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| - The Wirrn were roughly human-sized, though with an anatomy more like an Earth-based insect. Their heads were made of two large golden eyes, long, floppy antennae, and three small mandibles. Underneath the head were larger mandibles which they used to talk. They communicated by squeaking, though Noah was able to speak human languages. The head was attached to a long thorax which had six long arms attached to it. Though thin, these arms were as strong as a human's and could be used for similar tasks. Underneath the thorax was a long abdomen. They could recycle carbon dioxide back into oxygen. The Fourth Doctor believed this was almost certainly done using enzymes.
- A remarkable species in many ways, Wirrns are able to survive and travel in the vacuum of space for several years in their adult stage. Their lungs possess a complex enzymatic apparatus which allows them to fully recycle wastes, much like a plant uses carbon dioxide to repose the oxygen it consumes and vice-versa. Thermodynamically, such a system cannot go on forever, and accordingly, every few years or decades the Wirrn swarms must land on a planet to renew their food and oxygen. They also need to be on a planet for the early stages of their life cycle.
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| abstract
| - A remarkable species in many ways, Wirrns are able to survive and travel in the vacuum of space for several years in their adult stage. Their lungs possess a complex enzymatic apparatus which allows them to fully recycle wastes, much like a plant uses carbon dioxide to repose the oxygen it consumes and vice-versa. Thermodynamically, such a system cannot go on forever, and accordingly, every few years or decades the Wirrn swarms must land on a planet to renew their food and oxygen. They also need to be on a planet for the early stages of their life cycle. They are a hive species, the Wirrn queen having to infect a host with an endo-parasitoidic larva, much like some species of Earth wasps or a little like Xenomorphs. Normally, the chosen host will be a non-sapient herbivore from their homeworld. The Wirrn larva consume the host from inside out, absorbing the host's tissues until transforming it into a large green maggot-like lifeform; which them undergoes a brief pupal stage to emerge as an adult Wirrn. The maggot-like larvae also appear to be able to infect new hosts directly. Another remarkable feature is their ability to inherit racial memories both from their Wirrn ancestors and from their larval hosts. Thus, if the chosen host is of a sapient species, the Wirrns formed will inherit all of its knowledge; although apparently only a few of its emotional memories. Adult Wirrns are highly resistant to most kinds of weapons, but can be easily killed by a strong electric discharge. Like the Alpha Centaurans, the Wirrns have six limbs protruding from the thorax but usually do not use any of them for locomotion; instead rising on their strong abdomen. This is not the case in space, however, showing that their spidery limbs would probably be useless for supporting their weight under Earth-like gravity.
- The Wirrn were roughly human-sized, though with an anatomy more like an Earth-based insect. Their heads were made of two large golden eyes, long, floppy antennae, and three small mandibles. Underneath the head were larger mandibles which they used to talk. They communicated by squeaking, though Noah was able to speak human languages. The head was attached to a long thorax which had six long arms attached to it. Though thin, these arms were as strong as a human's and could be used for similar tasks. Underneath the thorax was a long abdomen. They could recycle carbon dioxide back into oxygen. The Fourth Doctor believed this was almost certainly done using enzymes. Wirrn lived in space for most of their life and thus they could reuse their waste products with special enzymes, allowing them to survive without fresh air for years. They would only occasionally land on planets to gather air or food or to breed. The Wirrn were a very tough species, able to survive in a wide variety of environments, energy blasts, and apparently diamond-tipped blades. (PROSE: Placebo Effect) The Wirrn's most important weakness was their vulnerability to electricity. (TV: The Ark in Space)
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