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{{trope}}
{{Needs Image}}
A race with an ''allegedly'' eusocial structure; roughly, one queen and lots of workers. Since this inevitably brings to mind ants and bees, it's often a [[One-Gender Race]] with some military/warrior overtones. ''Almost always'' occurs if the race is [[Insectoid Aliens|even vaguely insectoid]], even though this isn't a common set-up for most insects. It's just very easy to associate a hive with a civilization structure, as bees and ants are often seen as extremely advanced insects who act a little like us.
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Compare [[Hive Caste System]] and [[Fantastic Caste System]]. Related to [[Intelligent Gerbil]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Macross Frontier]]'' - The Vajra fit this very well. However, while they do have a queen, it oversees the operation of their collective consciousness shared by each, as opposed to controlling them like mindless drones.
* The Bugrom in ''[[El
* The vampires in ''Blood+ '' are a cross between regular vampires and
* In the manga version of ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'', the demons have a social structure much like this, to the point where Chrono even compares them to bees.
* The Diclonii from ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' are not remotely bug-like in appearance, but...
** They are a [[One-Gender Race]] (female)
** They have one [[Hive Queen|"Queen"]]
** Many "drones" (selpelits) whose life spans are half a normal human's/diclonius's and are sterile {{spoiler|though they can also spread [[The Virus]], it just produces more selpelits}}
** They share a weak [[Psychic Link|telepathic link]] that allows them to sense when another Diclonius is nearby
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== Card Games ==
* The Slivers in ''[[Magic:
▲* The Slivers in ''[[Magic the Gathering]]'' are a form of [[Bee People]]. Whether they were engineered by Rathi biologists or a natural species enslaved by the evincars, the slivers had a queen and several specialist varieties--but the specialists could grant their own abilities to every other sliver in range. After the queen died in the overlay that put them in the heart of a volcano, they became almost entirely extinct--but a couple centuries later, some science wizards decided to bring them back...and promptly lost control, as they could not create a queen. Even after a few more apocalypses, the slivers are still kicking, though they've lost most of their numbers, and are even developing a central hive-mind.
** Also from the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor blocks, we have the faerie race. All faeries are born from and obey their absolute ruler, [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=152063 Oona, Queen of the Fae].
== Comic Books ==
* The Brood, the ''[[X
* Despite being more like bats in appearance, the creatures [[
▲* The Brood, the ''[[X Men]]'' aliens that are distinctly "inspired" by ''[[Alien (Film)|Alien]]''. Oddly enough, the "queen" setup was given to the Brood ''before'' it was canon in the ''Alien'' movies.
▲* Despite being more like bats in appearance, the creatures [[Tom Strong (Comic Book)|Tom Strong]] were captured by on the moon were clearly hive-like in terms of society.
* The [[JLA]] had the Queen Bee Zazzala, the leader of a world of bee-like beings.
* The aliens from ''[[Camelot 3000]]'' have a ruling Queen Mother, {{spoiler|although her authority had been usurped by Morgan la Fey}}.
== Film ==
* Apparently played straight in ''[[Alien (
▲* Apparently played straight in ''[[Alien (Film)|Aliens]]'', and probably the inspiration for a great many others. {{spoiler|Ripley has to face down the Alien Queen in the endgame of the movie}}. In a deleted scene, Bishop and Hudson speculate on the Queen's existence, even comparing them to bees - which is ridiculed by Vasquez.
== Literature ==
* The Buggers from the ''[[Ender's Game|Ender]]'' novels by [[Orson Scott Card]].
* The Arachnids from [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Starship Troopers (
* Frank Herbert's ''Hellstrom's Hive'', although the
** In Frank Herbert's ''The Green Brain'', the insects of the Amazon Rainforest have been taken over by a disembodied brain fed by legions of ants. Their goal is to destroy human habitation in the Amazon.
* The Nac Mac Feegle from the ''[[Discworld]]'' series have this arrangement; there isn't a hive-mind, however, so much as they mostly think
* The Helmacrons from ''[[
** Subverted when Marco and Cassie, attempting to teach their male keeper (who Marco dubs "Wuss" for obvious reasons) a thing or two about gender equality, inadvertently start a massive social uprising. The consequences of this are never explored outside the context that the characters consider it a bit of a joke, but it's more than likely that, now that both genders violently believe that they should be in charge, the whole species is going to go extinct.
* The Cho-Ja, from [[Raymond E. Feist]] and Janny Wurts' ''Empire Trilogy'', are social insectoids that hire out their warrior caste as mercenaries.
* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] had one of these: The Killiks. They aren't lead by a queen though, but just form a collective consciousness. Any individual of another species that stay near a Killik nest for too long will end up joining that collective consciousness. It gets particularly dangerous when a [[The Dark Side|fallen]] [[Sentient Cosmic Force|Force User]] becomes a Joiner, as they can corrupt the entire nest. Force users in general who become Joiners can become ''fantastically'' powerful, able to draw on the Force potential of ''their entire nest''.
* The ''[[The
* [[L. Sprague
* The Rix in Scott Westerfeld's ''The Risen Empire'' are an apparently bee-like human society dominated by sentient computers, who open the book by invading the titular Empire. {{spoiler|Subverted as the hero (and the reader) gradually learns more about them and realizes that he's been seeing them through the distorting lens of Imperial propaganda; by the end of the book it's clear that the Rix are actually the good guys.}}
* ''Man After Man'': The Hivers from Dougal Dixon's are human-descended herbivores which evolved into this.
* ''Well of Souls'': Many hyper-communist human colony-worlds have begun evolving in this direction in Jack Chalker's series, although they haven't gone so far as to develop a single queen who does all the breeding (yet).
* In ''[[The Left Hand of Darkness]]'' a person remarks that some culture of the genderless people of Gethen would have probably created a similar
* Let me tell you about Vergil: He loved this [[Older Than Feudalism|trope]]. He devoted an entire section of his ''Eclogues'' to bees, and often uses bee metaphors for well-functioning cities, e.g., for [[The Aeneid
* Inverted with the thranx from the ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' series, as these intelligent insectoids ''used to'' have single breeder-queens, but re-evolved the capacity for all females to breed in the course of attaining sentience. Mothers are still highly revered in their culture, and offspring are reared in creches.
== Live
** The Borg are basically like this, even going so far as to have a queen introduced in the film ''[[Star Trek: First Contact|First Contact]]''. They were originally envisioned as insectoids, but when they finally made it into the show appeared as cyborgs.▼
▲* ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation]]''
** Also, the Neural
▲** The Borg are basically like this, even going so far as to have a queen introduced in the film ''[[Star Trek First Contact|First Contact]]''. They were originally envisioned as insectoids, but when they finally made it into the show appeared as cyborgs.
* ''[[So Weird]]'' had an episode featuring literal
▲** Also, the Neural Parasites -- originally intended as the Borg's first wave of attack, but later [[Retcon|retconned]] into something different.
▲* ''[[So Weird]]'' had an episode featuring literal [[Bee People]]. Made somewhat hilarious, as despite them having a queen, eating flowers, spitting out wax, and decorating their town with honeycomb patterns -- nobody seemed to be able to figure out what was going on.
* The [[Big Bad]] from ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', the Wraith, are human-insectoid hybrids whose society is run by queens. They even have hiveships and the queens are usually considered a much bigger foe than the ordinary 'drone' wraith. Oh, they are also life-sucking-sufficiently-advanced-aliens, so that makes them [[Our Vampires Are Different]], too.
* Speaking of vamps, the ones from ''[[
* The Chimerons from the ''[[
== Real Life ==▼
* Weird [[Real Life]] example: the naked mole rat is one of the only mammals to exhibit eusocial behavior (the other one is the Damaraland mole rat). The queens keep the other female rats infertile with no desire to reproduce by having a community restroom chamber filled with her own urine, which contains suppressing hormones.▼
* Some social mammal groups (African Wild Dogs, meerkats) also restrict all breeding privileges to the top female of the group, but only because the boss females chase off any daughter who dares to breed, and/or kill their daughters' litters.▼
* [[Captain Obvious|Bees.]] Termites have been eusocial for even longer, and have far more complex castes and collective behaviors than ants or bees.▼
== Tabletop Games ==
* The Tyranids from ''[[Warhammer
▲* The Tyranids from ''[[Warhammer 40000]]''. At the fleet level. The Tau Empire, meanwhile, have teamed up with the Vespids, though it's been heavily implied that the Ethereals have, to some degree, usurped the role of "queen" from whatever individuals filled that role before.
* The Myrmidons from Profound Decisions' ''Maelstrom'' LARP setting.
* ''[[Dungeons
** The official sourcebook, ''Races of the Dragon'', suggests that Kobolds are a race of reptilian people with bee-like behavior. They put very little emphasis on their own lives and self-worth, instead worrying about their tribe/city/etc's health and welfare as a whole. Descriptions of their mining and military operations extend the comparison: Miners move and work in perfect sync, using bardic music to help create a rhythm; military operations (those that aren't won by their legions of traps) are basically "swarm them, and if you can't win by Swarming, Swarm more (while you get the women and children to safety)". Children are conceived normally, but mates only stay together as long as it takes to lay the eggs, and hatchlings are raised communally with no knowledge of who their biological parents are. Individuals can form interpersonal friendships, but romantic love is a foreign concept to them.
