Virovermes

## Virovermes australis

Latest Mutations: Dorsal Vessel, Smaller

Virovermes australis was even smaller than its predecessor and this size made it a completely planktonic life form drifting across the temperate ocean of the Southern Hemisphere. It filtered smaller plankton with its cirri. Unlike its predecessor, it had a dorsal vessel that helped pump blood around the body.

Status: Extinct (Outcompeted)

Habitat: Subpolar Temperate Ocean, Polar Temperate Ocean

Niche: Filter-Feeder

Diet: Any fresh meat it can get.

Size: 1.5cm (length - cirri to end)

Nutritional Need: 149 x 1.5/100 = 0.02NP

Food / Oxygen Requirement: 0.02 x 0.25 = 0.01NP per round (Needs to intake 0.01/0.6 = 0.01NP per round) / 0.02NP \*

Abilities: Anti-Freeze. "Entaopsin" Toxin. Exothermic. Foul Taste. Large-Body Circulation. Liquid Excretion. Low Pressure Tolerance. Osmoconformer (Quite High Salinity). Permeable Skin. Solid Excretion. Subzero Metabolism.

Perception: Chemoreception 2 (5m from mouth). Sight 1 (Blurry Sight from the side, monocular vision).

Stats: Buoyancy 1 (Adjustable). Coordination 2. Digestion 1. Immunity 2. Filtration 3. Respiration 1 (Cutaneous Respiration). Stamina 3. Strength 0.5. Support 1. Swim Speed 0.5. Tunnelling 1. UV Resistance 2. Walk Speed 0.5.

Intelligence / Behaviour: 1. Hungry > Wait for food. 2. Food > Filter with cirri. 3. Tired > Rest. 4. Pain > Retreat into burrow. 5. Maturity > Reproduce.

External Features: The cylindrical body has skin containing blue melanin pigmentation and begins with cirri and chemoreceptors around the mouth. On the side of the head are two pairs of pinhole eyes and at the rear of the body is a hyponome.

Internal Features: Each cell in the body contains lysozymes and a relatively small number of piezolytes. Glands on the skin secrete a foul fluid and neurotoxin. The body has a hydrostatic skeleton around a hemacoel and a few small blood vessels from the protonephridium which is pumped by a dorsal vessel. The blood is blue-green because it contains hemocyanin and also contains an anti-freeze xylomannan fatty acid and polysaccharide. Through the mostly lower half runs the monogastric digestive system, from the mouth through the tubes to the stomach and intestines. Near the lower wall can be found the gonads as well as the protonephridium and near the upper wall is the one-chambered oily swim bladder. Ganglia in the head connect to a dual nerve cord along the dorsal half, which has many nerves branching off it to encompass the whole body.

Reproduction: Sexual. External Fertilisation. 1,000 eggs per spawning / Asexual. Budding.

Castes/Phases: None.

Locomotion: Active (20NP). Uses peristalsis and can boost with hyponome.

External Features: Skin (3NP, +1 Immunity, +1 Respiration, +1 Stamina, +Stationary Respiration, +Cutaneous Respiration, +Permeable Skin). Medium Pigmentation (2NP, +2 UV Resistance). Mouth (0NP, +1 Filtration). Two Whorls of Cirri (7NP, +2 Filtration). Chemoreceptors (2NP, +2 Chemoreception). Pinhole Eye (2NP, +1 Sight). Hyponome (7NP, +0.5 Swim Speed, +Hyponome Boosting).

Internal Features: Piezolytes (5NP, +Low Pressure Tolerance). Lysozymes (1NP, +Subzero Metabolism). Hydrostatic Skeleton (3NP, +1 Tunnelling, +1 Support, +1 Strength, +0.5 Walk Speed, +Peristalsis). Open Circulatory System w/ dorsal vessel (10NP, +Small-Body Circulation, +2 Stamina). Anti-Freeze Compound (2NP, +Anti-Freeze). Nephridium (11NP, +Liquid Excretion). Monogastric Digestive System (19NP, +1 Meat Digestion, +1 Veg Protein Digestion, +1 Immunity, +Solid Excretion). Swim Bladder (7NP, +1 Buoyancy, +Adjustable Buoyancy). Centralised Nervous System (20NP, +2 Coordination, +Stimulus Response, +Subconscious Functions, +Body Movement Control). Gonads (14NP, Sexual Reproduction, +Hermaphroditism, +External Fertilzation). Neurotoxin Gland (7NP, +"Entaopsin" Toxin). Foul Fluid Gland (7NP, +Foul Taste).

Temporal Range: R.221 - R.235 (Atrobocean Stage of the Oliverian)

Distribution: Southern Hemisphere

Lifespan: 2 years

Predecessor: Entaops parvus

Classification: Entaopsinae (sf), Entaopsidae (f)

Discoverer: StealthStyle