Yalcan

Yalcans are a sapient insectoid species from the planet Yalc.

Biology
Yalcans are long, sinuous creatures with four arms, four legs, color-changing faces, vertically-hinged jaws, green rope-like tongues and no lips. Their diet is omnivorous, including fruits and giant locusts. They are a dioecious species and have queens that lay multiple eggs.

During the Voom Festival that happens every 94 years, Yalcans seek out mud holes in the bogs and go through a brief chrysalis stage from which they emerge with wings. After emergence, young drones and females engage in mating rites.

Culture and society
Yalcans are a religious species. They build elaborated shrines out of multicolored glass towers, and houses out of mud. Although they're not a spacefaring civilization, their planet is widely known for the beauty of their glass and ceramics. They claim to be pacifists, but are not above resorting to violence when deemed necessary.

The Voom Festival is a highly anticipated event that takes place once every 94 standard years. During this time, Yalcans abandon their cities and seek mud-filled holes in the bogs to go through their brief chrysalis stage and acquire wings. Meanwhile, earthquakes shatter and collapse the glass towers, which will be rebuilt later on. After emerging from their chrysalis, young drones and females are paired off to engage in mating rites of their own choice, while elderly drones roost in thorn-trees as a form of penitence for past sins.

The Yalcan language makes use of honorific suffixes to be attached to the end of a person's name: "-Tic" for males, "-Ticcim" for females. The variant "-Tic-Tic" means the person holds an important position, and "-Tic-Tic-Tic" even more so.

Appearances

 * "The Castle of Light", by Keith Laumer (1964)