Alphacrucian

Alphacrucians are a sapient insectoid species which inhabit Acrux V, the fifth planet of the binary star system Alpha Crucis.

Biology
They physically resemble green mantises the size of a large wolfhound, with six legs, mobile antennae and functional wings, and are capable of flight in spite of their size. They are carnivorous and have a tripartite brain structure. They can survive in Earth's environmental conditions, consume Earth's food and water, and their vocal apparatus seems to have no difficulty in speaking the languages of Humans, Whales or Dolphins.

Alphacrucians have been identified as belonging to the family Mantidae, and their life cycle appears to be similar to Earth's mantids, albeit with the important distinction that their wingless nymphs have also been referred to as "vermiform larvae", thus suggesting a more severe kind of metamorphosis between the wingless larval stage and the winged imago stage. Alphacrucian females give birth to an ootheca (egg case) from which several hundred larvae hatch, single births being utterly unknown to them. Some of the larvae cannibalize each other soon after birth, trimming down the number to about two hundred. Female Alphacrucians decapitate males after mating.

Culture and society
They appear to be a matriarchal society with several nations governed by queens and councils. Captured criminals are sentenced to being devoured.

Appearances

 * "The Gospel According to Gamaliel Crucis (or, the Astrogator's Testimony)", by Michael Bishop (1983)