Tinea

Overview

The Tinea (the word functions as both singular and plural) are a sentient insect species who can be found on several worlds of the Emissariate of Bolusca. They are highly intelligent and peace-loving sentients in their larval form.

The Tinea homeworld was devastated in a biological catastrophe many centuries ago, and is currently uninhabitable. The species is now nomadic, and wanders the inhabited worlds of the Emissariate, sometimes settling on one world for many cycles before moving on. There are dozens of such migratory communities, numbering anything from few dozen to a few thousand individuals. Where they settle on an inhabited world, they become productive members of society, though they never fully integrate, preferring to stay within their own groups. Wherever they settle, they are legally regarded as citizens of the Emissariate with full sentient rights applying to them.

Most Tinea learn to understand the standard Boluscan language, but they are physically unable to articulate the sounds needed to speak it, so they use translators to communicate.

Tinea are usually employed in scientific roles, where they particularly excel in biological reseach.

Morphology & Biology

In their larval form, the Tinea resemble caterpillars, having a segmented torso approximately two metres long and 50–60cm in diameter. Each of the many torso segments has two short legs, giving them usually between 10 and 20 pairs, that end in a mat of fine hairs. These hairs are naturally adhesive, and can be used to cling to surfaces (even vertical surfaces) when walking, or to hold items when functioning as hands. Although their normal stance is horizontal, the Tinea can raise the front third of their body from the ground, which they do when needing to carry items, or when conversing with bipeds.

Tinea are oxygen breathers and herbivores, and prefer environments that are close to those also suited to Boluscan life.

A Tinea larvae hatches from an egg, and has a lifespan of 20–30 cycles. They are approximately 50cm long when they hatch, but grow rapidly to physical and mental maturity at around 3 cycles old.

At the end of its natural lifespan, a larva will form a cocoon of natural tissue. It spends around 10 standard days in this cocoon, during which its entire body disintegrates into amino acids which then regrow an entirely new form, the winged Tinea, which claws its way out of the cocoon. In a single Tinea colony, every individual will undergo this metamorphosis simultaneously, though Boluscan scientists are unsure what triggers the activity.

The winged Tinea lives for only one or two days, and exists for one purpose only: to reproduce and lay the eggs that will hatch a new generation of Tinea in a few days. Unlike their larval stage, winged Tinea have no higher intelligence, they are mindless creatures of pure instinct. They are voraciously omniverous and thoughtlessly destructive, and highly dangerous to all other lifeforms. Some groups within the Emissariate call for their extermination as dangerous pests, but as that would obviously also mean the extermination of the larval form, they are legally protected as if sentient themselves.

Tinea seem to be aware of when their group transformation is imminent, and they isolate themselves from other sentients as the time approaches. In the few cases when they have been unable to isolate, the results have not been good.