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Description
For the second round of:
I still feel pretty weird about the background... It looked wrong being white, but looks off being grey or black too. Maybe I'll post a colored version later so it seems less out of place.

Anyway, this round from World-Craft revolved around making a predator for a world recently turned to desert after a comet dragged away three of its five moons and evaporated most of its oceans.

Life has always managed to survive cataclysmic events in the past. Often it isn't the largest and most fearsome creatures that survive, but the smallest... bacteria, tiny animals, plants, and algae are the most likely beings to survive in the event of a mass extinction. In the case of this world, the Great Drying left behind a plethora of arthropod-like organisms that managed to eke out a living and adapt to their harsh new environment. Plants accustomed to living in windswept mountainous regions and even in the depths of the desert, drawing out moisture from the atmosphere and creating miniature oases of life. Here a diverse plethora of pseudoarthropods thrive: tiny invertebrates with a waxy outer cuticle, eversible proboscis, and six legs protruding from the center of their soft bodies.

Here we have an example of a predatory pseudoarthropod, Erythrobestiola succo, feeding on a smaller victim with it's specialized, mosquito-like proboscis. Topping off at only two centimeters E. succo live on the stalks of plants, hunting the aphid-like pseudoarthropods that prey on them using their keen eyesight as well as taste receptors on the base of their paws. A single keratinous spike adorns their abdomens, which they use to ward off predators and chase away other E. succo which might try to steal their catch.

Though an unfortunate event for the struggling aphid-like pseudoarthropod, this meal will sustain it's larger predator for a long time, perhaps even giving it enough moisture and energy to spread it's drought resistant eggs into the wind and begin a new E. succo generation.

EDIT: Fixed the saturation.

Description
For the second round of:
I still feel pretty weird about the background... It looked wrong being white, but looks off being grey or black too. Maybe I'll post a colored version later so it seems less out of place.

Anyway, this round from World-Craft revolved around making a predator for a world recently turned to desert after a comet dragged away three of its five moons and evaporated most of its oceans.

Life has always managed to survive cataclysmic events in the past. Often it isn't the largest and most fearsome creatures that survive, but the smallest... bacteria, tiny animals, plants, and algae are the most likely beings to survive in the event of a mass extinction. In the case of this world, the Great Drying left behind a plethora of arthropod-like organisms that managed to eke out a living and adapt to their harsh new environment. Plants accustomed to living in windswept mountainous regions and even in the depths of the desert, drawing out moisture from the atmosphere and creating miniature oases of life. Here a diverse plethora of pseudoarthropods thrive: tiny invertebrates with a waxy outer cuticle, eversible proboscis, and six legs protruding from the center of their soft bodies.

Here we have an example of a predatory pseudoarthropod, Erythrobestiola succo, feeding on a smaller victim with it's specialized, mosquito-like proboscis. Topping off at only two centimeters E. succo live on the stalks of plants, hunting the aphid-like pseudoarthropods that prey on them using their keen eyesight as well as taste receptors on the base of their paws. A single keratinous spike adorns their abdomens, which they use to ward off predators and chase away other E. succo which might try to steal their catch.

Though an unfortunate event for the struggling aphid-like pseudoarthropod, this meal will sustain it's larger predator for a long time, perhaps even giving it enough moisture and energy to spread it's drought resistant eggs into the wind and begin a new E. succo generation.

EDIT: Fixed the saturation.