Darwin IV insects

Okay, so this is a -little- late -_-' but I've only just had access to internet + scanner.
Hopefully I will be able to participate in the next contest.


1) Inflated back sac. uses an array of 8 small siphons to puff its way through Darwin's dense air. It is a parasite of larger creatures.

2) Accentuating the notion that these aeroplankton creatures are born pregnant, this microflyer has a distended abdomen, swelling with eggs. It feeds on smaller flyers with the two large nostrils on its head.

3) Another larger flyer/insecty thing that spends all its time in the air. It has an anterior grille with which it sifts through aeroplankton swarms. It has small wings resembling those of Pandora's Banshees.

4) Another bloated microflyer, this one has 3 fins on its back/sides with which is swims through the thick atmosphere. Its large lateral nostrils are divided into slits.

5) Slightly fish-like, but otherwise uninteresting. It has 4 small bio-lights on its wings.

6) Not much to say, It's a small, free-floating thing.

7) Heavily pregnant, this hypodermic-proboscis bearing flyer glides awkwardly through the air on 4 pairs of undulating wing-flaps

8) Another banshee-winged microflyer,, this one has two nice tails trailing behind it.

9) Nothing special, just pregnant.

10) I like this one, (it's facing right) it has 6 fleshy, hydraulic legs and a papillae-tipped proboscis.

11) 7 legged, blade-headed insect with 2 float bladders, each terminated by densely-feathered antennae. Flapping these, combined with the float bladders send the creature up, safely away from predators in a slow, graceful arc before landing softly many meters away.

12) This one has 4 stilty legs which double as fins. With these it can make short bursts of flight.

13) Another front-grilled microflyer. It has a smooth, waxy back cuticle and the trailing edges of its wings are serrated. Trailing below it, separate to the rest of the body, is its gut sac, which acts like a net. when the net is full, it contracts and the food is digested.

14) Encased in a thick and rigid cuticle, this microflyer swims through the air with 4 leathery wing-flaps.

15) A 12-legged bug thing. Its mouth is vertically hinged and runs along the entire underside of the body.

16) A caterpillar-like insect that lives on plaque-bark trees, it has a hollow proboscis to feed on the sap.

17) A black, shiny Darwin insect, It has long red papillae on its head and body. To move, it rocks/stands on two blades and a middle foot that it walks with.

18) This one is mentioned in the book (I forget what they're called), they carry little pieces of striped grass like ants. They have 8 legs, powerful mandibles and curved backs and dorsal appendages to carry things back to the nest. They are white/transparent and have 4 blue bio-lights on their abdomen.

19) A 6 legged alien insect. They feed by chewing up soil and detritus, then once the nutrients have been absorbed, they spit it back out. When startled, they inflate their float-bladders with electrolysed hydrogen and leap to safety, remaining airborne for quite some time, kept aloft by the float bladders. When out of use, these sacs are deflated and wrinkle up on the insect's sides.

20) This one has a strange tongue with a long mouth running down its length. Its dorsal carapace is covered in spines.

21) A distant, miniaturised relative of arrow tongues and bolt tongues, this 'insect' has lost its internal skeleton and its skin has become an articulated cuticle.

22) Walking on 8 'fingers', this insect digs up larvae with its scooping forked head.

23) This one was also mentioned in the book. They're the blue, 8 winged flyers found in the pocked forests. This is how I imagine they'd look in more detail.

24) This last one is a small, 4 legged insect with a long head, tipped with sharp pincers.


Phew...
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So far my favourites are 2, 11, 14, 18, 19 and 24.

Enjoy.