Hexarak
Taxonomy
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Ancestors and Descendants
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Creator: Bufforpington
Habitat: West Gemstar Temperate Beach, West Gemstar-Skwidbox Tropical Beach
Size: 1-20 cm long (larva), 20-30 cm long (adult)
Diet: Paedophagic (Azild, Azuarrow) Carnivore (small Azild, small Azuarrow), Scavenger, Cannibal
Reproduction: Sexual, Eggs buried in shallow pits
The hexarak split from its ancestor. With competition for corpses between the azild and azuarrow growing more and more intense, some azuarrow larva were pushed into consuming smaller azild azuarrow larva. Over time, they became better equipped to kill living things. Their front tentacles have become stiffened, as the struts they contain have stiffened in two sections, acting like bones. These struts consist of hardened chitin, and are essentially bone. These larva also have struts in their tertiary set of tentacles, but they do not stiffen until adulthood. Like the azild, they possess olfactory sensors. However, these are contained in the fleshy 'spikes' on their back. These 'spikes' lack photosynthetic prokaryotes due to the adult form being neotenic. The adult form superficially resembles a six-legged spider- with the tertiary pair of tentacles fully 'ossified' and armed with claws. They breathe through their skin for all of their life, having lost their gill-containing water tubers. This limits their size greatly, and forces them to remain near the water They use their sense of smell to search for corpses. However, they rarely eat the corpse. Instead, they stand (or in the larva's case, sit) on top of it, waiting for an unfortunate azild or azurarrow larvae to shamble up to it. When this happens, the hexarak will ambush and kill their prey. They will also consume adults that are too small to pick up and eat them. However, there are cases in which they bump into a fully-grown azuarrow or azlid. This sometimes results in the hexarak being eaten. However, it has a defense. It has developed photoreceptors that detect light and shadow. If the shadow of a azurarrow or azlid tentacle passes over them, they will attempt to scuttle away. However, because of their poor eyesight, they will sometimes move closer to the adult- or worse- right into its tentacle. Hexaraks will mate at any opportunity. Because they are largely blind, females will attract males with the use of pheromones. Because the female and male can mate at close proximity, they are able to properly fertilize the female's eggs, which are laid in tide pools. When the 1-centimeter-long larva hatch, they will shamble out of the tide pool immediately in search of prey.