Asteroid Mantis

An asteroid mantis is a large, ambulatory colony of lichen which has adapted to life on asteroids and low-gravity dwarf planets. An asteroid mantis has the ability to move between space rocks via jumps and the expulsion of combustible biochemicals out of a sort of biological rocket thruster. Asteroid mantises are considered a serious invasive species in the Sealed Kingdoms due to their ability to survive in extreme environments and aggression towards any non-mantises in their immediate vicinity - including hapless asteroid miners and colonists who might stumble across them.

Basic Information

Anatomy

From a distance, an asteroid mantis looks something like an oversized praying mantis. The creature's carapace can take a green, brown, or blue tint in response to the spectral class of the local star, and the coloration of a colony of asteroid mantises can provide some clues as to the colony's system of origin. This carapace is comprised of folded, sandwiched layers up to two inches thick of what were once independent algae and fungus colonies.

Genetics and Reproduction

Asteroid mantises typically reproduce by releasing golfball-sized spores into the surrounding space, each of which then rides the solar winds to reach an adjacent asteroid or dwarf planet where it can germinate into a new asteroid mantis. Spore production only occurs when sufficient resources are present.
Asteroid mantises can participate in sexual reproduction after a fashion by consuming small cast-offs from other individuals, sharing genes and allowing for gene recombination; otherwise, all spores are clones of the parent. The broken off limbs of an individual may also themselves grow into a complete clone of the original host, making destroying an asteroid mantis with kinetic weapons a wasted effort.

Ecology and Habitats

Asteroid mantises are extremophiles, living almost their entire lives on otherwise barren asteroids and dwarf planets when not floating through the void in search of new substrates. They are found throughout the Sealed Kingdoms regions despite consistent efforts to eradicate them as invasive species. Hard vacuum and all but the most intense heat and radiation have no effect on asteroid mantises. Mantises are even sometimes found lying dormant in interstellar space, their spores and young cast out of star systems by stellar wind and close transits with celestial bodies, presenting an occasional hazard for interstellar navigation.

Dietary Needs and Habits

The limbs and trunk of an asteroid mantis are broad and flat, resembling the leaves of a deciduous plant; unlike terrestrial mantises, however, this adaptation is less about camouflage than about capturing as much sunlight as possible in the cold, dark outer reaches of an infested system. While an asteroid mantis is happy enough subsisting on sunlight and water drawn from an asteroid's surface, a significant amount of chemical energy is needed to grow and, ultimately, to create spores. During lean times, asteroid mantises instead launch themselves prograde relative to the motion of their asteroid homes in the hopes of getting more sunlight closer in to the host star or finding a more nutritious asteroid to chew on. It is also this drive to get raw materials for spore production that drives asteroid mantises to hunt live prey when able.
Besides vesicles for storing water, a different type of vesicles for storing propellant, and a simple, distributed nervous system, asteroid mantises possess no other internal organs. Instead, the core of the creature is mostly hollow, allowing any nutrient-rich morsels - including certain types of asteroid rock and incautious explorers alike - to be crammed into the hollow for digestion over months or even years. A rudimentary visual system keyed to wavelenghts not found in other asteroid mantises' hides allows the creature to detect and chase after warm, moving prey. Those unfortunate enough to be caught by an asteroid mantis are pounced upon, bludgeoned to death or impaled with meaty, clawed limbs, and packed into the creature's crushing interior cavity for masuration and absorbtion.

Lifespan

Asteroid mantises are not believed to die of old age.

Average Weight

40-250 lbs

Average Length

5-15' limb span