9

Modern examples include the Zerg from StarCraft, Tyranids from Warhammer 40,000; the aliens from Alien (1979) are also central examples and seem like the immediate antecedent for most modern takes. But it seems very unlikely that the earliest example was 1979, given the obvious historical fiction analogues, chief among them the Eighth Plague of Israel.

I'm hardly the first to ask the question; previous inadequate answers I've seen include Triffids (1951), less organized and less 'hungry', and the Eddorians/Boskone from Lensman (1937-1948), which are much more organized but almost entirely missing the element of bestial hunger.

The one answer I've seen that might be adequate is Starship Troopers (1959); it's been a long time since I read it and I don't remember how the Bugs are depicted, whether they're more like an empire or a swarm, and if it's the latter this is possibly the first central example. But they're often described as being metaphors for communism, where I'd expect the earliest swarms to be pure beasts or metaphors for more Mongol-type steppe nomads. So I suspect that there are older variants than the 50s, but I'm not sure where to look for them. Do these exist?

7
  • 1
    The Bugs aren't space locusts. A better Heinlein example is the Dopey Joes from Tunnel in the Sky.
    – Shawn
    Commented Nov 26, 2023 at 22:59
  • 1
    You give some examples, but it would help if you begin by giving a definition of examctly what you mean by "'space locust'/'devouring swarm' type of alien." Do the swarm members have to be small or can they be quite large? Do the swarms have to be unintelligent, or can they have a hive mind intelligence or even individual intelligence? Must they be organic or can they be machines or energy beings?
    – user14111
    Commented Nov 26, 2023 at 23:53
  • Wyndham's 1957 Midwich cuckoos might fit? Andromeda Strain (1969) by Crichton also?
    – bob1
    Commented Nov 27, 2023 at 0:34
  • 2
    To me this question lacks clarity. If I had to guess what you mean by "space locusts", I'd say of your examples only the Tyranids from 40K qualify, in that they are a force of nature that devour worlds, but they aren't really bugs. Your other examples make your question unclear: the Bugs from Starship Troopers are nothing like Tyranids in either shape or behavior. Aliens (xenomorphs) were the inspiration of some of the shapes of Zergs and Tyranids, but their behavior doesn't match. And Zergs were initially just a ripoff of Tyranids, anyway.
    – Andres F.
    Commented Nov 27, 2023 at 3:06
  • "And Zergs were initially just a ripoff of Tyranids, anyway." No, that's an urban legend. The reverse is somewhat true. Being bugs per se is not really significant.
    – RegorOld
    Commented Nov 27, 2023 at 20:05

2 Answers 2

14

1930: Last and First Men, a novel by Olaf Stapledon, available at Project Gutenberg Australia. The Earth is invaded by Martians, who exist as cloudlets of motes with a kind of hive mind.

Terrestrial organisms, and Martian organisms of the terrestrial type, maintained themselves as vital unities by means of nervous systems, or other forms of material contact between parts. In the most developed forms, an immensely complicated neural "telephone" system connected every part of the body with a vast central exchange, the brain. Thus on the earth a single organism was without exception a continuous system of matter, which maintained a certain constancy of form. But from the distinctively Martian subvital unit there evolved at length a very different kind of complex organism, in which material contact of parts was not necessary either to coordination of behaviour or unity of consciousness. These ends were achieved upon a very different physical basis. The ultra-microscopic subvital members were sensitive to all kinds of etherial vibrations, directly sensitive, in a manner impossible to terrestrial life; and they could also initiate vibrations. Upon this basis Martian life developed at length the capacity of maintaining vital organization as a single conscious individual without continuity of living matter. Thus the typical Martian organism was a cloudlet, a group of free-moving members dominated by a "group-mind." But in one species individuality came to inhere, for certain purposes, not in distinct cloudlets only, but in a great fluid system of cloudlets. Such was the single-minded Martian host which invaded the Earth.

