Startrees

Order **Insidiis** (more commonly known as **"startrees"**) is a group of polyspeculates with four walking limbs, seven tentacles, and a row of eyes across the center of of the body. The family is a highly derived, yet somewhat ancient sun grazer lineage. Most startrees are carnivorous, though the exact diet varied by species. They also all still retain the ability to produce energy via photosynthesis.

Several families of startrees currently exist. They are the **Stellearthoids**, **Hydrostelloids**, and and **Stellaventoids**. Stellearthoids are the most basal startrees, and contain a hefty majority of the species, including the iconic forest, desert, and frosty varieties. Stellaventoids use gasses to their advantage, and have pioneered many intriguing strategies for survival. This group includes flying startrees, as well as the remarkable Bomb Startrees and Volcanic Startrees. Notably, these ones have developed chromataphores, so they have two layers of pigments, one for photosynthesis, and one for camouflage. Hydrostelloids are aquatic startrees, and include whale, coral, and giraffe startrees, among others. Startrees from this clade have been known to be fickle about their relationship with water.

   Regardless of the group they belong to, basal startrees have no bones, exoskeleton, or other hard parts for protection. Instead, they opted for soft, dexterous bodies that allow for freedom of movement, along with virtual immunity to crushing damage. There are exceptions to this rule, but generally they are small, dexterous, and boneless. This means that they can easily hide themselves in between rocks, which is helpful when they're hiding from their prey.
The various species are as follows:

## ***Terrestrial Startrees: Stellearthoids***

#### **(Stellaligno) Forest Startree:**

These are the most typical startrees you'll find. Forest startrees are easily recognized by the green pigmented bodies with violet tipped tentacles, and are the typical startree height of 2 feet tall. They are believed to be some of the most basal as well. Forest startrees live on Media Insula, in environments that are rich in polyspeculate life, and their general strategy for hunting is just about the standard for most startrees. This strategy is to hide themselves inside bushes or between rocks so that they look like flowers, and wait for either something to step on them, or try and eat them. When these conditions are met, the startree latches on to its new prey with its tentacles and delivers a powerful shock that either instantly kills the prey or paralyzes it. It then climbs on top of the prey and digests it externally via putting its stomach outside of its

"mouth", melting its meal, and lapping up the juices. Startlingly effective, this strategy has paved the way for more and more startree species to form outside of the territories it inhabits. Like other round tentacled startrees, they reproduce by bumping their shock pads with another startree. This causes an exchange of spores, which combine and are held inside of the body until they can be safely deposited in a safe location. The electricity exchanged between individuals also jumpstarts the growth process of the spores.

#### **(Stellafrigis) Frosty Startree:**

In the frigid climes of Terra-Septentrionis, there lives a species of startree that lead a more solitary life than most others. While generally startrees aren't considered social animals, they aren't territorial by any means. Frosty startrees choose to live by themselves, which reduces competition between individuals. These startrees have white bodies with ice green sections at the base of its tentacles and at the bottom of its feet, and are noticably larger than most other species, growing up to 4 feet in height. Some "freak" individuals that have been seen around more colorful polyspculates tend to go for a more festive appearance, opting for a vivid red instead of white, and a much deeper green. It's unknown if these are a different species or a subspecies, but scientists have names such individuals "Christmas Startrees" as a nod to the earth holiday. Two of the tentacles of this startree have been reduced, and are now only used for mating. In response, the other five tentacles have increased in stength and shock power, which allows them to grapple and dispatch creatures with much thicker hides. Frosty startrees employ the typical startree hunting strategy, partially burying themselves in the snow and waiting for something to step on them or try to eat them, then shocking and eating the prey.

#### **(Stellinfans) Little Startree:**

Perhaps the most adorable of the entire family, little startrees are omnivorous and (as the name suggests) tiny. They are roughly four inches tall, and have green bodies with yellow tipped tentacles and startlingly magenta toned eyes. They share a symbiotic relationship with rump-faced rock crawlers, setting up "cleaner stations" on helix fig trees. Rock crawlers go up to the trees and knock on them with their arms, which causes the startrees to descend and begin the cleaning process. this involves rigorously searching the rock crawler's body for parasites, shocking them, and eating them, then making their way back onto the tree. When the cleaning process is finished, the rock crawler leaves, and the little startrees go back to their typical business, which includes standing around and looking cute, eating berries off of the tree, and keeping the tree safe from sun grazers looking to get some sun from the top of the tree. While little startrees do have shock pads, their power output is much less than that of a typical startree, and thus are only able to take down prey items as big as or smaller than themselves.

