| Spinster | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 A dawn spinster, the holotype for the group | |||
| General Information | |||
| Universe | Kyklos Mythos | ||
| Species Type | Dryptoscelidan | ||
| Homeworld | Vuunega | ||
| Environment | Arboreal lifestyle in the catapult forests of Zeeon | ||
| Intelligence | Non-sapient | ||
| Biochemistry | Carbon-based lifeform | ||
| Discovered | Prehistory | ||
| Biological Information | |||
| Reproduction | Sexual; lays eggs into hardened ootheca | ||
| Locomotion | Four legs | ||
| Feeding Behavior | Liquivorous | ||
| Prey | Neopatra, Neomwa, Screek; sometimes other aerial species | ||
| Distinctive Features | Abdomen mark resembling an infinity sign | ||
| Eye Color | Black or red | ||
| Skin Color | Black | ||
| Lineage Information | |||
| Ancestor(s) | Terror Vorm | ||
| Related Species | Spinnister, Spintle | ||
| Cultural Information | |||
| Alignment | True Neutral | ||
| Personality | Nocteyes: Quiet or silent, patient Onieyes: Loud, patient | ||
| Organization | Solitary | ||
| Language(s) | Occasional light chittering | ||
| Sociocultral characteristics | |||
| Members | None | ||
| Scientific Taxonomy | |||
| Planet | Vuunega | ||
| Domain | Monocentralis (Single-nucleus complex organisms) | ||
| Kingdom | Neomalia (Aurosian Eon's Fauna Life) | ||
| Superphylum | Lineasfairó̱ "Thread of Spheres" (Spherevorms and their descendants) | ||
| Phylum | Unspecified (Arthropoids) | ||
| Class | Dryptoscelida "Wounding Leg" (Dryptoscelidans) | ||
| Order | Telamárchontasiformes "Web Sire Forms" (Weblords) | ||
| Superfamily | Arborphalangeoidea "Tree Fingers" (Treesprawlers) | ||
| Family | Zeeonphalangeidae "Zeeon Fingers" (Zeeonese Treesprawlers) | ||
| Other Information | |||
| Status | Least Concern | ||
| Creator | Somarinoa | ||
| First Sighting | Prehistory | ||
| “Spinsters inhabit the Catapult Forest of Zeeon, primarily along its border with the Deep Mangrove. They spin webs to catch Neomwa and Screek at night, and are a curiosity to the neighboring Aurix.” |
| —Vacotor Database, Terran translation |
Spinsters reside along the southern coastline of Zeeon, and can be found within the Catapult forests as well as the trees that border the edge of the Deep Mangrove. As this is where the Aurix thrived during their early years of sapience, the Aurix took a particular interest in the species. Arboreal creatures, Spinsters weave webs using three adapted legs (two for extracting their silk and one for placing it onto a location) between two trees in order to catch their nightly prey, which mostly consists of Screeks and Neomwa, both of which are known for feeding on the local Aurix population.
Of the Dryptoscelidan lineages, they are most closely related to Striders, which are descendants of Spinsters who moved away from their tree environments. They are next most related to Weblords, the two groups having had a common ancestor; and are more distantly related to Trapmasters, which split from Weblords at a later point in history.
Physiology[]
Being descended from Terror Vorms and their ilk, Spinisters belong to the planet's arthropoids. Their segmented bodies are spheroid, though in Dryptoscelidans these segments have reduced to only two and have become compressed together to appear as one single segment. This gives them the appearance of having four legs extending out of the same segment, though each segment in Vuunegan arthropoids only allows for a single pair of legs. The first segment contains the forelegs and the face, including the four eyes and mouth parts. The rear segment contains the hindlegs, the spinnerets, and the wounding leg, which hangs over the body and is a Dryptoscelidan's main weapon.
Two subfamiles of Spinsters are known to exist: Nocteyes and Onieyes. Nocteyes are the more ancient of the two. They are distinguished by their black-colored eyes. They are typically nocturnal by nature and some species have greatly enlarged eyes to better see in the dark; they also are quieter than Onieyes and chitter less often. Their legs are often shorter and thus do not allow them to traverse between more widely-spaced trees though some species are experts at allowing their gossamer strands to catch a breeze and reach other trees to make their web building easier; others will actively crawl down from their nests at night and walk their silk over to another tree instead. Onieyes are a more recent split from the family, and are distinguished instead by their deep red eyes. They are generally more crepuscular in activity over their nocturnal cousins, being active more during dawn and dusk than at night. Their legs are usually widely-spaced and allow them to more easily travel between trees without coming down from their nesting spots and in some species are hairy or even spiny. They chitter loudly at both dawn and dusk and in some biomes may even outweigh the calls of the bird-equivalents in that particular area. Nocteyes tend to only use their wounding legs to kill their prey, with low levels of paralyzing toxins to help keep them from struggling too much. Onieyes on the other hand utilize their toxins to coat their webs to paralyze their prey that way.
Background history[]
When the Aurix reached sapience and discovered neogenetics, they took the DNA of the Spinsters and combined it with their own DNA, producing the Brachixan.
A tanleg onieyes.