"A splendid tripedalien bounded over a nearby hedge."
The Prismalope is a beautifully-colored, common, swift-moving, gregarious, omnivorous tripedalien from the plains (and sometimes the Equatorial Mountains) of Darwin IV that usually lives in sometimes omnipresent herds and often chases after smaller creatures. They were first thoroughly observed in 2358 during the First Darwinian Expedition.
After bounding after small prey and skidding to a halt, they pant hard through the eight vents on the sides of their massive, bony head. They can pace delicately, pinging slowly and flicking out their two grasping tongues in a parody of bewilderment. The pace quickens when they get closer to their target, pinging more rapidly.
One small prey they will often attempt to catch is the enigmatic flyer. However, the little flyers will camouflage themselves among young Butchertrees and their Prismalope pursuers will end up being drained of fluids by the adult butchertree.
A wide variety of Darwin IV's major predators, like arrowtongues and skewers, feed on the fast-breeding prismalope, which is found in great numbers throughout the grasslands of the planet. The butchertree is one of the few, however, that entraps the prismalope rather than running them down.