History Main / BizarreAlienReproduction

* ''Literature/TheTwelveKingdoms'' has a truly weird reproductive system involving marriage but apparently no sex: when you get married, a fruit called Ranka grows on a tree, and out of it pops your baby. What makes it far weirder is that sometimes the Ranka fruit gets blown across the sea and is implanted in a Japanese woman -- this is how the central character of the anime, Youko Nakajima, would have been born, though she thought she was a normal Japanese girl until she was taken by force from her high school. In addition, royalty and other immortals can't marry -- and since Nakajima becomes a queen, that includes her -- and so they can't have children unless they were married before they become immortal. While it's established that they DO have sex it's apparently only done for fun, with no connection to the reproductive process at all.

* The Brood from ''ComicBook/XMen'' are a race of intelligent {{Xenomorph Xerox}}es. A human implanted with a Brood egg will eventually be physically (and mentally) transformed into a Brood member, and will retain any genetic-based abilities (e.g., mutant powers) the victim had.

* In an issue of ''ComicBook/BlueBeetle'', Jaime Reyes, having been teleported to Reach space, hitches a ride back to Earth with a space smuggler called Moonrunner. He suggests that they shake hands and agree not to betray each other, but Moonrunner refuses because he doesn't "like [Jaime] that way", at which point the scarab informs Jaime that Moonrunner's species reproduces by shaking hands.

* ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'': During one of their arguments about her mutant status, Henry Pym comments on the Wasp laying "egg-constructs" once a month instead of menstruating.

* ''Fanfic/LanternPrime'': Cybertronians have two forms of reproduction. Vector Prime produces Protoforms (ala ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'') which have to be initialized by one to five other Cybertronians, taking on aspects of all the parents. Alternatively, female Cybertronians (called Makers), which are very rare, can interface with a male Cybertronian, splitting off a part of each partner's [[OurSoulsAreDifferent Spark]] and gestating it until it becomes a new complete Spark, at which point it's transferred into a new body built by the Maker.

* One Russian FanSequel to ''Film/Alien3'' (published in the 90s in book form along with novellizations of the three movies existing by then) reveals that the Aliens are actually a rather peaceful race which uses another species (sapient, but not very intelligent) as a host for its embryos capable of surviving the "birth". What leads to the plot of the movies is a single girl who fell pregnant out of wedlock and tried to covertly dump her kids on a race which superficially resembled the symbionts. Except they have vital organs where the latter have the womb.

* Although not actually alien, the creatures from the ''Film/{{Tremors}}'' series have a bizarre life cycle that qualifies for this trope. Eggs hatch into baby "Graboids" the size of large rodents called "Dirt Dragons", which grow into full grown [[SandWorm bus-sized Graboids]]; three to six large dog-sized "Shriekers" (each capable of rapid parthenogenesis) burst from the mature Graboid at the end of it's cycle, killing it; mature Shriekers pupate, then emerge as winged "Ass Blasters", which lay eggs and are roughy the same size as Shriekers. It is shown that the entire process is asexual, with Ass Blasters developing a new Graboid egg within a matter of hours.

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''
** [[PuppeteerParasite Yeerks]] are implied to have NoBiologicalSex, but have a form of sexual reproduction: three individuals fuse into one, which then disintegrates into hundreds of "grubs" which develop into baby Yeerks. (Occasionally one grub will turn into twins.) The Yeerk parents die in the process.
** The Skrit Na are even stranger. The "Skrit" look sort of like giant roaches and are fairly stupid. At some point during their lives they spin a cocoon, die, but then out of their dead body a Na (basically [[TheGreys a Grey]]) pops out. It's never explained where new Skrit come from, but the Na certainly have a weird way of coming into this (or some other) world.
* The [[SpaceElves Lo'ona Aeo]] in Creator/MikhailAkhmanov's ''Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark'' series have four sexes. Their approximate names are male, female, half-male, and half-female. Half-females are sterile and don't participate in the reproductive process. Males and half-males join their minds with females, which starts the "mental contamination" process and impregnates the female without actual physical contact. The resulting child's personality is based on all three parents. Until their maturity, Lo'ona Aeo can artificially induce a slightly different sex on themselves using medical means (e.g. an immature half-female can make herself a female). Reproduction is directed by the heads of extended families in order to prevent unwanted genetic branches. Thus, they may force a female to become a half-female in order to cut off any possible offspring from that line.\\
The novels describe a unique case of a human male (descended from a human-[[HumanAlien Faata]] hybrid) using his latent telepathic abilities to accidentally "mentally contaminate" a Lo'ona Aeo female. Her son ended up lacking the extreme xenophobia that all Lo'ona Aeo have and becomes an adventurer (a quality inherited from his father). Since Lo'ona Aeo live for over 1000 years, he has encountered several of his father's human descendants.

