Schniarfeurs are a fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

al, alien species

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...

 created by Pierre Christin

Pierre Christin

- Biography :Christin was born at Saint-Mandé in 1938.After graduating from the Sorbonne, Christin pursued graduate studies in political science at SciencesPo and became a professor of French literature at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. His first comics story, Le Rhum du Punch, illustrated...

 and Jean-Claude Mézières

Jean-Claude Mézières

Jean-Claude Mézières is a French comic strip artist and illustrator. Born and raised in Paris, he was introduced to drawing by his older brother and influenced by comics artists such as Hergé, Andre Franquin and Morris and later by Jijé and Jack Davis...

 in the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 series Valérian and Laureline.

Schniarfeurs are small, purple, vaguely humanoid creatures less than half a metre tall. Distinctive marks in their appearance are a protruding gland

Gland

A gland is an organ in an animal's body that synthesizes a substance for release of substances such as hormones or breast milk, often into the bloodstream or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface .- Types :...

 on top of their heads, black rings around their eyes, and a long, thin tail

Tail

The tail is the section at the rear end of an animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals, reptiles, and birds...

 ending in blue spheres.

In their native state, Schniarfeurs are extremely aggressive, venting their aggression at everyone and everything they see. They are especially fond of spitting their highly corrosive

Corrosion

Corrosion is the disintegration of an engineered material into its constituent atoms due to chemical reactions with its surroundings. In the most common use of the word, this means electrochemical oxidation of metals in reaction with an oxidant such as oxygen...

 saliva

Saliva

Saliva , referred to in various contexts as spit, spittle, drivel, drool, or slobber, is the watery substance produced in the mouths of humans and most other animals. Saliva is a component of oral fluid. In mammals, saliva is produced in and secreted from the three pairs of major salivary glands,...

 on the object of their aggression, accompanied by a descriptive "SCHNIARF" sound.

However, when a Schniarfeur's head gland is tied tightly into a spiral

Spiral

In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a central point, getting progressively farther away as it revolves around the point.-Spiral or helix:...

shape rather than hanging loose, its behaviour changes completely. Thus tamed, a Schniarfeur becomes friendly, intelligent, and highly loquacious. It also becomes affected to whoever tamed it. While tamed, a Schniarfeur is also incapable of spitting its corrosive saliva. If the gland is loosened, the Schniarfeur resumes its aggressive state.