Bigmouth Burrowing Crestworm
Evolved from Oculolophus subterraneus, this burrowing canetode has further reduced its size and simplified to spend less energy on body size as it has no underground predators, which increases its intraspecific competition. Oculolophus immagnathus grows to ten centimeters (10 cm) in length and spends its entire life underground five to twenty centimeters (5-20 cm) beneath the surface, where it wiggles its entire body up-and-down to dig uncoordinated tunnels to forage for food with no worry about predators. This stemmed from Oculolophus subterraneus' behavior of moving soil aside by moving the head up-and-down, but it is more effective at digging quickly. Its abdomen is somewhat shorter compared to its ancestor to make the body more robust, helping it exert more force to move soil. The mouth has remained the same size as it lacks a set of jaws and therefore swallows its food whole, seeming proportionately larger on a smaller body.
The Bigmouth Burrowing Crestworm (Oculolophus immagnathus) has enlargened its crest to feed on the roots of Aruraherba caesicoles and Aruraherba wetrilli. It does not feed on the roots of Heavy Tuftweed (Aruraherba haberefortis) as they are too thick for the crest to effectively crush.
The crest is not used for echolocation unlike in surface species so that dirt is not trapped and doesn't mess with coordination, only using echolocation if the Bigmouth Burrowing Crestworm is somehow brought to the surface, either by unfortunate traveling errors or landslides on steeper terrain, where it may fall prey to sunlight radiation or Blattealimax panivore if it stays out for too long.
Bigmouth Burrowing Crestworms take three weeks (3 wks) to finish growing thanks to their smaller size and can survive in a large density, so they can establish their genes the most in a crowded setting. They may attempt to reproduce with any member of their species as soon as they mature, with low sexual dimorphism resulting in occasional same-sex couplings. Females lay twenty-five (25) eggs once they are fertilized internally, creating new sets of eggs within a month (1 mon) to keep her gene pool circulating.