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This is my take on alien society. As a biologist I like my artwork and stories to be fairly scientificially accurate. What I state here is the way all my alien stories are based on including Life On Earth and Ranhachen.
I'm basing everything about Xenomorphs on what we know of eusocial insects; the hymenoptera to be precise (ants and bees). Like hymenoptera we find that these creatures are truly eusocial. There are three things necessary to be called Eusocial:
1) Parental care of young
(young couldn't survive without parental care)
2) Overlap of generations (essential for 1)
3) Reproductive division of labor. Egg laying females and other
females.
This is truely social. A Caste is a specialized segment of the population. Castes have different functions within the society and sometimes different morphologies. Castes have distinct divisions of labor.
Xenomorphs are no individuals. They a part of a superorganism. The definition of a Superorganism is a social colony described as a multicellular animal, individual members of the colony are similar to individual cells in an animal. There is a difference between Social and Eusocial. The definition of Social is organisms that live cooperatively in colonies and exhibit a division of labor among distinct castes. One can be social without being Eusocial. The three points are what make up a Eusocial group with the emphasis on reproduction. This is why Xenomorphs are Eusocial Superorganisms.
Xenomorphs show complete metamorphsis that we see in our own insects. They have the four stages of: Egg, Larva, Pupa & Adult.
Egg - This is self explanatory. Eggs are imobile and fairly defensless until they hatch.
Larva - This is the parasitic Face Hugger stage.
Pupa - The Face Hugger needs a host to pupate since it can not create its own cocoon. Usually the adults bring in hosts for the larvas.
Adult - The chest buster emerges from its host, killing it in the process, as a sub-adult. What is interesting that unlike our insects it is in the adult stage that the Xenomorph goes through its instars. An Instar is the molting of old sking for grouth. In insects the larva goes through several instars before it pupates. The best example of this is the larva of Lepidoptera. In the Xenomorph the chest buster goes through several instars before reaching maturity.
I recognize five castes in Xenomorphs.
Workers - These are of small build and gather food and hosts for the colony.
Warriors - These are larger and more robust. They protect the colony and its inhabitants. If there is a shortage of workers due to a war they can gather food and hosts in their absence.
Drones - The definition of a drone is an idler. Someone who does nothing. This is true for the most part in Xenomorphs. All drones are male and their only purpose is to mate with the Queen. They can gather food if need be, but it is rare.
Praetorians - Their sole purpose is to protect the Queen (royal guards per say) in her chamber. Again these can gather food if need be.
Queen - The largest and most important member of the colony. The Queen is the only one that reproduces and lays eggs. That is her sole purpose.
All the other members of the colony are female and sterile with the exception of the Drones.
Why does it seem that Darwinian laws have failed when it comes to Eusocial organisms? The driving force of evolution is reproduction and passing on your own genes. If this is the case then why would trillions of organisms give up the right to breed and endevor to help the reproduction of their mother only? The answer is because Eusocial organism are haploid. Success in evolution is measured by an organism's fitness or fecundity (rate or reproduction.) The more you reproduce the higher your fitness. If you can not reproduce it's best to help someone that is closely related to you so that some of those genes may be passed on than having a stranger reproduce even if he is of your own species. This means helping out a sibling that can reproduce instead of a stranger. Haploid organisms only have on set of chromosomes instead of a two like diploid organsims. In Eusocial organism they are also sterile. The chart belows show the relatedness of a haploid and diploid organism.
| Mother | Sister | Daughter | Father | brother | son | Niece or Nephew |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haplodiploid | |||||||
| female | 0.5 | 0.75 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.25 | 0.5 | 0.375 |
| male | 1 | 0.5 | 1 | 0 | 0.5 | 0 | 0.25 |
| Diploid | |||||||
| female | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.25 |
| male | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.25 |
Notice that haploid females are related to their sisters by 3\4 while diploid females are only related by 1\2. The haploid females are also related to their brothers by only 1\4. The mother is related to both offspring equaly by 1\2 a parent-offspring conflict arises. It is in the best interest of the females that the mother have more daughters. Because the mother is related by half she shows no preference to sons or dauthers.
The mating of the Queen is like that of most hymenoptera. She'll mate with several drones all of which will die in the process as she rips out their sperm sack and cast the rest of the carcass aside. There is no love in a Eusocial society it is only practicality and for the furthering of the species. Nothing more. There's certainly no pleasure in it for the male.
Sensory Array
Sight - At some point in their history Xenomorphs had eyes as they still have vestigal eye sockets in their skulls. Not all skulls have this showing that it is quite a ways back in their ancestory and nearly been erased by time. Again like insects they have developed a single compound eye in the frong of the head. Closer inspection of the smooth dome shows a series of tiny pores for sensing light and establishing an image.
Auditory - It isn't known exactly how these creatures hear, perhaps the aperature in the temporals, but it is clear that they have a very acute sense of hearing. They communicate through snarls and hisses and can hear one another from a great distance.
Olfactory - This may be the most developed sense the Xenomorph has. Pheromones play a crucial roll in the way the Queen selects a mate. Pheromones are also used in conjuction with sounds for communication and possibly to express emphasis. A very acute sense comperable to a moth's. It seems that the dorsal spines or tubes also aid in respiration the way insects breath through their abdomens.
Pressure sensitivity - This is comperable to a shark's lateral line. They are very sensitive to changes in air currents. When a creature walks it moves the air around it and they can detect creatures moving in their vacinity. It's hightened more so in a liquid medium.
Hive Mind - The large skull is also used in communication though it is unclear how. It is possible that they may use sub-sonic which we can not detect. The ridges on the head may be able to pick up strong brain wave activity and may be related to their pressure sensitivity. In any case messages can be communicated through groups or the entire hive almost instanly. The Queen having the largest skull seems to do this readily and it verges on telepathy.
Tactile - With the boney exoskeleton it is difficult to tell if these creatures are sensitive to touch or not. The chitin on thier hands and feet though is arranged in rought hooks which does aid them in scaling walls. It's possible they may taste with their digits as well, this is mostly seen when a host is captured and felt to see if it is suitable for their offspring.
Aquisition of Acidity Theory - It is thought in some circles that face huggers are not hatched having their own acid. It is believed that some of them attain this defense while inside their host by incorporating and modifying the host's stomach acid into their blood stream. This is why they gestate in the digestive tract.