** In "Literature/WhatIsThisThingCalledLove": The [[HumansThroughAlienEyes alien protagonists]] are an asexually reproducing species. One [[FantasticAnthropologist alien researcher]] is trying to convince his boss that Earth animals have bisexual reproduction, although neither one really understand the difference between mating and courtship, and the subjects they kidnap are too embarrassed to explain anything.

* Creator/BrandonSanderson:
** ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'':
*** The koloss are an artificial species, so their method of reproduction is rather simple: [[spoiler:Basically, the souls of four humans are ripped out and stapled to a fifth. This fifth person then mutates into a koloss]]. The really weird part is that koloss swords can be used to control their population. If they have fewer swords than koloss, they will fight each other over the swords until their population has shrunk enough. If there are more swords than koloss, they will create more koloss until every koloss has a sword. By ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'', Harmony has changed the koloss so that they reproduce sexually. However, the child of two koloss is merely a "koloss-blooded," an otherwise ordinary human who is just tougher and stronger. When they come of age, they have the option to be transformed into a full koloss or leave the clan. Likewise, outsiders have the option of entering the clan and being transformed into full koloss. The clan doesn't care where someone came from once they are transformed.
*** The kandra have two stages of life: The non-sentient mistwraiths (which presumably reproduce sexually), and the sentient kandra. Kandra can only be created by giving a mistwraith special "blessings," which [[spoiler:are [[BloodMagic hemalurgic spikes]] made by killing a human]]. The kandra have neither the ability nor the desire to make the blessings themselves, leaving them completely at the mercy of their creator.
** ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': Little is known about the reproductive process of the Rosharan chasmfiend, but one stage seems to involve the creature climbing up onto a plateau, spinning a vaguely insect-like cocoon out of what is basically cement, and waiting for one of the storms that come along every few days. Presumably, they need the {{Mana}} the storms carry to fuel the transformation to the next stage of their cycle. In the second book, Shallan points out that since the Alethi have been slaughtering pupating chasmfiends on a massive scale for the past six years, they're dealing huge damage to the ecology of the region, and it's not sustainable.
** Though the [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Parshendi]] reproductive process itself is similar to that of humans -- so much so that the Horneaters are [[UnevenHybrid offshoots of long-ago human/Parshendi intermarriage]] -- how they ''get'' to the point that they mate is very unusual. The Parshendi are shapeshifters who take on different "forms" in their lives, and in almost all of their forms they have no interest in sexual intercourse. The exception is mateform, in which they are ''constantly'' obsessed with hedonistic pleasure and sex. While other Parshendi forms ''can'' theoretically have sex, they have virtually no drive to do so.
** The diones from his ''Literature/{{Skyward}}'' series have "right" and "left" genders instead of "male" and "female". To reproduce, a right and left must merge together into a composite dione known as a "draft", which has most of the memories of its constituents but its own unique personality. After several months, a draft splits back into its component right and left, but if it so chooses it can also leave behind an infant dione which will grow up to have a similar personality to the draft that produced it. Notably, this has made it uniquely easy for diones to remove any dissent from their culture (as per Superiority values): If the draft's family doesn't approve of the personality of the draft, they simply have the draft separate without producing an offspring, then recombine and see if they get someone they like better this time.

