HOME | DD

Description
"Not all habitable planets are covered in life. On some worlds, life has only just colonised land, and as such is limited in range. Such a scenario can be found on the dry, dusty planet of Setesh. Whilst much of the two continents is covered in sandy wastes, pockets of reddish foliage line the riverbanks and coastal marshlands.

The fauna here is relatively advanced, and made up mainly of odd creatures that share the characteristics of both invertebrates and chordates. Their forms are diverse, and include swimmers, diggers, crawlers and even some species with a sprawling, semi-erect gait.

Whilst few of the animals of Setesh are pleasant to look at, the prize for the most gruesome has to go to the female Surinam Worm. Although usually no more offensive to the eye than any of the other "worms" of Setesh, its reproduction is rather horrible, to say the least.

The female Surinam Worm (Venterepo cutigignere) grows to about a foot in length, and lives amidst the undergrowth on the edges of lakes and marshes. They feed upon smaller animals, plucking them from the ground with their protruding teeth. They pull themselves along with their four powerful, paddle-like limbs, with a number of psuedopods providing additional support. As protection from predators and the occasional dust storm, they sport thick plates along their backs. They breath using a set of gill-like openings behind their cephalic region.

Breeding season for the Surinam Worms comes with the annual rains. The males are far smaller than the females (rarely exceeding two inches in length), and greatly outnumber them. As the females take little notice of their admirers, a number of males may fertilise the eggs they produce. The males then roll these eggs up the flanks of the females using their forelimbs, and embed them into the spongy tissue lining the abdomen. Their work done, the males then expire after the breeding season, leaving the females with their broods.

Like the long-extinct Surinam Toad of Earth (which the Worm is named after), the eggs are covered in a thin layer of skin, so that each egg is held within its own little capsule. With time, the eggs hatch, bearing larvae that feed off the regenerating tissue of their mothers' abdomens. After a gestation period, these larvae then pupate, and emerge as miniature versions of the adults. They then proceed to rasp away at the layer of skin with their mouthparts until they free themselves. Wriggling out of their mothers' skin, they then crawl away to grow and begin the cycle again.

It is for this spectacle - the sight of worms squirming to free themselves from their mother - that the Surinam Worm is regarded one of the most grotseque animals, not just on Setesh, but across much of the Empire. It has become a popular dare among some Setshian youths to step on the pregnant females, causing the young to burst out of the skin all at once. This nauseating spectacle often induces vomiting amongst those of a weak constitution, and is only repeated by the most foolhardy."

From the journals of Samon Finn, notable Vabmojan Marine Xenobiologist, during his travels through the Outer Colonies.

Description
"Not all habitable planets are covered in life. On some worlds, life has only just colonised land, and as such is limited in range. Such a scenario can be found on the dry, dusty planet of Setesh. Whilst much of the two continents is covered in sandy wastes, pockets of reddish foliage line the riverbanks and coastal marshlands.

The fauna here is relatively advanced, and made up mainly of odd creatures that share the characteristics of both invertebrates and chordates. Their forms are diverse, and include swimmers, diggers, crawlers and even some species with a sprawling, semi-erect gait.

Whilst few of the animals of Setesh are pleasant to look at, the prize for the most gruesome has to go to the female Surinam Worm. Although usually no more offensive to the eye than any of the other "worms" of Setesh, its reproduction is rather horrible, to say the least.

The female Surinam Worm (Venterepo cutigignere) grows to about a foot in length, and lives amidst the undergrowth on the edges of lakes and marshes. They feed upon smaller animals, plucking them from the ground with their protruding teeth. They pull themselves along with their four powerful, paddle-like limbs, with a number of psuedopods providing additional support. As protection from predators and the occasional dust storm, they sport thick plates along their backs. They breath using a set of gill-like openings behind their cephalic region.

Breeding season for the Surinam Worms comes with the annual rains. The males are far smaller than the females (rarely exceeding two inches in length), and greatly outnumber them. As the females take little notice of their admirers, a number of males may fertilise the eggs they produce. The males then roll these eggs up the flanks of the females using their forelimbs, and embed them into the spongy tissue lining the abdomen. Their work done, the males then expire after the breeding season, leaving the females with their broods.

Like the long-extinct Surinam Toad of Earth (which the Worm is named after), the eggs are covered in a thin layer of skin, so that each egg is held within its own little capsule. With time, the eggs hatch, bearing larvae that feed off the regenerating tissue of their mothers' abdomens. After a gestation period, these larvae then pupate, and emerge as miniature versions of the adults. They then proceed to rasp away at the layer of skin with their mouthparts until they free themselves. Wriggling out of their mothers' skin, they then crawl away to grow and begin the cycle again.

It is for this spectacle - the sight of worms squirming to free themselves from their mother - that the Surinam Worm is regarded one of the most grotseque animals, not just on Setesh, but across much of the Empire. It has become a popular dare among some Setshian youths to step on the pregnant females, causing the young to burst out of the skin all at once. This nauseating spectacle often induces vomiting amongst those of a weak constitution, and is only repeated by the most foolhardy."

From the journals of Samon Finn, notable Vabmojan Marine Xenobiologist, during his travels through the Outer Colonies.