Commissioned from the very talented  Rikkoshaye
This species is from a setting I'm working on, which you can see here: http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=42469&start=0

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General Description
The alien species which refer to themselves as the "Hive", "Hivekind", or "we of the Hive" is a telepathic species which possess features similar to some arthropod, reptilian, and avian species.
The Hive have socio-biological castes, similar to that of ants; these castes are scouts, workers, warriors, drones, and queens. Unlike ants, however, all castes are sexually active. Though, only drones and queens are fertile.

Physiology
The Hive are composed of two-armed, quadrupedal carnivores, evolved from pack hunters. They are warm-blooded, and possess both an endoskeleton as well as a chitinous exoskeleton, which is russet brown in color, with a lighter hue on the lower jaw, chest, and underside. In addition to this, they possess a toothed beak, and sharp, chitinous claws, four thorny horns, as well as a long tail.
There are two genders, and they reproduce through oviparity.
All those of the Hive start out their biological development as eggs, then hatch into larvae, whom then cocoon themselves at age 3, and finally emerge in their adult forms. However, they do not reach physical and mental maturity until the age of 14. Though, they do not reach middle age until age 62, old age at 93, and finally become venerable around age 108.
There are five different castes: scouts, workers, warriors, drones, and queens. All possessing different physiologies and mental abilities.
Only Hive drones are male, all members of the other castes are female. Though, out of all those, only queens are fertile.
They have large, elliptical, silvery eyes with pentachromatic vision, which means that they can perceive five primary wavelengths of light (humans can only see three), the visible longwave (red), visible mediumwave (green), visible shortwave (blue), and ultraviolet longwaves A and B.
Those of the Hive can distinguish between individuals through scent alone. They are also able to detect if another individual is of another Hive, and tend to become hostile upon smelling this. However, this does not apply to other species, as they do not release hive-specific pheromones.
Most notably, though, are their telepathic abilities. All Hive castes are able to send and read thoughts, though queens are far superior, being able to control weaker minds.
Those of the Hive possess formidable natural armor and weaponry, as well as an immunity to cold. This immunity stems from an anti-freeze protein in their blood.

Military
Despite being called the Hive, there is seldom unity between hives. The only exception to this being the hive nations of the past, which even then were very feudalistic.
Because of the fierce competition between hives through-out their history, the Hive know much of war. As a matter of fact, the Hive homeworld was destroyed by war.
In the past, each hive maintained its own military. In these militaries, scouts functioned as surveyors and information gatherers, workers functioned as engineers and maintenance crews, warriors functioned as soldiers and guards, while drones and unmated queens functioned as commanders.

Today, members of all Hive castes are employed by the Asterian military, and thanks to their social integration, most of the Hive consider Asteria as part of their own hives. This has made Hive soldiers and officers fiercely loyal.

Where Asterian and Hive military traditions clash are the attitude towards intimate relationships between personnel. Traditionally, social bonds, including intimate bonds, helped hold together Hive military units. Though, such bonds are not allowed in the Asterian military, and is something Hive personnel struggle to overcome.

Hierarchy
The Hive military structure bears much resemblance to a family structure, where authority is due to seniority. As such, commanding officers are referred to as "big sisters" or "big brothers", while their personnel are referred to as "little sisters" or "little bothers".
Despite this, however, the Hive have adapted to the Asterian military tradition.

Societal Characteristics
Those of the Hive are quite friendly, except towards other hives or individuals whom they perceive as threats.
They possess a group mentality, meaning that, among other things, they will try maintain good relations with everyone in their social unit and will share what they have with them. As a matter of fact, private property is an alien concept to them; while they share their belongings with their social unit, they also tend to assume that the belongings of the others are equally shared. This is something they've had a hard time adapting to on Earth.
While greed isn't common among individuals, entire hives tend to display greed towards other hives and potential threats. Betraying one's hive or other social unit for personal benefit is to them a horrifying and alien crime.
Those of the Hive experience discomfort when alone, even distress when exposed to isolation, and as such prefer to do everything with their social unit, including sleeping.
They very rarely express rebelliousness, and in fact tend to be fiercely loyal.

Art and Literature
Hive art and literature tend to be one and the same, as their language is pictographic and is very visually expressive, while their visual art is rich with symbolism. This means that, to the uninitiated, Hive literature will appear to be visual artwork alone.
As sound play a very minor role in Hive life, they have no music. However, those of the Hive do have somewhat analogous telepathic "songs" and "concerts". These are rhythmic thoughts and mental images which express some aesthetic meaning. These telepathic songs are sometimes accompanied by expressive body movement, analogous to dancing.

Courtship and Family
Those of the Hive are pansexual and polyamorous, and tend to form short-term intimate bonds with several individuals. When those of the Hive mate, they also temporarily bond telepathically, creating an extra dimension of intimacy.
While Hive queens form many intimate bonds, they require active drones in order to reproduce. Similar to the queens' other mates, these drones are exchanged every once in a while, which also increases genetic diversity.
Queens are able to lay unfertilized eggs, from which only drones hatch. Only females can hatch from fertilized eggs, however.
A Hive queen can lay between 120 to 360 eggs per year. These eggs, and the subsequent larvae, are cared for and taught by workers, and fed by regurgitation, until they cocoon themselves.
During this early stage of development, the workers give the larvae "larval names". This name is eventually replaced by an "adult name" chosen at some time after emerging from their cocoons.

The Hive family bonds are very strong, with each family, called a "hive", being comprised of hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals. Each member of the Hive bears its hive name with pride, and there's almost always a rivalry, if not all-out enmity, between hives. Though, these interhive relations are usually improved through drones.
Social bonding is imperative in order to hold together a hive, they do almost everything together. "Wanting to be alone" is a foreign concept to them, and they are very susceptible to psychological damage if exposed to prolonged isolation.
Incest within hives are not only common, but expected. Due to the members of most castes being infertile, yet still sexually capable, they do not risk in-breeding, and this activity strengthens the bonds of Hive social units. However, related drones and queens never mate, as the result of this could prove disastrous.

There are of course always some sexual deviants, desiring polygamous or even monogamous relationships. However, these faced a lot of discrimination and harassment in the past, as most of the Hive consider such forms of relationships to be immoral and selfish.

Language
While most of the Hive's communication is telepathic, they do possess a rich visual and olfactorily body language to communicate unspoken feelings (annoyance, anxiety, sexual interest, etc.), social status, and overall health.
Their written language is logographic, where each symbol represents a word or idea.
Their naming conventions are quite simple. Each name is simply made out of either a single noun (ex. Talon), an adjective and a noun (ex. Headstrong Seeker), or two nouns (ex. Stone Crusher). Every individual bear a personal name, as well as their hive name.