Pale Shlompbster
As populations of Pictocorpus scythae adapted to living in the ocean depths, some began to feed on a wider range of benthic organisms. These groups would end up surviving when the rest of the species lost their food source due to Aeliudas iscariota becoming extinct. These surviving groups become an entirely new species.
10 centimeters long
The Pale Shlompbster (Pictocorpus umbrabilis) is a great example of a species adapted for living in deep sea environments. Since it spends all of its time in total darkness, the Pale Shlompbster has lost any need for vision and so its eyes are shrunken and vestigial. In the same vein, the exoskeleton of the Pale Shlompbster has lost its pigmentation and thus appears as ghostly pale white. Instead of sight, the Pale Shlompbster uses their antennae to sense both chemical trails in the water and vibrations, which allows it to find food and detect potential predators. The sharp front claws of the Pale Shlompbster help with processing edible material, either scraping algae-like organisms off of rocks or slicing into colonial organisms near the hydrothermal vents. It no longer curls itself around food to protect it from competition as it is larger than any potential competition and can swat them away if it detects them.
The Pale Shlompbster burrows in the sediment, when not foraging for food, to evade predators. If the Pale Shlompbster detects movement in the water column near it, it will scurry to its burrow to hide, where it can then use its claws to scratch at anything trying to get in. If caught out in the open, the Pale Shlompbster will then curl up and rely on their thick exoskeleton to protect it. When a Pale Shlompbster has eaten enough food that they have plenty of energy to spare, they will seek out a mate. If it does encounter one and both are both capable of and willing to breed, the female lays her 300-400 eggs into the substrate as the male fertilizes them.
When the young hatch, they are very different from their parents, being 3 millimeters long and lacking things like their eyes, mandibles, and antennae. Their limbs are also far thinner, since they spend a good tail of their time floating in the water feeding on marine snow. After about 3 weeks, these larvae will actively swim to the sea bottom and burrow into the sediment. Once within the sediment, the larvae Pale Shlompsters will pupate, remaining in this state for around 4 to 6 months until they eventually emerge as miniature versions of the adults, being about 5 centimeters long when they emerge.
