Editing Xenomorph (section)

====Queen====
[[File:Alien (1986) - Alien queen.jpg|thumb|Ripley and Newt encounter a queen in ''Aliens''.]]
Queen aliens are significantly larger and stronger than the normal adults, being approximately {{convert|4.5|m}} tall.<ref>[http://www.sideshowtoy.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=082504alien2 Sideshowtoy]. Retrieved February 15, 2006.</ref> Their body structure also differs, having two pairs of arms, one large and one small. The queen's head is larger than those of other adult Aliens and is protected by a large, flat crest, like a crown, which varies from queen to queen. Unlike other aliens, the queen's external mouth is separately segmented from the rest of her head, allowing her to turn her mouth left and right almost to the point where it is facing perpendicular to the direction of the rest of her head. In the second film, ''Aliens'', unlike other adults and queens, the queen had high-heel protrusions from her feet.

Egg-laying Alien queens possess an immense [[ovipositor]] attached to their lower torso, similar to a queen termite's. Like [[hymenoptera|some]] insect [[Queen (bee)|queens]], there appears to be no need for an Alien queen's eggs to be fertilized.<ref name="AvP"/><ref name="A4"/> When attached to her ovipositor, the queen is supported by a "biomechanical [[throne]]"<ref>James Cameron, ''Alien Evolution: Aliens''</ref> that consists of a lattice of struts resembling massive insect legs.

In the original cut of ''Alien'', the Alien possessed a complete lifecycle, with the still-living bodies of its victims converted into eggs. However, the scene showing the crew converted into eggs was cut for reasons of pacing, leaving the ultimate origin of the eggs obscure. This allowed ''Aliens'' director [[James Cameron]] to introduce a concept he had initially conceived for a spec script called ''Mother'',<ref name="mother">''[[Aliens (film)|Aliens]]'', film commentary, ''Alien Quadrilogy'' box set</ref> a massive mother Alien queen which laid eggs and formed the basis for the Aliens' life cycle. Cameron conceived the queen as a monstrous analogue to Ripley's own maternal role in the film.<ref name="mother"/> In that vein, some critics have compared it to [[Grendel's mother]].<ref>[http://web.nwe.ufl.edu/~jchapman/beowulf/beomain.html ''The Alien Trilogy: A New Beowulf''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080209102624/http://web.nwe.ufl.edu/~jchapman/beowulf/beomain.html |date=February 9, 2008 }}</ref><ref>[http://web.nwe.ufl.edu/~jchapman/beowulf/queenA.html ''Alien Queen'' in Cameron's ''Aliens'' (1986).] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080115222308/http://web.nwe.ufl.edu/~jchapman/beowulf/queenA.html |date=January 15, 2008 }}</ref>

The queen was designed by Cameron in collaboration with special effects artist [[Stan Winston]], based upon an initial painting Cameron had done at the start of the project. The Winston Studio created a test foamcore queen before constructing the full hydraulic [[puppet]] which was used for most of the scenes involving the large Alien. Two people were inside working the twin sets of arms, and puppeteers off-screen worked its jaws and head. Although at the end of the film, the queen was presented full-body fighting the power-loader, the audience never sees the legs of the queen, save those of the small-scale puppet that appears only briefly. In ''Aliens'', Cameron used very selective camera-angles on the queen, using the '[[wikt:less is more|less is more]]' style of photography. Subsequently, the movie won an [[Academy Award for Visual Effects|Oscar for Visual Effects]]. An adult queen was to reappear in ''Alien Resurrection''. The original mechanical head previously used in ''Aliens'' was provided by [[Bob Burns III|Bob Burns]] and was an altered design. It was repainted with a blend of green and brown, giving it a shimmering, insect-like quality. This color concept would be abandoned in ''[[Alien vs. Predator (film)|Alien vs. Predator]]'' in favour of the original black color scheme.<ref name="AVPmaking"/>

In the climax of ''Alien vs. Predator'', the queen's basic design was altered to make her more "streamlined" in appearance and her overall size was increased to six meters (20 feet) tall. Other changes include the removal of the "high-heel" protrusions on her legs, including additional spines on her head and making her waist thinner because there was no need for puppeteers inside her chest. The [[animatronic]] queen had 47 points of hydraulic motion.<ref name="AVPmaking"/>

''Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem'' (2007) introduced a younger form of the full-grown queen, albeit with traits inherited from its [[Predator (alien)|Predator]] host. Recalling the facehugger's method of embryo implantation, the Predalien uses its inner mouth to directly deposit multiple chestburster embryos into pregnant female hosts, also using its mandibles to latch on the faces of said hosts, completely bypassing the need for facehuggers.<ref name="belly">"The bellybursters were actually in the first draft that Colin and I read...They had the bellybursters...caused by an alien warrior...We actually made it the Predalien that was reproducing in this fashion" –Greg Strause, "AvP-R: Preparing for War: Development and Production" featurette, from the ''Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem'' Region 1 Extreme Unrated Set DVD</ref> This is explained by the Brothers Strause as a means of quickly building an army of Aliens before the young queen evolves into its sedentary, egg-laying state.<ref name="autogenerated1">''"Basically the Predalien's kind of a baby queen—there's a phase in between warrior alien and full-blown queen...they do this thing with embryo implantation.. the idea with that was, how does a baby queen quickly form her own little mini-drone army to get the hive built before she evolves into the final state where she can't completely defend herself?"''--Colin Strause, "AvP-R: Preparing for War: Development and Production" featurette, from the ''Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem'' Region 1 Extreme Unrated Set DVD</ref>