Hexadonopoda

## **Hexadonopoda frondis**

   like with all hexadonopods, this species sports a very simple anatomy with 6 legs that have narrow tubes running their length. these legs have the multipurpose of both climbing the often vertical surfaces they live on, as well as straws for collecting water and expelling waste. the feet of frondis have tiny hairs for gripping onto the sides of trees and a pointed boney extension of their exoskeleton excellent for stabbing into fruit, muddy earth, or even decaying bodies and using muscles to push down on their sternum to suck up the moisture through their legs. using a series of sphincters the moisture is kept in layered hollows in their body and in their legs where the water and nutrients are slowly absorbed, and what isn' t absorbed is released out the same way it came in. they' ve adapted this strategy in order to spend more time away from the soil and inhabit sunnier places like trees and rocks where they can photosynthesize more effectively. you will most often find them in large numbers living on fruit baring trees like the placirhombi and dentrospiralia. there they enjoy the fallen fruits, and can dart into the protective crevasses of the twisted trunks if they detect danger.

one drawback of their simplicity though is that they cannot break down the pulp of these fruits and so end up excreting allot of unused nutrients and sugars onto the surface of these trees which ends up supporting deposit feeders and mosses at the bottom of the food chain. while hexadonopods don' t have sexes, they do often have epigenetic variables that controls their reproduction strategy. if they are less stressed they will climb as high up as they can and shakes loose the spores they grow on the underside of their plate which are then taken with the wind. but if they are more stressed they will run off as far as they can go on the ground before finding another of their species which they will dance around with to release their spores and ensure their fertilization. most every year will see a mix of these behaviors but some years when conditions have been especially bad, there will be a near total diaspora from the tree of all its hexadonopod species.

## **Hexadonopoda hoploni**

Like with frondis, this too is found mostly on placirhombi and dentrospiralia trees, subsisting off the microbes, tiny polyspeculates, and rich leavings of the hexadonopoda frondis. they are able to do this with the aid of acid glands in their feet and a gut that is more specialized at extracting nutrients. while this species still retains some photosynthetic cells, they are rendered mostly ineffective under the translucent armored shell hoploni has evolved for defence from predators. that shell is also equipped with poison glands at the base of 6 thorns around the shell' s perimeter. the chemical these glads produce can irritate the skin and proboscises of larger animals and can be much more painful and smaller ones.

hoploni has a symbiotic relationship with the trees they live on by eating parasites and to detour animals from scratching away the tree' s outer shell. in exchange for this they in the tree s interior where they can find protection from predators as well as from bad even deadly for using its thorns make their home weather.

## **Hexadonopoda arachni**

Arachni are the most derived of all the hexadonopods. with wider feeding tubes, a much more advanced gut, and large acid glands situated both in and along the bottoms of the feet, they are able to externally digest small dispeculates and sidobosians and suck up their liquefied remains. they sport long legs that they can stretch to probe tight deep spaces in search of prey. while they lack key senses like sight and hearing, arachni have evolved a keen sense of touch and smell on their feet which makes this hunting strategy quite fruitful. additionally their feet have evolved a pair of toes and small boney spikes along the bottoms both for gripping prey and better grip in general to support their larger bodies on the surface of trees and rocks. when they find something they want to eat they pull it in underneath their body and use several feet to hold down and digest the animal over the course of many hours while that animal is still alive. another more advanced feature arachni has is that it is able to ingest food from separate orifices from where it' s excreted, with dedicated waste holes towards the back of the foot.

Though this is among the more mobile of the hexadonopods, you will often find them in, on, and around the placirhombi and dentrospiralia trees where there is such ample prey, and also because they can find refuge there for themselves so that they don' t become the prey of something larger. they have shells that have adapted to look like the tree' s surface, and they' ve lost the distinctive hexagonal shape of their ancestors to better blend in with the curves of the tree.

To reproduce they exclusively use the method where they go as far as they can and then find another hexadonopoda arachni, except that instead of dancing when they meet, they wrestle. this wrestling isn' t about dominance or trying to hurt the opponent, rather they' ve found it to be a more effective way to shake loose all the spores through rolling, kicking, and throwing each other around. and if that doesn' t work, they will use their toes to scrape the spores out from under each other' s shells.