* ''Literature/LesXipehuz'': The Xipéhuz, being the first example for BizarreAlienBiology and StarfishAliens in literature, naturally display this. Every solstice and equinox, they gather in groups of three, merge into some kind of ellipsoid and stay this way overnight. The next day, they part and leave giant smoky forms which become denser and form into cones much bigger than the adult Xipéhuz before shrinking into their adult forms.
* ''Literature/{{Rocheworld}}'': Flowen mate by gathering in a group of three or more (we see four), mingling their biomass, and withdrawing the colored liquid that forms their neurochemistry, then pinching off the now-clear globs of tissue, which slowly settles on a personality and color over the course of thirty seconds or so. They can also clone themselves by fission, which is exploited when their human friends recruit them to explore the rest of the Barnard's Star solar system.

* In an old Maxis game, ''VideoGame/UnnaturalSelection'', genetically engineered creatures reproduce via "melting into a skin colored blob, combinating and laying a baby version of themselves" you can watch this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hin-DIVIeqE here]].

* ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear''. While it's AllThereInTheManual, Gears apparently lay eggs or the children come out in a protective cocoon they later hatch out of.

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'':
** It has been suggested that many of the species reproduce via spores rather than in the conventional fashion, given the way that you can chain up members of different sexes at opposite ends of the fortress and still get offspring.
** A more deliberate design choice can be seen in the form of night trolls, [[SingleGenderRace single gender monsters]] who kidnap members of the opposite sex, [[TheVirus transforms them into "spouses",]] and proceed to reproduce in the normal way. The children are always the same sex as the night troll parent, and the spouse is often slain or simply abandoned (which inevitably means death at the hands of their former species). Notably, night trolls are happy to prey on elves, dwarves or humans, but goblins just don't do it for them.

