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There are numerous instances in science fiction of alien species that follow the "hive" pattern. For instance: the Buggers/Formics in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series, the Borg in Star Trek, and even the Wraith (kind of) in Stargate: Atlantis.

I would define a hive species as having the following characteristics:

  1. The species is divided into numerous "drones" and/or "workers" and a limited number of "queens", often described using those exact terms.
  2. The queens are intellectually dominant and sentient, with the drones/workers being less intelligent, ranging from highly subservient to being mere extensions of the queen's will.
  3. The queen is often a weak point, such that attacking her cripples the entire hive.

What is the first instance in sci-fi of a hive species as I've described here?

Not a duplicate of Which was the first story featuring hive minds? since I'm talking about not just a hive mind but the hierarchical queen and drone's structure.

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    Surely Starship Troopers deserves a nod, no? Commented Oct 5 at 19:02
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    What about "The Empire of the Ants" by H. G. Wells? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_the_Ants Commented Oct 6 at 1:02
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    I'm pretty sure whoever came up with the first example was inspired by bees or ants. So it's probably very old. Commented Oct 6 at 14:50
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    This question is similar to: Which was the first story featuring hive minds?. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem. Commented Oct 6 at 15:01
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    I'm a bit weirded out that this question doesn't even acknowledge real-life bees and ants. Commented Oct 6 at 15:01

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The "Bugs" in Heinlein's Starship Troopers (1959) have a hive society.

The Midwich children in The Village of the Damned (1960) seem to have a hive mind, as do the children in the novel it is based on, John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos (1957).

In L. Sprague de Camp's Rogue Queen (1951) the humanoid natives of the planet Earth people call Ormazd, orbiting Lalande 21185, are organized in hive societies.

According to Technovelgy.com: Hive Mind, the earliest use of a hive mind, in a story in a science fiction magazine, known to the creator of the site, was in Edmund "World Wrecker" Hamilton's The Face of the Deep, Captain Future (Winter 1943).

Even if that is correct, it does not exclude earlier use of hive societies as opposed to hive minds, nor earlier use of hive minds in novels and other stories not in genre magazines.

Olaf Stapledon in The Star Maker (1937) and Last and First Men (1930) described many future species descended from modern humans, and many nonhuman extraterrestrial intelligent species, including a number of hive societies and even hive minds.

The cart creatures in Stanley Weinbaum's "A Martian Odyssey" Wonder Stories (July, 1934) seem to have a hive society.

The Selenites in H.G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon (1901) seem to have a hive society.

Thus I suspect that the earliest examples of a hive mind or a hive society should be quite early in science fiction history.

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    I could have sworn Baron Munchausen by R.E. Raspe had one too - he does visit the Moon, but a quick browse doesn't show anything. Commented Oct 6 at 4:02
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    Does this answer actually come to any conclusion as to what the first instance was? Commented Oct 6 at 17:29
  • @bob1 The baron loses his hatchet on the moon while herding bees (specifically protecting a single bee from being ripped apart by two bears). While it's clear that these aren't normal bees, things remain quite vague, and there is no indication they are a hive species. Commented Oct 6 at 20:27
  • @AlexanderKlauer - that must be where I was getting it from. Probably conflating with H.G. Wells too. Commented Oct 6 at 20:43
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    The only part of this that answers the question is the second to last paragraph. The rest is fluff Commented Oct 7 at 11:01

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