Reduced to little more than a secondary skin or "husk," the hippo-sized hominid puppet of the Cestoid performs all metabolic functions while the massive parasitic worm controls locomotion and engages prey. Cestoid typically reproduce by mating a male husk with a female, producing a litter of "pups" individually injected with worm larvae. In the absence of a suitable mate, however, the worm may inject a single larva into a healthy Homo sapiens of compatible sex. As the larva matures, the host slowly molts and deforms into a crude new husk, only dimly aware of its former life.