Hunter Matinaepod (matte e nay pod)

Hunter Matinaepods are a species of arthropod that has only been found on the Anunitum and Simmah Great Islands. They are one of the few arthropods that work as a group, but without a hive mind. There is no queen or lead. They can be prolific breeders. Occasionally debates will arise regarding Talithan meddling in their species. They are dangerous to Talithans and their populations have been slowly shifted towards the southern part of the island where no one lives.
The more common term for them is Hunter Pod. If there is a significant number of them, they are called a Hunter Swarm.
When matinaepods are fully formed adults they have a venom that they use to kill their prey, which are sometimes creatures three or four times their size. This venom will make humans fill ill if they are bit by one of these. A single bite rarely debilitates or kills anyone. However, the arthropods typically travel in groups of up to ten, and will attack a larger creature as a group. If a person is attacked by enough of them, it can cause death.
When matinaepods are fully formed adults they have a venom that they use to kill their prey, which are sometimes creatures three or four times their size. This venom will make humans ill if they are bit by one of these. A single bite rarely debilitates or kills anyone. However, the arthropods typically travel in groups of up to ten, and will attack a larger creature together as if they were a single entity. If a person is attacked by enough of them, it can cause death.
After a few of the early Talithans were killed by them, they started slowly removing the yellow creep that attracts them away from the City. This pushed the bugs further from the two Great Cities. It was a controversial move, especially in Simmah where the northern part of the great island was inhabitable for many species.
THe duties of creep removal fall under the Vocation of Preservation's animal control branch.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Hunter Matinaepods are pill shaped arthropods that look somewhat like a cross between a sea-living crustacean and an insect. They grow a thick exoskeleton like many of the arthropods on Talitha Harbor, but theirs grows almost as an extra shell on top of their bodies. They start out as a typical crustacean, its body grown into its exoskeleton. Then, as it develops through its life stages, it grows a second thinner exoskeleton underneath. The two never fully separate, but the matinaepods can move their outer exoskeleton and reveal the second body beneath.
The outer exoskeleton of a matinaepod is long, and pill shaped. They have several segments. Both the front and the rear of their bodies have what appear to be facial features, though one is a false face. As the matinaepod develops through its lifestages, both faces become false as its adult body develops.
They range from a golden-yellow color to bright green. Some green hunter pods have been seen with thick yellow bands around the center of their body. The green matinaepods seem to be more common, possibly because they blend in with their environment and it’s harder for their predators to find them.
When they have developed fully into an adult, their body under the pod shaped exoskeleton becomes slightly more narrow. As young pods they have eight pairs of legs and they are all short and made for running along the ground. As they transform, the front two legs become longer and turn into arms with sharp slicing edges. They also develop a longer appendage out of their head which they use to impale and eat their victims with. They can curl this up and hide it under their outer exoskeleton, making them look simply like larger versions of their younger self.
Though the second exoskeleton they develop is thinner than the original, it still makes them a heavier bug. They mostly stay on the ground, but they have been known to climb trees on rare occasions.

Ecology and Habitats

When humans first landed on the planet, the arthropods could be found in any area of the continent where shallow pools of water could collect. There is a prolific organism that looks like a yellow slime mold that several of the Talithan arthropods are attracted to. It is not a mold exactly since it is not a single cellular organism. Instead, it is almost like a land based coral reef, microscopic organisms creating a shell with which they can live. The soft shell-like structure is nutritious.
Most organisms, to include the matinaepods cannot digest the microscopic organisms, which more or less use the creatures as transport and will sometimes procreate inside of them.
The matinaepods have evolved a lifecycle around this organism, which is sometimes referred to as yellow creep. Though the more accurate name is yellow fuligo. They eat it in their earlier stages and then eat the other creatures drawn to it as adults. They will sometimes cannibalize their own species, but only if they are near starvation. Matinaepods can sense yellow fuligo from several meters away
Though it is more commonly found towards areas in the forest that collect shallow pools of water, it will also sometimes grow in tree knots or other large enough places for water to collect. Matinaepods will climb trees to get to those areas, sometimes with a disastrous outcome.
Due to the danger of the arthropod, Talithans will remove any signs of yellow creep within five kilometers of the City and its more heavily traveled nature venus. The creep doesn't seem to like altitude and is not found in the Mountains.

Biological Cycle

Matinaepods start out as eggs. The laden arthropod will travel away from the group before laying her eggs, to prevent other adults from cannibalizing them. They dig a shallow hole, lay their eggs, then cover it with whatever matter they can find on the ground.
Burning the eggs doesn’t really protect them from being found, their legs don’t dig that well. But, it at least protects them to some degree if other creatures walk them on. Talitha Harbor only has sea-life, crustaceans, insects, other bug-like creatures, and a few rare amphibian/reptile species. The seas have enormous animals, but on land there are few animals larger than the Giant Kunzite Fly. As a result, they have not developed a means to protect their eggs from heavy creatures. The Talithans stay to their carved out space most of the time and are not a large threat.
They hatch as larvae and burrow into the ground, making their way to the closest patch of yellow fuligo. When they find it, they will consume bacteria along the way. They are born with enough nutrients, as fat, that they can live several days without food if needed. Once they find fuligo they will consume their fill and then become a cocoon. Many of them are eaten at this stage, but a few will survive.
The next stage is their first as a fully formed, segmented, crustacean. They are only half an inch long then and could be anywhere on the pale yellow to bright green spectrum. More often than not they are yellow, which lets them blend in more with the fuligo. They will live amid the yellow creep during that period, consuming the life form around them. The fuligo reproduces fairly fast, and it’s rare that enough matinaepods will survive to cause major destruction to the creep.
When they are ready for another metamorphosis, they will curl up in a circle. It looks similar to the Earth potato bugs/isopods who curl up when they feel danger. Except, for the hunters, their body becomes goo and reforms. They do not become their full adult form after this stage. Instead, they are in-between stages.
They are partially carnivorous during this stage. They have the head and mouthparts for consuming other bugs, but they have not developed the venom that makes them a dangerous creature for both arthropods and humans alike. If they can not consume enough protein, they will eat the creep. They can stay in this stage for a couple of years if needed. The amount of bug protein that they consume is what triggers their last stage. If they can only find creep to eat, they won’t change. Though, if they don’t find any protein for too long, they will wither and die from malnutrition.
For their last stage, they will attempt to bury themselves in the ground before becoming another ball. This time their carapace may change. If they have had a good diet, they will become green or partially green. If their diet is poor, then they will stay more yellow.
Regardless of what color they are born as, once they reach their last stage they move away from the creep, though they will stay close by. They become ambush predators hiding among the leaves and ready to take down any creature that moves in their path. They will stay in groups. Typically, they don’t stay in groups larger than ten, but there have been rumors of unusually large groups of matinaepods. They were seen more often when the humans first landed on Talitha. Their banishment to the southern part of the island seems to have made those larger masses a rare sight.

A young matinaepod ready to go into metamorphosis.

Origin/Ancestry

Talitha Harbor

Geographic Distribution

• Great Island of Anunitum