* While it's never shown how sex among ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' works, some aspects of their reproduction are defintely weird:
** Every species is part of one or two egg-groups and could mate with any other pokémon of the same egg group as long as it's of the opposite gender, [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction even if there is vast size differences between the two.]] The offspring will always be of the female's species, but with some of the male's moves.
** Ditto is a genderless Pokémon that can mate with any other fertile Pokémon regardless of gender. The offspring is never Ditto, but always the other Pokémon's species.
*** The only exception is Manaphy, which will always produce an Egg containing a Phione (which cannot evolve into Manaphy).
** Some species are male-only or female-only. The male-only species can only reproduce other members of his species with the help of Ditto. How these Pokémon propagate without Ditto's help is unexplained.
*** The only exceptions being the Nidoran-line and Volbeat/Illumise, where male and female are regarded as different species, but the female can produce offspring of the male species, even if her male is of a different species.
** Some species are genderless and only able to mate with Ditto. Much like Male-only species, how they do it without Ditto isn't explained.
** Some species cannot reproduce in-game, but some of them are seen to have eggs or babies in other media. An event in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' allows you to get a Cosmog by bringing a Solgaleo or Lunala to a different "version" of Alola and allowing them to meet with the Lunala/Solgaleo of that world. The Cosmog instantly appears after the "meeting" but the player doesn't get to see the exact details of what happens.
** And the daycare-owner still doesn't know where the eggs come from. Some dialogue with [=NPCs=] even suggest that Pokémon eggs aren't even eggs in the biological sense and are more like "cradles"... No explanation is given as to what this is supposed to mean.
** Nihilego, an [[EldritchAbomination Ultra Beast]], does not breed like regular Pokemon, but [[https://i.imgur.com/wMYYOh2.jpg concept art]] shows that it breeds by spawning polyps that grow into larvae and then adults. Basically, it reproduces like a real jellyfish. Other Ultra Beasts may have other methods of propagating that are different from the standard "male-and-female produce an egg in a daycare", such as Celesteela sprouting from the ground in its home world.
* ''Trials in Tainted Space'' is an [[PornWithPlot erotic]] SpaceOpera which has the player boldly going to new planets to earn their fortune while BoldlyComing into every alien they meet. While almost every alien has average human genitals the Nyrea have something far different. The males lack penises, instead, they have sperm sacs inside a cavity in their hips. The [[OneHeadTaller larger]] female uses her spiked ovipositor, an organ that looks like a horse penis with spines at the tip, to rend the sperm sacs and suck up the sperm to fertilize her eggs. If the female is an alpha of her group, she will make a lesser female gestate her eggs. Yeah.
* ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'':
** The Glitch is a race of robots made to simulate evolution. Part of their programming is an inability to realize that they aren't ortganic beings (though now and then a Glitch manages to break past the blocks), so they have a lot of internal blinds, including when reproduction is concerned. When a Glitch couple decide it's time to start a family, they retreat to their bedroom. They then enter a trance-like state and proceed to a secret workshop none of them are consciously aware of, where they assemble their new offspring. Upon completion, they leave the workshop and return home, after which they snap out of the trance. They will have no memory of the event, but are convinced that it was "very pleasant".
** The Floran are a race of plants and are technically genderless beyond cosmetic details. While nothing canonical is clarified about their reproduction, their respawning animation shows a seed sprouting into a pod that opens to release a reborn Floran. Early beta versions also had "Floran pods" planted in fields. Presumably, the Floran reproduce by pollination leading to seeds that are planted and produce offspring without internal gestation.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** The LizardFolk Argonians are easily the most "alien" out of the playable races, being [[ColdBloodedWhatever cold-blooded reptiles]] who are the only playable race which didn't descend from the [[{{Precursors}} Ehlnofey]].[[note]]The [[CatFolk Khajiit]] may also have not descended from the Ehlnofey, but there is conflicting lore on the subject.[[/note]] The Argonians are an oviparous (egg-laying) sapient species, with the females also possessing NonMammalMammaries. According to some ([[UnreliableNarrator potentially dubious]]) sources, the Argonians are also sequential hermaphrodites, meaning they can [[GenderBender switch genders]]. The time spent as either male or female is called a "life-phase".
** The Sload "slug men" are another very alien race native to the Thras archipelago to the southwest of Tamriel. Born into broods of aquatic, amorphous grubs whose parents "[[ParentalAbandonment care little]]" for them (and even actively kill them in order to produce the alchemical ingredient "Sload Soap"), those who survive grow into "squishy" adolescents likened to octopi. Further, adult Sload are believed to be hermaphrodites who absorb their sexual organs by the time they are capable of surviving on land.
* The Xel'naga of ''Franchise/StarCraft'' reproduce via two separate species, one with purity of form (psionic power) and one with purity of essence (CannibalismSuperpower), merging together and being granted the essence of the previous generation of Xel'naga. Then they find a new universe, seed it with life, and hibernate in the void between universes until the next two races find them.
* Goblins in ''VideoGame/WestOfLoathing'' are a kind of sentient, ambulatory fungus. They can bud off short-lived spawn for battle, or they can "pop" into a cloud of spores, to be dispersed by the wind and eventually grow into adult goblins. The goblin pardner Gary wants to find a suitable location for popping.
* ''VideoGame/TheLastSovereign'': The succubi and the orcs.
** Sex or more specifically semen is required for impregnation as with humans, but succubi can willfully control when they want to get pregnant, obviously useful for a race of nymphomaniacs. Additionally, semen can be absorbed anywhere on the succubus body. Males from any species can conceive with succubi as can orcs (who are otherwise sterile) or succubi utilizing "futa" spells, and regardless of the father, the children are always succubi. Succubi using "futa" spells on women of any other species doesn't work, however. So, a bit like a sexier version of how the [[Franchise/MassEffect asari]] do it.
** Orcs naturally feel a primal urge to fuck women of all races, but despite this all orcs are sterile and can only father children with succubi, which can reproduce with any sapient species. Instead, as orcs grow older, gain experience, and have sex, they grow larger turning into ogres. Once an ogre has reached the upper limit of growth it splits into smaller fully formed orcs and the process repeats. If Succubi are similar to Asari, then orcs are more closely a mix of generic hentai orcs and ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' Orks, combining the former's uncontrollable sexual appetites with the latter's continuous growth and asexual reproduction.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/ContractDemon'': Demons are incapable of reproducing sexually. The only way to make a new demon is to have a mortal sell their soul to a contract demon. When the mortal dies, they suffer a DeathOfPersonality as their soul is transformed into a newborn demon.
[[/folder]]

