Genophids

The parasite copies the DNA of the host, with modifications to add its own species traits. It then begins consuming the hosts body, and germinates an embryo inside its expanding mid-section. The embryo develops rapidly through the normal growth stages of the host organism, from baby to adult in 5 to 40 hours depending on the size of the host organism. The host remains alive throughout most of this process so that its memories can be copied, until it resembles a shrivelled husk. The matured Genophid hybrid breaks out of the hardened nymph body as a nearly complete copy of the original host, except that it has the mind and behaviours of the Genophid species, no matter what animal form it became. This mature hybrid will then seek out another hybrid of the same host species so that they can reproduce a new egg cluster to complete their lifecycle. Mature Genophid hybrids must periodically hunt and consume animals in order to remain alive.

Genophids prefer to target intelligent species, since that provides them the ideal body form to be able to move egg clusters to advantageous locations or to send them to other planets. But the nymphs dont live long without a host, so they often have to settle for whatever creature triggered their egg cluster to hatch, specially if they arrive on an uninhabited planet with few or no intelligent lifeforms around. When they copy intelligent species they can lure new intelligent hosts to unhatched egg clusters and can then quickly gather into large groups with the ability to completely destroy the hosts society, eliminating the possibility of any resistence.