Venusian Rotifer

Venusian Rotifers are land-based creatures much larger in size than the Earth rotifers that they resemble.

Biology
They are spherical creatures protected by a grey armored shell or lorica, and covered with dozens of thick cilia which touch the ground as their bodies roll. They move through the humid jungles at great speed, stopping at regular intervals to wave their cilia and sense the environment around them. They are opportunistic scavengers, with a half-hidden mouth that gulps down anything it touches, for which reason they're also known as "Venusian buzzards" by settlers.

Appearances

 * "The Hothouse Planet", by Arthur K. Barnes (1937)
 * "The Dual World", by Arthur K. Barnes (1938)