Sandtrout
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Sandtrout are fictional creatures from Frank Herbert's Dune series. They are described as resembling large freshwater leeches, amorphous blobs or slugs.
They are the premature (larval) form of a Sandworm, and if squeezed they excrete an extremely potent form of Spice which gives one an incredible energy boost. Also, children in Fremen sietches attach them to sticks and play games with them to entertain themselves.
Sandtrout have the ability to transform a whole Earth-like planet into desert by encapsulating large bodies of water allowing the Sandworm to survive, since Sandworms cannot survive in a water-logged environment.
Sandtrout were also used by Leto Atreides II to turn himself into a giant Sandworm. He managed to live through the metamorphosis because his blood is spice-concentrated and this led the sandtrout into thinking it was water. They first formed a glove over his hand, and the next ones linked to it by their cilia until most of his body was covered.
Later, Sandworms could only sense the sandtrout covering his body and not him, so the Sandworms drew back to ensure they do not eat their own kind. Gradually, they transformed his body until his metabolism and biochemistry were a hybrid of human and Sandworm. However, he also modified the trout in the process, making the resulting sandtrout tougher and more adaptable, allowing them to be settled on other worlds, as part of his presciently-forseen Golden Path. Thus he ensured the survival of the Sandworm species.
