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Description
Coprophagy is something we humans tend to be a tad grossed out by. Yet it seems to be one of those things that shows up time and again in nature, on every world with complex life so far discovered. Cerulea is no exception to this. After all, why leave all that potential food just lying around, even if it has been through some other creature's digestive tract?

It is no surprise that Cerulea's largest land animal- the grassland titan- produces some pretty hefty masses of dung. All this dung is eaten by a number of creatures, particularly small pseudo-arthropods such as the dung seekers- a type of rot bug. But going to eat at dung piles is a riskier business than one might expect. For not all the dung piles on the plains of Orientalis are as they seem.

The dung mimic is a species of radial that, you guessed it, mimics dung. Specifically the dung of the grassland titan. At around 50 cm in height when standing up, and somewhat shorter when sitting down, it is a fairly small radial, but looks fairly big for a pile of dung. Its brown colouration and wrinkly, bumpy skin give it an appearance quite reminiscent of a pile of grassland titan dung. Completing the disguise is a pheromone it secretes through its skin that smells uncannily similar to the faecal matter of the grassland titan.

Mistaking the mimic for the real thing, dung seekers and other small coprophages will approach it in expectation of a tasty meal. Instead they themselves can become the meal as the previously motionless dung mimic will use its tentacles to grab them and bring them to its mouth (located, as in all terrestrial radials, on the underside of the body).

Like all of the semi-sessile radials, the dung mimic can stay in one spot for very long periods of time but will occasionally get up and move, usually to find areas more rich in its food- in this case small coprophagic creatures.

As well as helping attract its prey, the foul smell of the dung mimic also doubles as a form of defense. While a small, inactive creature like this would normally be easy prey for a number of predators, it seems that the predators of the Orientalian plains generally prefer their food not to smell like shit.

Description
Coprophagy is something we humans tend to be a tad grossed out by. Yet it seems to be one of those things that shows up time and again in nature, on every world with complex life so far discovered. Cerulea is no exception to this. After all, why leave all that potential food just lying around, even if it has been through some other creature's digestive tract?

It is no surprise that Cerulea's largest land animal- the grassland titan- produces some pretty hefty masses of dung. All this dung is eaten by a number of creatures, particularly small pseudo-arthropods such as the dung seekers- a type of rot bug. But going to eat at dung piles is a riskier business than one might expect. For not all the dung piles on the plains of Orientalis are as they seem.

The dung mimic is a species of radial that, you guessed it, mimics dung. Specifically the dung of the grassland titan. At around 50 cm in height when standing up, and somewhat shorter when sitting down, it is a fairly small radial, but looks fairly big for a pile of dung. Its brown colouration and wrinkly, bumpy skin give it an appearance quite reminiscent of a pile of grassland titan dung. Completing the disguise is a pheromone it secretes through its skin that smells uncannily similar to the faecal matter of the grassland titan.

Mistaking the mimic for the real thing, dung seekers and other small coprophages will approach it in expectation of a tasty meal. Instead they themselves can become the meal as the previously motionless dung mimic will use its tentacles to grab them and bring them to its mouth (located, as in all terrestrial radials, on the underside of the body).

Like all of the semi-sessile radials, the dung mimic can stay in one spot for very long periods of time but will occasionally get up and move, usually to find areas more rich in its food- in this case small coprophagic creatures.

As well as helping attract its prey, the foul smell of the dung mimic also doubles as a form of defense. While a small, inactive creature like this would normally be easy prey for a number of predators, it seems that the predators of the Orientalian plains generally prefer their food not to smell like shit.