- See also Queen, for the title, leaders and other meanings of the word.
Queen parasites were a caste of bluegill parasites. They physically resembled soldier parasites a great deal and could take hosts in much the same way but have several differential features.
The queens were the mothers and leaders of other parasites. Each queen is born gestational with a finite number of offspring implanted - at least 50 soldier parasites, but were otherwise incapable of continuous reproduction. They themselves were the offspring of, and answered to, a parasite Spawnmother.
When a queen's soldier parasites were ready to mature the queen would grow a temporary second body connected to the main body at the brain stem by an umbilicus to grow them in.
The queens were capable of telepathic communication with other queens, they use mental imaging to project pictures rather than thoughts to other queens more like Klabnians than Betazoids. They were also capable of limited pheromonal communication with local soldier parasites being able to send simple messages such as "return to the collective" or "alert to danger". (DS9 novel: Unity)