This probably wont be of much interest to those who haven't actually read my story Taniwha. But here is the first ever pic I've had commissioned of an Arbiter, which is one of the three alien species in my novel - specifically the 'bad guys'.

An insectoid-form species, the Arbiters are a hive-mind intelligence. An individual has the intelligence of a really stupid dog, or perhaps an intelligent chicken? Anyway, the larger the number of them within a certain area, the more intelligence there is. A few scattered by themselves and they're as dumb as bag full of hammers. Start getting 100's/1000's/100,000's together and you've got serious trouble.

Arbiters have no eyes, but are able to sense using a cluster of sensitive organs situated just above the jaw under the heavily armoured head, and their bodies are covered with millions of very fine hairs that are sensitive to vibration and movement. They communicate primarily using smell, taste, and a very weak form of electromagnetic transmission (very weak natural radio-signals).

Although extremely formiddable using their massive pincers, Arbiters will usually resort to technology as well, favouring an extremely high-powered, but very short-range electromagnetic discharge weapon. And no, they don't give a shit if they end up taking out other Arbiters when shooting at enemies. Arbiters have no allies; anything that is not an Arbiter is automatically the enemy. Sometimes including other Arbiters.

Although frighteningly intelligent in large clusters, Arbiters are purely scavengers. All their technology is based on that scavenged from other species. They do not innovate, and are not in the least imaginative. They conquer by pure numbers, overwhelming any enemy. They breed very quickly and do not have sexes - they reproduce using parthenogenesis (sorry, no Arbiter penis or cooch )

Really big thanks to  oniontrain - Sir, you seriously rock. This is fucking awesome.