Some years after the first invasion the Martians appeared again, and in far greater force. This time, moreover, they were almost immune from man's offensive radiation. Operating simultaneously from all the alpine regions of the earth, they began to dry up the great rivers at their sources; and, venturing further afield, they spread over jungle and agricultural land, and stripped off every leaf. Valley after valley was devastated as though by endless swarms of locusts, so that in whole countries there was not a green blade left. The booty was carried off to Mars. Myriads of the subvital units, specialized for transport of water and food materials, were loaded each with a few molecules of the treasure, and dispatched to the home planet. The traffic continued indefinitely. Meanwhile the main body of the Martians proceeded to explore and loot. They were irresistible. For the absorption of water and leafage, they spread over the countryside as an impalpable mist which man had no means to dispel. For the destruction of civilization, they became armies of gigantic cloud-jellies, far bigger than the brute which had formed itself during the earlier invasion. Cities were knocked down and flattened, human beings masticated into pulp. Man tried weapon after weapon in vain.

2
  • 4
    Good find. I love "history-of" questions, but sometimes I think -- we always just have to answer, "Olaf Stapledon".....
    – Basya
    Commented Nov 27, 2023 at 10:04
  • 3
    Just wait, somebody's going to try and trace this theme back to Lucian's True History or the Rigveda orThe Epic of Gilgamesh.
    – user14111
    Commented Nov 27, 2023 at 12:44
3

1950: "Strange Exodus", a short story by Robert Abernathy, first published in Planet Stories, Fall 1950, available at the Internet Archive. The text of "Strange Exodus" is also available at Project Gutenberg.

Earth has been overrun by a swarm of giant worms from outer space.

Editorial blurb:

Gigantic, mindless, the Monsters had come out of interstellar space to devour Earth. They gnawed at her soil, drank deep of her seas. Where, on this gutted cosmic carcass, could humanity flee?

Excerpt:

He should have foreseen that and made his escape in time. Now that he had solved the problem of human survival.... But the bright ocean laughed at him, sparkling away wave beyond rolling wave, and beyond that blue headland could be only a land made desert, where men become beasts fought crazily over the last morsels of food. He had lost track of the days he had been on the monster's back, but the rape of Earth must be finished now. He had no doubt that the things would depart as they had come into the Solar System—in that close, seemingly one-willed swarm that Earth's astronomers had at first taken for a comet. If this one was leaving, the rest no doubt were too.

Excerpt:

"There are so many of them, and we've destroyed so few—and to kill those few took our mightiest weapons. Examination of the ones that have been killed discloses the reason why ordinary projectiles and bombs and poisons are ineffective against them—apart, that is, from the chief reason of sheer size. The creatures are so loosely organized that a local injury hardly affects the whole. In a sense, each one of them is a single cell—like the slime molds, the Earthly life forms that most resemble them.

"That striking resemblance, together with the fact that they chose Earth to attack out of all the planets of the Solar System, shows they must have originated on a world much like this. But while on Earth the slime molds are the highest reticular organisms, and the dominant life is all multicellular, on the monsters' home world conditions must have favored unicellular growth. Probably as a result of this unspecialized structure, the monsters have attained their great size and perhaps for the same reason they have achieved what even intelligent cellular life so far hasn't—liberation from existence bound to one world's surface, the conquest of space. They accomplished it not by invention but by adaptation, as brainless life once crawled out of the sea to conquer the dry land.

"The monsters who have descended on Earth must represent the end result of a long evolution completed in space itself. They are evidently deep-space beings, able to propel themselves from planet to planet and from star to star in search of food, guided by instinct to suns and worlds like ours. Descending on such a planet, they move across its surface systematically ingesting all edible material—all life not mobile enough to avoid their march. They are like caterpillars that overrun a planet and strip it of its leaves, before moving on to the next.

"Man is a highly mobile species, so our direct casualties of this invasion have been very light and will continue to be. But when the monsters have finished with Earth, there will be no vegetation left for man's food, no houses, no cities, none of the fixed installations of civilization, and the end will be far more terrible than if we were all devoured by the monsters."

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.