The new sprites are some perfect mixture of fuck-ugly and adorable. I like them, I think the evolutions actually flow well and the castes are distinct. For example:
compared to
(couldn't get the images to scale right, my apologies).
The Red ones are the Ambushers. . . except for in the middle, the one that's black with a orange crest like the spitting caste who all have orangeish-yellow crests and acid sacs except for the last one which is orange and has no sacs. They're otherwise fine, except for the fact that they can also go from black to blue to purple to purple again or black again.
Xenoids are able to have a lot in common (Hunched, bulbous green eyes, paws or claws) while remaining meaningfully different (Number of limbs, persistence of Tier 1 traits in Tier 3 sprites, color coding amongst branches).
The runner is awful, though, and I look forward to gameplay iterations that can come from not being restricted by the omnipresent lore such as acid blood tweakage and Xenoids that shoot fireballs.