The ultimate super organism. There is nothing like a colony of army ants traveling through space munching on the odd planet or two. The Hive Mind acts just like the queen and they are nomadic, having no nest or home world as the case may be. Unlike the army ants Nids will strip a planet of all its resources not just its life forms. Tyranids display dimorphism which is seen in insects such as ants and wasps, is found in reptiles and even mammals.

The book and movie Starship Troopers is a large inspiration for Nids. To start off, there are the Brain Bugs which would be the basis for synapse creatures. This is followed by the different types of bugs with their specific purposes. In the movie the massed hoards are very much the picture of what a Nid army should look like. The movie provides the hoard like imagery that nids should evoke. (Note: the book is much better than the movie)

One can�t miss that Genestealers owe their existence to the Alien movies. While the �infecting� of a host is as close as we�ll get to the implantation of embryos, it is, in effect, the same. Both ways will produce offspring, one is just more time consuming. The only thing not found is the face huggers although the ripper jacks in Necromunda are similar. The Genstealer cult could be based on two things modern cults and the deep rooted fear of disease. They are, after all, the ultimate infection. From the cults come acolytes; ones who have received the highest of the four minor orders in the Catholic Church and neophytes; recent converts to a religion. It also refers to people who have just been welcomed into a Church through confirmation. Literally a "new one".

Rome gives us the Lictor, an officer whose duty it was to attend the chief magistrates when they appeared in public and apprehend and punish criminals. From Latin we get Carnifex translated as an executioner, meat maker and/or butcher. Back now to ancient Greece for a slave serving in a temple serving a single deity to find a Hierodule.

Zoanthropy is the delusion that you have assumed the form of an animal. Considering that all Tyranids are created from a host species, each type of nid may be taken to be a morphed creature. This gives us the Zoanthrope while Zoats potentially are derived from zoa the plural of zoon. The meaning is one of the distinct individuals that join to form a compound or colonial animal; a zooid. Trygons are fish with a prickle in their tail, or any one of many types of large sting rays. A Termagant is a quarrelsome, scolding woman, a shrew, formerly applied to both sexes, but now only to women. Harridan is also a scolding, vicious, old woman. Biovores have two sources for the name; bio means living and vore is one that eats, literally one that eats life. The Ravener is one who ravens, like a bird of prey. In Spanish hormigante means ant, an excellent source word for hormagaunt. Lastly the Tyranids are said to be led by the Norn Queens. The Norns were the three goddesses of destiny that Odin confers with about the future in Norse Mythology. This fits the idea of collective mind guiding the destiny of the Tyranids. It is also implied in the name Tyranid, and in Latin tyrannus means tyrant or absolute ruler.

Last of all, the space fleets/colonies of the Tyranids are named for large mythical beasts; kraken, behemoth, and leviathan