Bandersnatch (Known Space)

The Bandersnatchi are a fictional alien species. They appear in Larry Niven's Known Space universe.

Frumious bandersnatch are a herd animal. They are completely white, and resemble a very large slug with smooth, slick skin. From the front, a brontosaur like neck, with no head, extends about as high as the bandersnatch's body. The tip is thick and rounded, entirely featureless, other than two tufts of black bristles (sense organs). The large mouth at the bottom, above the belly foot, is almost invisible when closed. The large mouth is adapted to scooping the Bandersnatchi's food, a form of mutated yeast, out of the shallow ocean-like colonies that the yeast live in. Bandersnatchi are one big cell. They have one long, thick chromosome. Their nerves are similar in structures to that of a human but, have no cell body, no nuclei, nothing to separate them from other specialized protoplasm. The Bandersnatchi have 6 large hearts, each weighing about 11 pounds. They asexually reproduce by budding. The brain is large, shaped long and narrow, and is encased in a bone shell. The skull is one end of the jointless, flexible, very strong cage of bone. This keeps them from ever shifting position.

The Bandersnatchi, also known as Whitefoods during the Thrintun empire (~1.5 billion BCE) were origionally created by the Tnuctipun as a food source for the Thrintun. The Tnuctipun allowed the Thrintun to beleive that the Bandersnatchi possessed no intelligence, for they were resistant to the power (the telepathic mind control ability of the Thrintun, used to enslave other races). The Bandersnatchi were, in fact, sentient, and were used by the Tnuctipun to spy on the Thrintun until the slave revolution.

Bancersnatchi now live mainly on Jinx.