Telfi

The Telfi were a sentient species from the planet Telf. Their physiological classification was VTXM.

They were a group-mind species whose small beetle-like bodies lived by the direct conversion of various combinations and intensities of hard radiation. Individually, their intelligence was very limited, but when they joined together to form what was called a "gestalt", the resulting entities were highly intelligent. The Telfi operated in these groups, ranging from families to starship crews, as contact telepaths to pool their mental and physical abilities.

The Telfi had a spoken language as well as the telepathic faculty used between individuals, especially members of a family gestalt.

There was a fallacy among non-medics that the Telfi could not be closely approached or touched by other life forms. To live, they had to absorb the radiation normally provided by their natural environment, but when, for clinical reasons, the radiation was withdrawn for several days and they were weak from their equivalent of hunger, their radioactive emissions dropped to harmless levels.