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'':
** The title character is a [[BlobMonster carbosilicate amorph]], essentially a race of organic data-storage systems turned sentient. They typically reproduce by splitting off a part of themselves that contains their personality, and merging it with that of another. On top of that, due to the "sentient data-storage" bit, it's also possible to reproduce with non-amorphs through a period of observation -- [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2003-03-20 a process Commander Kevyn compared to marriage.]] On top of ''that'', two amorphs battling it out usually results in, rather than one or both parties dying, a single amorph with merged personality traits of both combatants.
** The Qlavo ''conceive'' normally with males and females, but hand off responsibilities of development to a third gender, muftales.
** This goes on, as a whole [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2004-06-05 rather more]] than we see. Even humans are not exempt; most pregnancies are handled in cheap artificial wombs, and births are performed on the kitchen counter.
* ''Webcomic/TwistedTropes'': [[Franchise/StarTrek Captain Kirk]] saves Zeta-2 and asks the GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe for a "suitable reward". She rewards him with NaughtyTentacles and pregnancy. The strip description comments that him hooking up with [[Film/JohnCarter Dejah Thoris]] is just as likely as humanoid [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi Sarlacc]].

* ''Webcomic/LsEmpire'': Kayoss reproduce by holding hands. Each Kayoss can only mate with [[SingleTargetSexuality one person]], even if that person isn't a Kayoss, or in Void's case, [[{{Robosexual}} alive]].
* In ''Webcomic/{{Bardsworth}},'' fairies are a female OneGenderRace. When a community wants more members, they do a ritual with some part of nature (usually a young tree) and something like [[MassiveNumberedSiblings thirty baby fairies]] result. A species called the Arbori the same way, as do the all-male demons, though their version is implied to be nastier.
-->'''Mike:''' So...your dad is a tree?
* ''Webcomic/BloodIsMine'': [[spoiler:The protagonist was hatched from an egg, even though she is half human. The details of this are not given.]]

* ''Webcomic/DragonSanctuary'': There is always a set number of Draconians in the world. When one dies and their corpse is burned, a new one is created and grows to maturity within one to five years. At no point do they ever mate, and their families are based more on bonds rather than any blood relations.

* "Body Shifters Universe": The aliens are human-sized bacteria that shapeshift into whatever form a person finds most attractive, absorbs the DNA and divides into two more shifters who continue to mate with the nonshifter parent.

* There was an episode of ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' where Rogue was almost turned into a Queen for the Brood, an alien race which breed by basically infecting other species and turning them into one of themselves. However, Rogue touched ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, borrowing his HealingFactor and returned to normal.

* The MechanicalLifeforms of ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' often have some "Bizarre Alien Assembly Process". Since ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' they're usually depicted as metamorphosing from blank-faced liquid metal "protoforms," which depending on continuity may be grown in energy "wombs" and become fully grown cybertronians once they get sparks implanted. At least one series mentioned "protoform molds", which might be a jab at the old die-cast toys.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarTreckLowerDecks'': The nameless humanoid species that inhabits the planet Balkus 9 are a OneGenderRace that "reproduce by dermal contact". In layman's terms, when one of these [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe blue alien women]] touches a compatible humanoid, they transfer a protein mass into the new host and then [[BrainUploading transfer their consciousness into that mass]]. The original body dissolves into dust, and the mass [[ExpressDelivery transforms into a fully-formed infant within seconds]], which must then be birthed (or surgically extracted) to mature over an unknown period of time. [[MisterSeahorse Oh, and they can use human men as incubators for these clone-daughters.]]

** Gems are manufactured from non-living minerals using special machinery, with the new gems literally popping out of a hole in the ground. The Classroom Gems short "How Are Gems Made?" elaborates on this procedure: the Gems [[BornAsAnAdult pop out fully grown]], [[spoiler:but the procedure also drains life from the soil and nearby plants and leaves the ground barren and withered]]. [[HumansThroughAlienEyes Viewed from the opposite direction]], Rose Quartz found ''humans'' had bizarre reproduction methods, finding the idea of growing up so weird that she thought adult and child humans were different species.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretShow'': In [[Recap/TheSecretShowS1E11AlienAttack "Alien Attack"]], the titular aliens' life-cycle relies on the humans eating them and then burping them up in order to be reborn.

