Purple People Eaters (scientific name Anthropophagus Purpura) are carnivores believed to originate on Sector Prime temperate planets but now found in Earthling outpost colonies, starship cargo holds, and understaffed space stations. These small voracious purple creatures grow from 1.2 to 1.5 meters and have wings, singular horns growing from their heads, and one eye. They walk pigeon-toed, sneak up on people and eat them. Obviously Purple People Eaters did not always eat people. What they ate, or what it was that allowed itself to be eaten, remains a mystery but it certainly wasn't space crullers.
Purple People Eaters are perhaps the most devious, paranoid, and yet shy, semi-sentient species found in the whole of Sector Prime. Consider a People Eater's diminutive size, two-dimensional vision and flimsy wings as important elements of an evolutionary explanation for this psychology. Small, ridiculously-colored, clumsy and only capable of hopping flight, the people eater was easy prey. Hence, the species was in decline and, until recently, perilously close to extinction. However, evolution can be whimsical. Their instinctive deviousness may have saved them as the last of the purple people eaters managed to survive long enough to meet, and eat, people.
Hiding. Sneaking. Creeping. Pouncing. Bread and butter for the People Eaters, who hunt only by night, lurking in the shadows until some naive, unsuspecting, and preferably unarmed humanoid walks by. When they can stand it no longer, and their stomachs are growling too loudly, they hop out of their hiding place and gives their victim the hairy eyeball, a devastating psychic attack that immediately paralyzes the central nervous system. Once their prey is immobilized, the People Eaters engages in a violent feeding frenzy, a visceral scene best left for after dinner conversation.
Purple People Eaters lead solitary lives and we honestly have no idea how they reproduce. If you have observations or theories, please contact profzagnut@frunobulax.pv. Their life span is likewise unknown but up against hand lasers they don't last too long.