Komters

The Komters are an ancient species found in many small city states around the Imperial Galaxy group. They exist primarily on system cometary bodies. Kommeter civilization is the oldest continuing in the Quasar Edge Cluster but despite their antiquity many isolated groups remain rather primitive, though a handful, such as the Ama`moits, have developed interstellar empires. Kommeter prevalence is especially strong in the Colt Cluster

Biology
The Komters have an alternating biochemistry that switches solvents between Methane and Aqua during a coma-like state, which occurs twice an orbital year, as the comet comes in and out of the stars inner system.

Physiology
Komters are around six inches tall (fifteen centimeters) with five large legs arranged like a pentagon, though the back leg is larger and splits near the bottom.

They have two eyestalks that must always be looking in the same direction, the eyestalks are located in between the two arms culminating in pinchers. These pinchers end in a pair of long bars with jagged edges, and a third appendage protrudes from the pincher with a central joint being able to reach whatever it is grasping. The Komters are very dark during the winter and turn very light during the summer, they also change chemistry from methane to water during the spring in a process called an "Heliomorph" or an "Anamorph", during the fall the reverse happens this is termed the "Comémorph" or a "Catamorph".

Nervous System
Komters have four external senses, their most powerful being taste-smell which is predominantly located in organs around the mandibles and pinchers. Komters also have a rather excellent sense of touch, as well as sensing vibrations in the earth which gives them a 2-D like radar capable of distinguishing two distinct objects up to a meter and a half away that are less than a centimeter apart. Komters have a rather poor sense of eyesight which largely disappears during the Comémorph. Finally they have a limited perception of Quasi-Gravitropism.

Communication:
Kometer Communication consists of tapping the ground steadily varying in rhythm, strength, and proximity between tapping points. This communication is only effective at short range, which interestingly enough leads to little variation in the meaning of words.

Reproductive Cycle
Several weeks after the procreation of two adult Komter, the female will lay a sequence of around thirty eggs in an isolated area, It takes a cycle of at least a forty years for a Komter egg to develop into the "Nymph" stage, this is largely due to the lack of energy available to Kometer ecosystems and habitats. Once they have fully grown into the Nymph form, they will remain that way until the next Heliomorph after which it will become an adult. Komter will keep on growing their whole life until their natural death which usually takes place after four or five orbits by their comet.