#### **(Stellaviriditas) Desert Startree:**

Native to the deserts of Media Insula, this startree is one of the more aggressive ones. They indiscriminately attack both large and small targets, as their desert habitat is an unforgiving and cruel environment, so any food at all is somewhat scarce. Still, it's somewhat unnerving to see the corpse of a large herbivore covered in startrees. Prey items are often stripped entirely of their flesh and organs, leaving behind dried bones that fossilize more easily due to preservatives found in the stomach acid of the startree. They sport brownish skin and red tipped tentacles which contain a deadly neurotoxin that can kill even some of the largest dispeculates on Wallace II. It should be noted that a subspecies of desert startree has been observed nesting in bone trees near oasis biomes, where they have grown somewhat longer and more active. They instead actively hunt for prey, sneaking up on them from behind and pouncing before sinking their tentacles into them. This aesthetic and behavior is reminiscent of earth's snakes.

#### **(Stellacaverna) Cave Startree:**

Cave startrees are arguably some of the most unsettling of the startrees. Native to a select few caves on the continent of Tenebris, they reach about 3'6in height and are identified by their pale skin and purple tipped tentacles. Veins can be seen on their feet, which are stickier than other startrees'. Because of this, they can cling more easily to the ceilings of caves, where they spend the majority of their time. They possess incredibly sensitive touch receptors on their feet that allow them to detect creatures that are well below them, which is particularly helpful for them, because it means that they're more accurate when hunting. They hunt by waiting for a cave creature to pass underneath them, and then drop onto it. Usually, the fall alone is enough to kill its prey. However, if that fails, it can sting with its tentacles to finish them off. Cave startrees are very rare. They're threatened by scarcity of food resources, and their hunting strategy isn't the safest. Because of this, It's possible that they may go extinct unless their prey manages to increase in population.

#### **(Tenebris) Nighthunter Startree:**

Nighthunter startrees are noctornal pack hunting predators with an incredibly vicious disposition. They hunt in groups of about 6 or 7, and attack their prey with vigor. They are roughly 3 feet tall, have dull green bodies, and sharp tentacles with small orange bulbs on them. The bulbs serve a practical purpose, holding a powerful acid that can melt flesh on contact. When struck, the bulbs erupt, releasing the acid onto whatever was hit. The nighthunter startrees do have a slight aversion to sunlight, being unable to see in such bright conditions. Because of this, they hide in shady spots during the day to rest. Their ancestry is linked directly to cave startrees, with a theory that they are, in fact, a group of highly derived cave startrees that left their caves in order to find food. Not incredibly far fetched, given the cave startree's current situation.

#### **(Stelladraka) Wyrmwood Startree:**

These daring predators spend their lives inside of the fruit produced by oasis fallow trees, which are found in Media Insula's oasis biomes, and their niche makes them indispensable to the tree. They are roughly a foot in length, though most of that length is concentrated in their body rather than their tentacles for reasons stated later, and their bodies are a bright red, which is similar to the color of the oasis fallow tree fruit. How they obtain food is by hiding inside of an overripe fruit and waiting for something to disturb the tree. They then strike with their sharp, venomous tentacles, and begin the feed. If the prey is small enough, they can often just drag it back near their fruity hide and eat it there, which benefits them as it makes it easier to get back into its hide after its done eating. Their skin produces a chemical compound that keeps the fruit from rotting while they're living inside of it, but also makes the fruit smell rotten, which attracts the kind of prey that they would be able to eat easily. That prey is typically basal sun grazers, which often try to climb fallow trees in order to get better access to sunlight, though they do get access to insectoid dispeculates and various other small creatures.

#### **(Stellaborealis): Boreal Startree:**

The boreal startree is native to chilly temperate forests on Terra-Septentrionis, and is a lot like the iconic forest startree. Their coloration is more drab, however, with brown bodies and green tipped tentacles. Their eyes are hexagonal, which allows for sharper vision toward their peripherals. This means their vision is better than a lot of other startree species, and they don't suffer as much with blind spots. They use this extra vision to help boost their accuracy when attacking prey.

#### **(Murminsula): Insula Anteater:**

The Insula Anteater is, as its name suggests, from the humble continent of media insula and feeds exclusively off of the ant-like Dracoaranea. They're roughly a meter tall and have developed some startlingly effective adaptations for taking down their prey. Unlike most startree species, they have but one prehensile tentacle that they use for grasping. the others have been adapted solely as spines, growing thick, tough skin that contains a mildly potent paralytic venom used both as protection and to immobilize their prey. These creatures possess an internal stomach, which allows them to hold a very large amount of Dracoaranea at once for digestion. That said, Dracoaranea are specifically adapted for burrowing through plants. Because of this, how would the startree prevent their prey from attacking them from the inside? As eluded to before, they'd use the venom stored in the sharp spines. they grasp the Dracoaranea in their prehensile tentacle and skewer their quarry on the spines, which injects the venom and paralyzes the creature, allowing it to then pass the prey into the mouth opening located in the middle of the ring of spines, as is common to startrees. the prey is then digested, and any excess indigestible parts, such as the exoskeleton, are regurgitated later in a hard, black pellet. The insula anteater, while it has no claws for digging, does have sticky pads on its feet that allow it to climb virtually any surface. This is useful for climbing up the stalks of the bone trees that its food calls home.

