Spina Superconductrix Scarabaeus

Like any insect, the spinal beetle as it is generally called, has a head, thorax, and abdomen. Wings are attached and usually folded within the carapace of the abdomen, and able to open them up when needing to fly. A large pair of mandibles extend from its mouth. Having no internal lungs it breathes through modified holes running the length of it's body. A pair of antenna jut out from the top of it's head.

It has six legs with usually four on it's thorax and two on it's abdomen. The carapace is tough quite dark with light brown highlights. It's not sooth and can be quite bumpy. The head is the smallest part, with thorax slightly larger, and the abdomen being largest with the majority of it's digestive tract. A small set of pincers are found at the end of the legs and the end of the abdomen.

Two sets of strange mouthpieces are found above & below the mouth. These seem to be used when in the host and joins to the spine.

The adult beetle can breed during early springtime and there's no real distinction between the sexes, though the male generally has slightly larger mandibles.

They reach sexual maturity after one year, and those that have found a host will leave the host body and seek out a potential mate. The longer lived beetles usually mate being dominant, and the ones that have lived in a host for longer get preference over all others. Pheromones are given off by the dominant females in a region of about 3 miles drifting on the warm winds of it's habitats.

Usually only three to five eggs are laid and are covered in a protective layer of highly sticky hydrophobic slime on them. This acts as a glue that traps the eggs just before the water line, and contains disgusting poisonous proteins that kills of fungi & moulds while putting of predators.

The beetle breeds on the edge of water sources, where it's young in maggot form that quickly forms a protective carapace before it feeds on other small arthropods, and annelids living there.

After a few days at this stage, the beetle will wander off growing and shedding the now redundant carapace, splitting out of it and growing a new larger carapace. It gets a set of wings after 3 months after it hunts down and kills off a number of other arthropods & annelids giving the beetle the strength to be able to go further afield, while moulting into much more powerful carapace.

A further three months of this, the beetle is strong enough to fly and find a host to enter. The first chance it finds a healthy host, it will wait near them before entering the host through the back of the neck and using it's pincers to grasp the spine while the mandibles & mouthpieces clamp onto the spine forming structures to grow neurones into the spine. These are able to be cut off to allow the beetle to leave and breed when necessary. It also pumps out hormones & pheromones to stop other beetles from entering the host.

Found initially around the waterways and freshwater bodies in desert or desert-like regions in north east Africa & the Arabian Peninsula. It prefers watery conditions and later the bodies of intelligent sentient species to inhabit.

Initially needing to eat on arthropods and annelids, the beetle grows to a large enough size & strength it can hunt down a host. Then, when entered into a host, it absorbs nutrients from the host. It releases hormones & pheromones that protects the host from other beetles and other parasites.

The beetle starts as maggot-like larvae, in bunches of 3 to 5. Then when it reaches the right size after a few days to weeks it feeds and then takes it's beetle form. Then bulking up and lying in wait until a potential sapient host comes near the water it lives beside, and flies.

Releasing a numbing agent it burrows into the neck of the host, it clamps onto the spine of the host. There it grows detachable nerves into the spinal cord, and releases hormones & pheromones into the body. This protects the host and boosts it's intelligence and making it almost completely immune to disease and parasites, as well as boosting the toughness of the host.

There it can survive for years up to about 2 decades. It only leaves to breed and then crawl into an overgrown area to die and rot.

The beetle is driven by a need to find a host, and to build up it's reserves before venturing out to do so. Having a small spark of intelligence and patience, it will wait long enough to allow it to find one.

It quickly waits till some sapient creature comes near enough to allow it to fly to the potential host. There, it strikes fast releasing painkilling agents to allow it to enter. There it will boost the intelligence, nervous system and constitution of it's host while being protected with the host body.

The beetles generally avoid each other unless in a host where they will act friendly towards each other. In many cases they will hunt out others of their kind to make a network of hosts so the beetles can easily find others to breed with. Other from that, they will generally keep their distance, and avoid giving away what they are.

It can be used to boost the immune system, healing and the overall intelligence of the host.

A few local settlements & nomads in the Arabian Peninsula and north east Africa regularly hunts out the beetle to use it for this ability. They will try to keep it in a wet finely weaved cage made out of organic material, checking it regularly to make sure the beetle doesn't burrow it's way out. These are trades amongst other settlements and sold to nobility & and those who can afford it.

The beetle prefers wet areas surrounded by hot desert & desert-like conditions.

The beetle has a set of eyes that may be crude but effective for spotting light & darkness, along with movement. It's antenna seems to be able to pick up pheromones, both of it's own species, and intelligent species it seeks out. It has the full set of nerves allowing it to pick up heat, cold, pressure, hunger and the like.

The Spina Superconductrix Scarabaeus is indeed a rare symbiotic organism. Exactly how they can about is unknown, though stories told by Djinn in the Empty Quarter of Arabia mention that the first of these beetles can from the missing city of Lost Iram. They tell that certain members of the elite within the city was turned into the first beetles during the city's fall.

Meant to have been a curse upon laid upon them by Allah for not passing on knowledge and being "as weak as water, and will now pass on this knowledge forevermore ."

Now spread across the whole region and into Egypt, it has been mentioned by a handful of local scholars that these beetles may be the source of scarab iconography in Ancient Egypt. Whether this is true is yet be proven, the Nile itself is a known source for Spina Superconductrix Scarabaeus.