** The Abeil from ''Monster Manual II'' are ''literal'' bee
** All that said, the mantis-like Thri-Kreen don't have a hive-live society at all.
*** If they ''did'', that would be [[Did Not Do the Research|not doing the research.]] Mantids are not even close to being social insects.
*** Kreen are called "mantis", but resemble grasshoppers or crickets (Orthoptera) as
** Finally, we have the Dromites of the Expanded Psionics handbook. Utterly asexual, dromite society is populated by the Grand Queen and the Elected Consort. Puzzingly, as the Elected Consort's name suggests, both of them are elected to their positions annually. How exactly this is possible is never discussed. Dromites also have a caste system, but this caste system is relatively fluid, with family groups (which adopt newborn dromites) usually containing multiple castes. Also, caste membership is defined by what energy (Fire, Electricity, Sonic, or Cold) the Dromite is able to control, although this does tend to breed certain traits that go with it (Fire are quick-tempered and emotional, Cold are slow to decide but often right, and so on). [[MST3K Mantra]] plays a decent part in their existence, me thinks. Although they do have some degree of popularity.
* In [[Mortasheen]], the Geneti- line of creatures are this, due to the fact that they are heavily inspired by the Xenomorphs, with [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/genetimorph.htm Genetimorph] as the worker/solder and [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/genetisaur.htm Genetisaur] as the queen.
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== Toys ==
* [[Bionicle]]: The Bohrok. Slightly subverted in that they have ''two'' queens, as well as the [[Elite Mooks|Bohrok]]-[[Praetorian Guard|Kal]], who are completely free-willed.
== Video Games ==
* The [[
▲* The [[Pokémon (Franchise)|Pokémon]] [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/File:416Vespiquen.png Vespiquen], which is a humanoid bee queen. Combee, the pre-evolution, seem to serve as drones.
* The Hivers in the video game ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' play this straight, although [[All There in the Manual|supplemental material included with the game reveals that it's more multi-faceted and deeply considered than the typical Bee People]].
** The Hiver society has several castes, including worker drones, soldiers, and rulers. The Queen is the ruler of all Hivers and is the only one who can give birth to Princesses. The Princesses rule their own clans and are mothers of all members of their clan. What deviates from the typical
*** Workers and Warriors elevated to Prince or (very rarely) Princess status are highborn. For Hivers, reincarnation is a fact of life and is used to preserve or promote particularly valued Sons.
** There may be several Queens. If a Princess manages to isolate herself from the inhibiting pheromones of the reigning Queen, she can mature into a Queen herself. Furthermore, a princess can jump start the process by consuming the Crown Jewels of a dead Queen.
* The Zerg from ''[[
** The Queens do rule over their own private swarm of creatures that they make use of to perform their ingame abilities.
** In the [[Star Craft 2|sequel]], Queens have been re-purposed as hive-tenders and also have the ability to spawn larvae, but only at a hive.
* The ''[[Metroid]]'' series averts the tendency for insectoids to always be Bee People. The Space Pirates of the series have ''some'' degree of insectoid traits made more pronounced by their armor, the Chozo have insectoid and avian traits, and the Luminoth are distinctly mothlike, but none have ever been seriously portrayed as
** The Pirates ''do'' seem to be rather inept in their plans without the leadership of some other powerful being such as Mother Brain, Ridley, {{spoiler|Dark Samus in ''Prime 3''}}, etc.
* An unusual variant, the mudokons from the ''[[Oddworld]]'' series. One queen(called Sam), and millions of slaves. The unfortunate thing is that {{spoiler|the queen is being held by the glukkons, heartless industrialists, and used to produce free, docile labour. The player character is one of these.}}
** Not only that, also Glukkons and Sligs present egg producing queens, though the Glukkon Queen Elizabeth is only heard of and the Slig Queen was only to appear at [[
* The Skaarj from ''[[
** Game fluff, especially in ''[[
* The Locust Horde from ''[[Gears of War]]'' is ruled by a Queen, with an army consisting of LOTS and LOTS of [[We Have Reserves|disposable drones]]. Like the Bugrom example from ''[[El Hazard]]'', the drones are fairly monsterous, but oddly enough the queen looks like a human woman with a few cosmetic insect bits.
