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Purple-Eaters (Porphyrophagus spp.)
Creator: TSSL
Artist: ParrotWatcher
Ancestor: Violet Knightworm
Habitat: Darwin
Size: 0.85-3 cm long
Support: Exoskeleton (chitin)
Diet: Herbivore (Photosagnians)
Respiration: Passive (tracheae)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Female/male, externally fertilized eggs

As they continued to shed their reliance on the sea, violet knightworms found wide open opportunities across the continent of Darwin. They have diversified into a new genus that can live inland. They continue to specialize in eating photosagnian flora, with individual species often specializing in a particular food source. They found this a largely untapped niche; the only other fauna of a similar size who ate photosagnians were the prongleg scaleworms, which had only just rafted over from Glicker. The purple-eaters stayed smaller than the prongleg scaleworms and generally maintained a more sluggish lifestyle. This helps keep their niches distinct, along with their ability to reproduce inland and tendency to specialize in specific food sources, compensating for their reduced mobility.

Their tracheal system was previously able to breathe air as well as water and has become fully specialized for air; they will now drown if immersed for too long. The biggest necessary change in their lifestyle was to their nests. No longer able to dig them on the beach, they now lay their eggs directly on foliage. Females still lay semi-soft eggs, which the male must quickly fertilize before they harden. Between both parents, they secrete a sticky substance that coats the eggs; this also hardens, leaving the eggs clinging to the foliage. They are r-strategists and produce many such egg masses, making this hardened foamy substance a common sight on Darwin. The parents leave without tending their eggs at all.

Purple-eaters in areas with dense flora may spend their entire lives inching over this foliage, from birth to death.

Their body plan remains as before. The soft core contains their organ systems, protected by a distinct chitinous outer shell with four segments. This shell grows continually, but the growth is concentrated in the dorsal spines, and they rub against stones or other hard surfaces in their environment to wear away and shed excess material. These spines provide their main deterrent against predators. They also retain two antennae, but these are largely vestigial in most species, though they have a limited ability to grip or pierce food. The fingered purple-eater, however, bucked the trend by using its antennae to pierce tougher flora, like the waxy coating of purplebract and its descendants, allowing access to the softer tissue within.

Body shapes can vary by environment. At one extreme, the dumpy purple-eater lives in savanna and chaparral, areas with seasonal rainfall; it has a particularly short but thick body, keeping a smaller surface area to reduce loss of water and letting it store more fatty tissue. At the other, the skinny purple-eater lives along the coast of the rainforest; it has little need to horde water and has adopted a long and thin body, the high surface area being useful for keeping cool and for taking in more oxygen after the oxygen crash. The large amount of predators in the rainforest led to it developing particularly fearsome spikes.

Most purple-eaters have kept completely purple coloration across their exoskeleton, suited for camouflage when they spend most if not all of their time among their food. The skinny purple-eater, however, specializes in eating mauvecostrum (a recent arrival from Hydro). It has a darker coloration at its very base to blend in from the side, while the rest of it has a paler coloration to match the stalks of the fruiting bodies and blend in while crawling among those.

Image updated for mauvecostrum color scheme and to include antenna joints.

Checklist Rules

All Organism Submission post are now required to have an Approval Checklist done on the submission before the post can be accepted. Any team member is allowed to do a checklist on someone else's submissions, however if they are done by a non-Mod or Admin, a Mod or Admin will have to agree with the assessment.

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

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

Ancestor:
Listed?: Y
What changes?:

• External?: Slower overgrowth
• Internal?: Respiration
• Behavioral/Mental?: Exfoliation

Are Changes Realistic?: Y
New Genus Needed?: Y, because it is one

Habitat:
Type?: N/A
Flavor?: N/A
Connected to Ancestor?: Y
Contiguous?: Y
Wildcard?:Genus

Size:
Same as Ancestor?: N
Within range?: Y
Exception?: N/A

Support:
Same as Ancestor?: Y
Does it Fit Lifestyle?: Y
Does It Fit Size?: Y
Reasonable changes (if any)?: N/A
Other?:

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

Respiration:
Same as Ancestor?: N
Does It Fit Habitat?: Y
Does it Fit Size?: Y
Reasonable changes (if any)?: Land adapted
Other?:

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

Reproduction:
Same as Ancestor?: Y
Does It Fit Habitat?: Y
Reasonable changes (if any)?: yes, I like the new nest buildinging method
Other?:

Description:
Length?: Y
Capitalized correctly?: Y
Replace/Split from ancestor?: We don't know
Other?:

Opinion: Pending
- I don't know about the legality of having a whole kingdom as a diet. Feels like it could have unfortunate implications within a long enough time scale (once it turns out that your knightworms eat poisonous flora with nuclear spores that produce sophont trees).
- It's not clear if they are a split or a replacement, that needs fixing.
- Reading "Fingered purple-eaters" made me do the Beavis and Butt-Head naughty laugh in my head. For your reconsideration.

The diets of genus groups apparently may be broad claims, but I agree that if so they ought to be descriptions of the food or tighter knit groups to prevent odd occurrences.