## ***Aquatic Startrees: Hydrostelloids***

#### **(Stellapetra) Coral Startree:**

These startrees employ the typical hunting strategy for startrees, except underwater. They, like the desert variety, are also more indiscriminate in their attack patterns, going after prey both large and small. Their general identifiable features are their stone grey bodies with greenish, webbed tentacles, and sharp, grippy feet, used for holding onto rocks. They are perhaps more widespread than any other startree, as oceans take up a majority of the available space on Wallace, and they aren't as restricted by temperature as other varieties. Individuals have been seen as far as the poles, with the ones in colder areas being somewhat larger than the others.

#### **(Cetae) Whale Startree:**

Whale startrees are filter feeders, with small, prehensile hairs on their tentacles that they use to pass small organisms and plankton down into their mouths. Because of the abundance of such food items in the oceans of Wallace II, they grow to be quite large. This, however, also means that they don't move much. In comparison to other venomous startrees, their venom is much weaker. Due to this, they're sometimes hunted by large dispeculates, as they have no viable defense against them. Their large bodies are filled with sugars from photosynthesis, however, so these predators tend to dislike the sweet taste, and typically go for other prey items before targeting the startrees. Whale startrees, while less common than coral startrees, are just about as widespread, being found in all of the oceans of the world.

#### **(Cessabitamimus) Calm Startree:**

Calm startrees, as their name suggests, are almost motionless most of the time. They rarely move, and when they do, it's usually just because they're about to be stepped on or eaten. However, it's never to counterattack. Instead, they rush away in a burst of speed. Like whale startrees, calm startrees are filter feeders. Unlike whale startrees, however, they live on land, filtering the air of spores and tiny flying dispeculates. They typically hang from bone trees, which is aided by their small bodies. They have the sharp, hooked feet for clinging onto branches, and are completely green colored. Generally, they are shy and reclusive, and will run and hide at the closest sign of danger. During winter, however, they become much more aggressive. Coincidentally, this is also the time of the year when they produce a more potent toxin, which allows them to actively defend their young. Unlike most other startree species, the calm startree actually defends its young and chooses a place where they would be the safest. Because of this, they are quite common in the areas where they live. They seem reluctant to leave their forests in Media Insula, however. This species is notable for being endemic to only a few small forests. They appear to be closely related to whale startrees, but their terrestrial nature has caused questioning as to whether they can truly be considered hydrostelloids. Regardless, that's their current taxonomic position.

#### **(Stellasanguis) Leech Startree:**

Leech startrees are a semi aquatic, freshwater dwelling species of startree, choosing to live in swamps, ponds, creeks, and other freshwater environments on Media Insula. They feed off of only the blood of larger creatures, unlike most other startrees which eat the whole creature. They measure about 8 inches in length, have a brownish skin color, and an alternating set of sharp and rounded tentacles, which is rare among startrees. The rounded ones don't have shock pads at the ends, however, instead opting for sticky pads, which are also found at the bottom of their feet. They swim around endlessly, searching for prey. When they find their prey, they grab onto it using their feet. It then stabs its prey with the sharp tentacles, injecting its venom into the flesh. The venom is a mixture of anticoagulants and anesthetics, which allow the blood to be more easily consumed, and also for the host to not feel the pain of the startree drinking from it. The startree then grabs onto the creature with its rounded tentacles, moves its mouth to the wound, and drinks. When it gets its fill, it detaches and swims off to a place where it thinks it will be safe, and sleeps to digest its meal. A truly full leech startree displays the color of the blood it ate on the outside of its body. When a leech startree feels it isn't getting enough sustenance, it leaves its watery home in search of another watery home. Often, hundreds of leech startrees will decide to leave at the same time, so seeing a swamp covered in them, especially during the winter season, is quite common.

