Matriarchal hive species

A matriarchal hive species is typically some sort of insect-like model of sex/gender, often including two or more of the following elements:

• a matriarchy or female leadership
• disempowered or non-existent males
• clones or a parthenogenetically produced class
• a female or neuter class of workers or warriors

This trope is often used to describe the fear of Communism, socialism, or feminism.

List of examples

• Frank Herbert's Hellstrom's Hive
• the Buggers and the Bugger queen in Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
• the planetary consciousness in Daughters of an Emerald Dusk by Katherine Forrest
• Poul Anderson's Virgin Planet
• the Diclonii in Elfen Lied
  • The Diclonii can infect humans with a virus that leads to human offspring actually being female Diclonii drones. The Diclonius queen can reproduce sexually.
• the Borg Queen in Star Trek: The Next Generation
  • This is a bit different from the classical matriarchal hive species. However, the Borg were very much about fear of Communism/socialism/loss of individualism: they had a hive mind, they were ruled by a "queen", and their members were "drones".

See also

• Sentient Planets
• Hive vagina
• Bee People at TVTropes