Cocktree-Climbing Needleworm
The Cocktree-Climbing Needleworm (Acutognathus vescorepo) has become better adapted for a life of feeding from cocktrees such as Body-Joining Cocktree (Microcaulifolium polycorpens) and Microcaulifolium gracilistemus. Descended from Acutognathus vaccapuella, it spends most of its time on these cocktrees for food and safety, climbing using its three pairs of chitinous graspers towards the front of its body and sucking out the seed juices with its down-curved needle.
Although they use the same polyphs to live on, Cocktree-Climbing Needleworms and Climbing Nipple-Legs (Thiliprootha arborothilia) do not actually compete. Climbing Nipple-Legs feed on Aruraherba spp. while Cocktree-Climbing Needleworms get their food income directly from the juices of the cocktrees.
They do not like to feed from Cockrass (Phallucaulis flacoherbas) or Bukkoctus
(Phallucaulis spermacapturam) as they are lower to the ground and predators of Cocktree-Climbing Needleworms like Blattealimax panivore and Muscle-Frilled Needleworms (Iniectognathus acidonenum) have easier access there. They also typically ignore Air Cockrass (Phallucaulis caeliherbas) as their holes are smaller and thus not as easy as the cocktrees' to reach into.
The body of the Cocktree-Climbing Needleworm has shortened because the extra weight of a long body was not beneficial for climbing, and it was better to drop the length for more efficient climbing. They grow to around sixteen to twenty (16-20 cm) centimeters in length, although structures like the head and the graspers remain the same size.
Predators in Zone L are not currently able to climb the tall cocktrees as they do not have the right appendages to do so, but if a Cocktree-Climbing Needleworm senses there is danger, like a faster-than-usual creature or shakiness of the cocktree, it will escape simply by loosening its graspers from the cocktree and dropping to the ground. It is not injured by this as its small size minimizes the impact. It will then try to find another cocktree to climb up, as the ground contains dangers. Sometimes, it may even climb up the same one it got off of by mistake, as its instinct is not to be intelligent, but to survive and reproduce. It will also do this if a cocktree's seed juices are depleted, as there is no point to stay somewhere where there is no food.
The echolocation system of the Cocktree-Climbing Needleworm works the same way as it does in its ancestors. It clicks with its crest twice a second (2 cps; cps meaning "clicks per second") when climbing and searching around and once a second (1 cps) when it is actually feeding. Like other canetodes, it perceives depth as 2D monochrome vision. The Cocktree-Climbing Needleworm can see depth as far as twenty meters (20 m) from the body, although closer-up it has more clarity. This means that it can still find its way in the darkest of nights. It can also accurately smell up to one meter (1 m) away from its body. It wakes up and sleeps in three-hour (3 hr) intervals, as light does not play a factor in its foraging.
Cocktree-Climbing Needleworms now grow to full size in little as seven weeks (7 wks) thanks to their shorter body length. They will attempt to reproduce with individuals of their own species that they come across by sliding their cloacas together. If she is fertilized, a female will lay around thirteen to fifteen (13-15) eggs, albeit the eggs are laid within the hole of a cocktree. This offers the offspring protection from predators and as long as the cocktree isn't sucked dry, the offspring may even have a free meal once they emerge from the egg.