Vegetarian Feather Metter

Vegetarian Feather Metter
Creator	Disgustedorite🌺
Information
Status	Extant
Common Name(s)	Vegetarian Feather Metter
Zones	E, G
Roles	Parasite
Classification
Genus	Subsukalensis
Species	Subsukalensis ankathotus
Evolution
Date	June 22nd, 2019
Ancestor	Painted Metter
Descendants	No results

The vegetarian feather metter is a descendant of the painted metter which, instead of always walking the great distance between meals, often hitches a ride in the feathers of the sand wyvern, either by finding one when their host is uprooted or when they encounter one during a trek across the desert. To facilitate this, they are a bit smaller than their ancestor and live in smaller groups--only 5 millimeters long, and in groups of less than 100 which often split and scatter when their host polyph is uprooted--though, the size of the group can in rare cases rise to extreme numbers if they can stay on a polyph host undisturbed for a long time.

They also differ from their ancestor in that their spikes are barbed--when attacked by a predator such as a finhopper, barbed spikes can be more dangerous even though their venom isn’t lethal, as the barb makes it difficult to remove from flesh or safely nip off. Still, metters which have already ejected their spikes remain vulnerable to predation. Like its ancestor, its venom is like a bee sting. It will generally avoid ejecting spikes while riding on a sand wyvern even if it sees a predator, as doing so could cause the wyvern to react negatively and try to kill it and it's unlikely that the wyvern would allow another muscals to grab things off of its back anyway.

In a group of vegetarian feather metters, dominant females do the vast majority of egg-laying and only with males they specifically choose; the number of dominant females is about one for every 30 metters in the group, so of it splits and scatters there will often still be one to continue reproducing in each of the fragments. They lay 6-10 eggs every day in shaded parts of their host polyphs or even partially underground on the roots, and when a dominant female dies a new one is chosen through non-lethal scuffles. Female vegetarian feather metters can store sperm for up to a month after mating and can hold off on fertilizing their eggs if they are in the middle of migrating to a new host.

Like its ancestor, the vegetarian feather metter is a parasite which sucks on juicy polyphs. Its victims include D. cendra, D. desertus, D. flitzanius, and E. phylloakidus. Like its ancestor, it is still preyed upon by the finhopper, but its smaller size and barbed spikes make it a less popular choice.