** Andorians, as revealed in the expanded universe, have [[BizarreAlienSexes four separate genders, all of which are needed for reproduction]]. Deconstructed in that this is revealed to be causing their genetic diversity to break down; by the time period covered in ''Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineRelaunch'', they're a DyingRace with extinction predicted within fifteen generations. And ''that'' is being ''optimistic''. There is actually a scientific movement underway looking to retro-engineer them back into being a two-gender race, which is [[ScienceIsBad meeting severe opposition from many Andorians]], as the four-gender quartet is an integral part of their culture and religion.

** The Skrit Na are even stranger. The "Skrit" look sort of like giant roaches and are fairly stupid. At some point during their lives they spin a cocoon, die, but then out of their dead body a Na (basically [[TheGreys a Grey)]] pops out. It's never explained where new Skrit come from, but the Na certainly have a weird way of coming into this (or some other) world.

* The Nac Mac Feegle in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' has one female to a tribe, who is the Kelda and is married to the most powerful warrior. [[WomenAreWiser It's her job to do the thinking for the entire tribe]] and, although she's their ruler, she's also, in a way, a prisoner. Female births are very rare and girls are expected, upon reaching adulthood, to either find a tribe whose Kelda has recently died or collect a few men from nearby tribes to form a new tribe. In either case, she takes some of her brothers with her to keep her company until she gets to know her new people. Incidentally, Creator/TerryPratchett was quite interested in bees and their swarming behaviours.

** Nihilego, an [[EldritchAbomination Ultra Beast]], does not breed like regular Pokemon, but [[https://i.imgur.com/wMYYOh2.jpg Concept art]] shows that it breeds by spawning polyps that grow into larvae and then adults. Basically, it reproduces like a real jellyfish. Other Ultra Beasts may have other methods of propagating that are different from the standard "male-and-female produce an egg in a daycare", such as Celesteela sprouting from the ground in its home world.

** Forging is also shown to have some strange limitations on it. For example, following the departure of most of the Thirteen Primes, sparks from Cybertron and its moons just... stopped forging more than one assigned sex, leading to a Cybertron so dominated by male-presenting robots that post-war some of them have trouble remembering that there ''are'' feminine pronouns. The thing where artists would put in the occasional {{Fembot}} in flashbacks and pre-War stories was eventually resolved by having them all be transgender (and [[AuthorsSavingThrow frantically patching]] the parts of Arcee's background that had UnfortunateImplications to lock her in as a proud trans woman whose murderous rampage was related to Jhiaxus's terrible aftercare). Some of the colonies have their own quirks: Camiens have blue [[AlienBlood energon]] instead of pink due to different spark frequencies, Devisiens are born as twins who form a combined altmode, Eukariens all have beast forms and so on.

** Eusociality isn't limited to insects, either. Naked mole rats are eusocial mammals.

* ''Literature/BosunsReturn'': Bogmoths are a clade of insects with a decidedly unusual reproductive strategy. Their grub-like reproductive adults, divided between haploid males[[note]]with a single set of chromosomes[[/note]] and diploid females[[note]]two sets[[/note]] lack external sexual organs, and instead mate by cocooning together and fusing into a single being, with a cluster of eggs being produced from their cocoon; adults that fail to reproduce pupate on their own and reproduce asexually. After the larvae hatch, the metamorphosed fused or singleton adults emerge as a post-adult, sterile stage called the senescent sentinel, or "senesentinel", whose exact form and role depends on the pair or individual that formed them. Solitary males, which don't produce eggs, become small predators that keep their environment clear of pests. Solitary females and male-male pairs produce diploid senesentinels, which are winged and transport larvae and adults around to start new colonies. Male-female pairs produce triploid senesentinels, large predators that serve to both kill off larger threats and to carry around larger quantities of younger specimes. Finally, female-female pairs produce tetraploid senesentinels, huge spiky hulks that physically guard younger bogmoths.

