its body is roughly square with a spindly, folded leg attached to the middle of each side, and each corner flaring to a vertical mouth about as tall as the body is wide. its body is pale tan above with darker spots and streaks, almost black underneath; its legs are almost black except near the "knee", which is tan. The surface is actually uniformly dark, but densely covered with tiny hairs that are either tan or transparent on the top of the body and near the knee. Near the base of each leg is a simple eye on a short stalk.

it pulls food into its body with the aid of millions of microscopic cilia lining the inside of each mouth, which en masse can exert considerable force. The center of its body can stretch to several times its resting size to accommodate food, which is coated with digestive juices before being expelled out another mouth. Often it will pass the food back and forth between two opposing mouths a few times before "spitting" it out. It then leaves the food while the digestive juices begin to dissolve it, typically returning after a few hours to repeat the process.

it eats a wide variety of objects, primarily organic in origin but never living. (A carnivorous relative is known to exist, but fortunately not in our region. it can be distinguished by its larger size, red-tinged markings, and the protruding venom glands near the end of each leg.) it prefers small granular foods and objects whose decomposition is already well underway.

However, it will spit digestive juices if threatened. Before doing so, it raises and lowers its body by straightening and folding its legs several times in rapid succession, which produces a distinctive clicking sound. this could simply function as a warning, or it could help it aim (since its legs usually block the center of each eye's field of view), or the upward motion could help extend its range (dubious).

Two of it can mate by each raising itself on two legs, grasping or "hugging" its partner with the other two legs, and rubbing the undersides of their bodies together. Each secretes a substance from many tiny pores that is at first slick, then as it is smeared and mixed between them, becomes briefly tacky, then finally forms an expanding foam that pushes the two apart. Both then separate and seek protected spots to scrape the foam off. Within a day, the foam coalesces into 10-20 eggs. The eggs hatch independently anywhere from a day to a year later; the mechanisms to trigger or delay hatching are unknown.

it has been determined to have seven sexes, demonstrating subtle differences in markings and the shapes of its hairs. it seems to have two sex chromosomes each with two possible forms (say A and B, combining to AA, AB, BB), and "dominant" and "recessive" variants within each form (Aa, Ab, aB, Bb), where the combination of two recessive variants is not viable (never aa or bb). This theory also explains the observation that certain sexual pairings always produce about 3/4 as many offspring as the others.