#### **(Pantheraqua) Giraffe Startree:**

Native to Media Insula, giraffe startrees are semi aquatic, stream dwelling startrees that are about 6 meters tall, and has several very derived features. Its tentacles have rasping claws used to grasp at foliage, long legs covered in thick armor, shock pads at the bottom of its feet, hourglass shaped eyes to see above and below it, and an internal stomach that has the ability to digest many polyspeculate fruits, leaves, and even bone bark. They live their entire lives walking, never stopping. Their rasping claws continually shovel food into its puckering mouth. If anything living brushes up against its feet, they get a hearty zap that is startling to larger creatures and deadly to smaller ones. Occasionally, they come across an obstacle, and they need to leave the comfort of their stream either to walk around the obstacle or find a new stream. This could be as simple as a fallen tree or as complex as a whole waterfall. It doesn't matter. They breathe through holes on the bottoms of their feet, and can hold water for roughly three hours before it runs out of usable oxygen. On land, the world is a scary place. They defend themselves with their hulking stature and huge armored legs, delivering heavy, electric kicks to anything that stands in the way of it and its stream. If they don't find a new stream fast enough, they dry out, leaving behind a hollow exoskeleton suitable for small creatures to live in. As juveniles, they look a lot like more basal startrees, and move about the stream by swimming. Their armor grows in at about 5 years of age, after which point they become too heavy to swim, and they start walking. In order to produce these offspring, they flood their stream with a torrent of spores produced by their breathing holes. While they do not have many natural predators, they serve little danger to the environments they live in, and since infant mortality rates among them are fairly high, they are exceedingly rare as a result.

## ***Gaseous Startrees: Stellaventoids***

####  **(Stellignis) Volcanic Startree:**

These startrees are endemic to island territories, being especially common on islands with active volcanoes. Volcanic startrees have redish bodies with short, fat, black tentacles, and are the tyical startree size. The reason for the odd tentacle shape is beacause of its hunting strategy, which differs from that of traditional startree bahavior. They hide themselves in between rocks or in a patch of volcanic foliage, and wait for a small creature to either step on them or fly direcly over them. Then, it produces a stream of pure oxygen from a lung-like bladder inside of its mouth, which it ignites by slapping together its tentacles to produce a spark. This roasts the prey, which makes it tender enough for the startree to take in and digest internally. It should be noted that while they're still startlingly good at their job, their shock pads lack the punch that other members of its genus deliver on, so they aren't nearly as effective at dealing with prey larger than them. Because of this, they are often picked off by creatures that other startrees would have no trouble killing and eating.

#### **(Stellavum) Sky Startree:**

Even high up in the air, there are startrees. These ones catch and eat small flying dispeculates, choosing their hides on or around balloon plants. Their body plans are flipped upside down, with their feet being on top and their tentacles underneath. The feet have a thin webbing in between them that allows them to fill the cavity between them with various gasses, which makes them lighter than air. They can rotate their bodies and shoot a stream of these gasses when they need a burst of speed to escape a predator, or when they need to fly to a new hide. The shock pads at the end of the tentacles are covered in fine hairs, which allows them to build up and store static electricity, as they can't produce as much of it as other startrees can. They are roughly half the size of a normal startree. Their niche as sky predators and the way that they hide and get around also makes them essential pollinators for sky plants such as ballon plants and boom balloons.

#### **(Bombus) Bee Startree:**

The bee startree is so named due to its stripes and general bahavior, which closely match that of the bumblebees commonly found on earth. Of course, their color is a harsh red shade instead of yellow, but the comparison is all the same. Their physical appearance, aside from color and size, closely matches that of the sky startree, and they also have the ability of flight. however, they rarely fly as high, preferring to hide in the small flowers of medow environments. While they don't form hives like bees, they are rather social, and tend to swarm for protection. Alone, their shocks aren't that strong, but in groups, they can take down creatures much larger than themselves. Still, their diet consists of small, insectoid dispeculates.

#### **(Stellabutio) Bomb Startree:**

Bomb startrees are rounded black startrees with stubby, flat tentacles and star shaped eyes. They have mostly black bodies with red feet and eyes, which are notably the shape of a four pointed star. Bomb startrees are herbivorous and subsist on starchy roots, which they dig for using their bulky feet. Their flat tentacles are held together tightly to form a seal in which gas is held at a high pressure. Because of this, their mouths are positioned on the bottom of their bodies, in between their feet. When threatened, they rub electric hairs on the inside of their tentacles together, which causes an explosion that sends them rocketing away from the now disoriented predator. This launch trajectory can be controlled by opening the point where all of the tentacles meet, and aiming it in the desired direction. They can be launched quite far, as much as 12 meters away. Their skin is remarkably thick, and this coupled with their lack of bones allows them to be immensely blast resistant.

#### **(Stellanguis) Skysnake:**

A vibrant green spotted, long startree with yellow spots. It has a potent venom and the ability to fly. At first that may seem scary, but they aren't exactly effective predators. They live in the cracks and crevasses of other flying organisms, and eat smaller organisms when presented with the opportunity, but their aim is pretty bad. Often one will see a skysnake launch itself out of a crevasse and completely miss its target, only to float right past it and get stuck floating in the sky until it collides with another floating organism. They aren't great fliers, and can't control the direction they move in, but they do get plenty of time in the sun. Because of this, they probably have the most potent photosynthetic capabilities of all startrees. Truly remarkable.