** This is because the Locusts have an insidious but not fully fleshed out backstory.
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** In fact, {{spoiler|if you save the queen in the first game, there's an asari you meet in the second game who mentions that the rachni helped repair her starship, and if you save the queen again in the third game, she'll aid you in the war effort against the Reapers.}}
** The Collectors are another race of Bee People, quite distinct from the Rachni. They show up in the second game, but they are mentioned in the first game as well. They release swarms of bugs to sting and immobilize their victims, who they "collect." {{spoiler|The [[Precursors|Protheans]] they were created from were far less insect-like, though.}}
* Q-Bee
* The second ''[[Turok (
* The Bixies of ''[[
* The Aparoids of ''[[
* A rather literal example comes from ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'': The Guy Made of Bees, who was once an ordinary beekeeper before he gave himself up to the bees, and is now a single creature with a literal [[Hive Mind]]. His [[Catch Phrase]] is ''"We are Bees. We hate you."''
* {{spoiler|The Darkspawn
* The Yanme'e (Drones) from Halo. They are insectoid, and [[All There in the Manual|live in a eusocial society on their homeworld]]
* ''[[Monster Girl Quest]]'' has Bee Girls and Ant Girls. Like all monsters in the setting, they're all-female and need human men to reproduce. The Queens are the only ones who are fertile and possess free will, with the sterile workers behaving like robots.
* ''[[MSF High]]'': The Legion also fit in this, as they are a caste system. In a subversion, their caste is more of a meritocracy. People are granted abilities to do what they are good at, and people can have multiple castes. (Princesses and Queens, in fact, have the abilities of all castes.)▼
* In twokinds, eastern basitins are similar because they have a very rigid class system,gender segregation, an unusual culture(they dial the nudity taboo up to 11), and a biological compulsion to obey orders, but they lack the hive mind aspect.▼
* Averted in ''[[Dreamwalk Journal]]'' and its sequels. The honeybees of Cyeatea have queens and live in hives (well, basically that's just their word for cities), but like all Cyeateans they reproduce like mammals, have a roughly equal balance of sexes, and are not divided by caste or function. (Also, unlike Earth bees, both males and females produce honey.)
== Web Original ==▼
* The artist [http://dimespin.deviantart.com/ dimespin's] work in progress [http://shiroryu927.deviantart.com/favourites/#/d1mspay Amber Rust] features
== Western Animation ==
* The Irken race from ''[[Invader Zim]]''. (Not a schoolbook example, but does have the bug-like appearance and the mass-produced drones and the hive-like social hierarchy.)
** That's actually a pretty apt comparison: an innumerable volume of workers who serve a [[Large and In Charge|larger leader]], the Tallests, who are essentially <s> queen</s> [[Insect Gender Bender|king]] bees.
** Interestingly, despite the insectoid look, what level of [[Hive Mind]] they have is achieved through bionics - specifically, their backpacks and the [[Brain In
* ''[[Futurama]]'': Planet Wormulon, where Slurm is made has a race of slugs with a queen that produces soda instead of honey. While normally she only produces slurm, she can also produce highly delicious, and very concentrated "super slurm" and it is also implied that she can create royal jelly that can turn regular human's into worm queens, though their slurm will taste foul.
* ''[[He-Man and
* Queen Bumble and the bees of Bumbleland in ''[[My Little Pony and Friends]]'' are humanoid bee people, though they retain multiple limbs.
* The Kringles of ''[[Santa Claus is Comin' to Town]]'' have a ''very'' suspicious gender (and size) ratio—lots of little bearded male elves and one much larger "elf queen".
==
▲* Weird [[Real Life]] example: the naked mole rat is one of the only mammals to exhibit eusocial behavior (the other one is the Damaraland mole rat). The queens keep the other female rats infertile with no desire to reproduce by having a community restroom chamber filled with her own urine, which contains suppressing hormones.
▲* Some social mammal groups (African Wild Dogs, meerkats) also restrict all breeding privileges to the top female of the group, but only because the boss females chase off any daughter who dares to breed, and/or kill their daughters' litters.
▲* ''[[MSF High]]'': The Legion also fit in this, as they are a caste system. In a subversion, their caste is more of a meritocracy. People are granted abilities to do what they are good at, and people can have multiple castes. (Princesses and Queens, in fact, have the abilities of all castes.)
▲* [[Captain Obvious|Bees.]] Termites have been eusocial for even longer, and have far more complex castes and collective behaviors than ants or bees.
▲* In twokinds, eastern basitins are similar because they have a very rigid class system,gender segregation, an unusual culture(they dial the nudity taboo up to 11), and a biological compulsion to obey orders, but they lack the hive mind aspect.
▲== Web Original ==
▲* The artist [http://dimespin.deviantart.com/ dimespin's] work in progress [http://shiroryu927.deviantart.com/favourites/#/d1mspay Amber Rust] features [[Bee People]] in the most literal sense of the word.
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{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Politics Tropes]]
[[Category:Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes]]
[[Category:
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