Creature Creation Challenge #8

[Malkuthe Highwind]

Creature Creation Challenge
This challenge explores one facet of worldbuilding: creature creation, as the title says. Whether or not you're a worldbuilder, at one point or another, you're bound to create different kinds of flora and fauna for your world. This challenge brings two new things to the table: first, all the submissions for this challenge will be put into a "bestiary" of sorts in the Worldbuilder's Guild which will be a resource for yourself and anyone who needs creatures for their worlds; second, every week, there will be a different difficulty for the challenge. ​

The Difficulty Levels

Difficulty 1

- build a creature around a specific theme

Difficulty 2

- build a creature with a specific body part around a specific theme

Difficulty 3

- build a creature to fit a specific role in an ecosystem with a specific body part around a specific theme

Difficulty 4

- build a creature based upon an animal on earth to fit a specific role in an ecosystem with a specific body part around a specific theme

Difficulty 5

- build a creature that will survive in a specific environment based upon an animal on earth and fit a specific role in an ecosystem with a specific body part around a specific theme.

This Week's Difficulty:

- build a creature based upon an animal on earth to fit a specific role in an ecosystem with a specific body part around a specific theme

This Week's Criteria:
Theme: Blindness
Body Part: Spindle-legs
Role: Sentient Carnivorous Predator
Animal Basis: Crab

Feel free to use this following template for your creatures. You can add on to it or remove things from it as you wish or not use it at all.

Creature Template

Name:
Appearance:
Role: Predator/prey/producer
Habitat:
Life-span:
Sentient: Yes/No
Sapient: Yes/No
Means of Sustenance:
Favourite Food Source:
Major Competition:
Mating Rituals: Courtship rituals, mating grounds, mating season, et cetera
Reproduction: you can include period of gestation
Organization: does this creature travel in packs or herds, or is it a solitary creature that only meets with members of its species for the mating season?
Other:

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The Bestiary​

 

[Explicit Escritoire]

(I've been determined to finish this challenge since I joined about a week ago :3 and now, I'ma do it.)

Name: Spindle Crab (The Million Leg Crab)
Appearance: It takes on the appearance of a regular crab, except about ten times the size. The other main difference is that instead of having a few, strong legs to move about on, the Spindle Crab has hundreds of smaller legs. At any one point, no more than 100 and no less than 50 of the legs are placed on the ground. Even when in a state of stillness, the Spindle Crab doesn't have all of its legs on the ground. The Spindle Crab has no eyes, and therefor is rendered completely blind. Its hundreds of legs can quickly feel around the area to determine which way they travel, and a chemical within their body allows them to locate other Spindles when necessary.
Role: Predator
Habitat: The beach, usually in caves that are hollowed out by its claws.
Life-span: No Spindle Crab has ever been known to die of natural causes, and it's estimated that they have been around for hundreds of years. It is also believed that you can tell how old a Spindle Crab is by how many legs it's missing. This is due to the frailty of the legs, but it is entirely speculation.
Sentient: Yes
Sapient: No
Means of Sustenance: Crab Meat, from smaller Spindle Crabs. It's eat or be eaten. Sometimes smaller Spindle Crabs group up to take down a larger one, but they quickly turn on each other. A Spindle Crab may only need to eat once every ten years, but it often kills for fun on Thursday.
Favourite Food Source: Other Spindle Crabs
Major Competition: Land Sharks. Not literal sharks that walk on land, but rather just creatures that can live both in land and on water with large fins upon their back. No other name given to them as of this point. They use weaponry that can take down Spindle Crabs. More dangerous than other Spindle Crabs.
Mating Rituals: Courtship isn't a very common thing amongst the Spindle Crabs. At some point in time, they lost their ability to reproduce. It may have been because their race outgrew the females, and procreation became physically impossible. Not enough is known at this point in time.
Reproduction: N/A
Organization: Spindle Crabs are only in groups for very short periods of time to take down larger Spindle Crabs, and then they quickly begin to fight one another. There is one report of two Spindle Crabs traveling together, but it is not known why. Much mystery still coats the iron shells of these deadly creatures.
Other: In the last 14,000's, the Spindle Crab was used for their DNA. The DNA was transferred to an organism that created a suit of body armor on the person who ingested it. This DNA was used to make the armor as hard as the Crab's shells. This led to the great DNA wars, which inevitably ended the human race.

 

[FallenCain]

Name: Caecus
Appearance: The Caecus is generally between one and two feet across at it's widest point from the edges of the body. However it's spindle like legs make them seem much larger; nearly four feet in diameter from the end of one leg to another. They are composed of twelve legs ranging from eight inches to a foot long and all have four separate joints that allow a thirty degree angle of motion towards the bottom of the body. The legs end in a rather sharp point which aids it in traversing the sandy tide pools they are most frequently seen in. Two claws are located near the front of the Caecus and are comprised of an arm with two joints nearly six inches in length and a hammer-fist shaped claw generally four inches in diameter at it's thickest point. The color palette of the Caecus ranges depending on the climate in which it is found; reddish for tropical, warmer climates with a few oranges and yellows while those found in colder climates are often a green or blue tinted color.
Role: Predator
Habitat: TheCaecusis most often found in or near tidal pools near cliffs or rocks for the sole reason of it being their most common hunting ground. When the tides go out they will stay near the edge of the water, searching with their spindled legs for clams or muscles that have attached to the rocky surfaces of the pools. They are found in tropical and more seasonal climates and are the exact same species aside from the climate they reside in.
Life-span:It is somewhat difficult to accurately say the life-span of the Caecus as it seems to depend largely on the amount of sustenance in their location. Most scientists guess anywhere from two to five years though.
Sentient: Yes
Sapient: No
Means of Sustenance: The Caecus waits for tides to go out and searches the rocky surfaces of tidal pools for clams, muscles, and other shellfish. It has been recorded that they will also seek out groups of small fish and attempt to spear them with their sharp legs.
Favourite Food Source: Shellfish
Major Competition The major competition of the Caecus are seabirds of prey such as gulls, skimmers, and fulmars as they will also go after muscles, and often times the Caecus itself.
Mating Rituals:The mating ritual of the Caecus is almost non-existent. The females gather en masse in tidal pools and release their eggs, which releases a pheromone of sorts that is detected by the males of the species. As the males arrive at the egg dump sites, they release the fertilizing substance by opening the bottoms of their shells. This event only happens once or twice for a male of the species as they have a harder shell and are only able to reproduce within the first nine months of their lives, as the shells fully harden by this point in time. The dropping of the eggs generally happens every three months by the females.
Reproduction: The eggs, which are usually a half inch in diameter, are all fertilized by a substance released from the males in the tidal pools. After a month or so the eggs will hatch and thousands of Caecus will start their lives.
Organization:There is no particular organization among the species aside form the mating season every three months. There have been occasions when some may stumble upon one another which can either lead to a fight between them, and the death of one of the Caecus. It has been noted that this is not always the case however; sometimes neither will make a violent move towards the other despite the fact they've touched and felt the other there.
Other:The Caecus is actually void of sight and therefore has no eyes. Instead the tips of the stalks that appear from the atop the base of the claw arms have a gill like opening through which the XCRAB uses to filter oxygen from the water. These gill like stalks are also what allow them to detect the different pheromones of their species while in the water. While not in the water, the stalks retract towards the body of the crab and act as a passage for oxygen straight to the organs of the Caecus, though this is not sustainable for very long.