Manticore used Gossamers to track down targets by scent. Some of them were bred for retrieval, so they would simply disable the subject and wait for the handlers to come pick him up. Others were bred for elimination. Both kinds of Gossamer shot goo from their mouth which disabled the target. Gossamer was a herbivore who "only kills for sport."

Manticore had trained the Gossamer to track down enemy soldiers by tracking keveral (which is a material used in weapon casings and body-armour plating). The Gossamer was gooing individuals who smelt of keveral, which was used by their dentist. It also cost Max and Logan their one chance to have sex because they had to waste away their twelve virus-free hours hunting it down and getting trapped by goo.

Joshua showed up, and freed Max, Logan and Alec. Max fought the Gossamer and won. The people who had been gooed earlier were all freed, and Gordie, who owned the junkyard where they had all been held captive decided to keep the Gossamer as a pet/guard animal. Alec told Gordie that the Gossamer was a "Tasmanian ant-eating aardvark. . . an 'antvark,' as we in the trade like to call them" and the situation was pretty much left like that.

The Gossamer appeared in Borrowed Time.