ID another short SF story

Cafe Society
1

Why is it only short SF stories we forget?

I think but I’m not too sure that it’s something written by Isaac Asimov or Arthur C Clarke, but as ever my Google-fu is weak.

The plot is about humans landing on a planet where a previous expedition found a force of some sort governed life on the planet. There are no carnivores IIRC, just a balance of plants and herbivores. Animals brought by the first expedition and then female crew members fall pregnant.

The conclusion of the story has the second expedition returning home, with a stowaway creature from the planet intending to infiltrate Earth and convert it. It mimics a section of electrical cabling and is vaporised when the door to the ship opens

2

Asimov’s “Green Patches” (aka “Misbegotten Missionary”).

3

Thanks, that’s the one.

The article mentions the story’s similarities with “Who Goes There?”, funnily enough it was a workmate who reminded me of it with a story based on Carpenter’s “The Thing”.