art Present?: Y
Art clear?: Y
Gen number?: Y
All limbs shown?: Y
Reasonably Comparable to Ancestor?: Y
Realistic additions?: Y

Name:
Binomial Taxonomic Name?: Y
Creator?: Y

Ancestor:
Listed?: Y
What changes?:
  • External?: Tendrils
  • Internal?:
  • Behavioral/Mental?: Plent parasite
Are Changes Realistic?: Y
New Genus Needed?: Y (Done)

Habitat:
Type?: 1/2
Flavor?: 1/3
Connected?: Global
Wildcard?: N/A

Size:
Same as Ancestor?: N
Within range?: Y (1-2 cm wide bubbles, 10-20 cm long colonies -> 0.5-2 cm wide segments, 10-45 cm long colonies) Too Large for genus?
Exception?: N/A

Support:
Same as Ancestor?: Y
Reasonable changes (if any)?: N/A
Other?: N/A

Diet:
Same as Ancestor?: Y
Transition Rule?: N/A
Reasonable changes (if any)?: N/A

Respiration:
Same as Ancestor?: Y
Does It Fit Habitat?: Y
Reasonable changes (if any)?: N/A
Other?: N/A

Thermoregulation:
Same as Ancestor?: Y
Does It Fit Habitat?: Y
Reasonable changes (if any)?: N/A
Other?: N/A

Reproduction:
Same as Ancestor?: Y
Does It Fit Habitat?: Y
Reasonable changes (if any)?: N/A
Other?: I'm assuming the missing data is the same as the ancestor

Description:
Length?: Y
Capitalized correctly?: Y
Replace/Split from ancestor?: Y (Split)
Other?: N/A

Status: Pending

Alright there's a few things:
1) The bottom photo will probably need to be the main photo, since it needs multiple species

2) Can genus colonies get this large?

3) Missing data in the reproductive section

I'm moving this to the Graveyard until this can be resolved