[Ecology]
Taxonomy
The Vol Wurms belong to the rare super class of the Megacanthodrilidae, becoming the largest specimen known in the galaxy in the order of the Hyper-opisthopora.
Anatomy
Vol Wurms are giant invertebrates with a cylindrical tube-like, and segmented, body without limbs.
While they lack an internal skeleton, their external segments provide high protection, working as a sort of external carapace of chitinous rings. These rings contain natural iron concentrations, capable of protecting them from the high gravity pressures and from the high temperatures when these worms rise to the surface from their deep tunnels.
Their long bodies can reach sizes of more than 530 feet in lenght and above 30 tons in weight.
This gruesome worm has multiple rings of teeth in a single mouth cavity that can work as a secondary external stomach, supporting its long digestive process, which can take long weeks before being completed.
Vol Wurms are said to be asexual or hermaphrodites (each specimen carries both male and female sex organs in their segments).
Vol Wurms inhabit the depths beneath the Yomi surface, constructing permanent deep vertical burrows that they use to rise to the surface to hunt their prey for food.
It's been reported that their trophic chain may include even their own progeny when no other food is available. This is the most dangerous of the few species capable of surviving in the Yomi Reefs’ environments, becoming the alpha predator in the food chain of that ecosystem.
(By GJ - 685605)