* ''WebOriginal/BosunsReturn'': Bogmoths are a clade of insects with a decidedly unusual reproductive strategy. Their grub-like reproductive adults, divided between haploid males[[note]]with a single set of chromosomes[[/note]] and diploid females[[note]]two sets[[/note]] lack external sexual organs, and instead mate by cocooning together and fusing into a single being, with a cluster of eggs being produced from their cocoon; adults that fail to reproduce pupate on their own and reproduce asexually. After the larvae hatch, the metamorphosed fused or singleton adults emerge as a post-adult, sterile stage called the senescent sentinel, or "senesentinel", whose exact form and role depends on the pair or individual that formed them. Solitary males, which don't produce eggs, become small predators that keep their environment clear of pests. Solitary females and male-male pairs produce diploid senesentinels, which are winged and transport larvae and adults around to start new colonies. Male-female pairs produce triploid senesentinels, large predators that serve to both kill off larger threats and to carry around larger quantities of younger specimes. Finally, female-female pairs produce tetraploid senesentinels, huge spiky hulks that physically guard younger bogmoths.
* DistantSequel: The bulk of ''Bosun's Journal'' takes place over a timespan of a hundred and thirty-odd million years, sufficient to see posthuman life on the ship fall into savagery and then animalism, evolve and diversify into various clades, and then produce a number of new sapient species and their own descendants. ''Bosun's Return'' is instead set some time after the first series' DistantEpilogue, placing it comfortably six billion years in the future. By this time, Earth has undergone so many geological, technological, and biological changes that it is almost entirely unrecognizable, rendering it almost an alien world for the expedition sent to its ruins.

* In "Body Shifters Universe", the aliens are human-sized bacteria that shapeshift into whatever form a person finds most attractive, absorbs the DNA and divides into two more shifters who continue to mate with the nonshifter parent.

* The French/Czech animated film ''WesternAnimation/FantasticPlanet'' features the Draags. When the Draags wish to reproduce, they go into a meditative trance, which causes a spherical forcefield bubble to form around a small representation of themselves which then float up into the sky toward their planet's moon. Upon reaching the moon, they land on gigantic, headless Greco-Roman statues, which proceed to dance the waltz (no, really, that's all they do). In all fairness, that could have just been foreplay -- the Oms (humans) did sort of start destroying the statues mid-dance. Also, despite the Draags exhibiting sexual dimorphism (there are Draags with breasts and ones without), all Draags form pink bubbles and land on the female statues. The male statues have blue bubbles which are stated as coming from some other species "from other galaxies". It's implied in one of the history lessons that there have been Draags for longer than there has been meditation, so the entire thing may really just be literally foreplay with aliens before they actually reproduce amongst themselves.

* The French/Czech cartoon ''Animation/FantasticPlanet'' features the Draags. When the Draags wish to reproduce, they go into a meditative trance, which causes a spherical forcefield bubble to form around a small representation of themselves which then float up into the sky toward their planet's moon. Upon reaching the moon, they land on gigantic, headless Greco-Roman statues, which proceed to dance the waltz (no, really, that's all they do). In all fairness, that could have just been foreplay -- the Oms (humans) did sort of start destroying the statues mid-dance. Also, despite the Draags exhibiting sexual dimorphism (there are Draags with breasts and ones without), all Draags form pink bubbles and land on the female statues. The male statues have blue bubbles which are stated as coming from some other species "from other galaxies". It's implied in one of the history lessons that there have been Draags for longer than there has been meditation, so the entire thing may really just be literally foreplay with aliens before they actually reproduce amongst themselves.

** Zeltrons, [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Pink Skinned Space Babes]] that they are, have a sexual attraction to Force-sensitives. If there's one thing the ExpandedUniverse has driven home, it's that a ''lot'' of people have been attracted to Luke even before he married [[HeroesWantRedheads Mara]] -- though for his part, he was [[CelibateHero politely disinterested]] in most of them.

* In Creator/RobertJSawyer's ''Literature/IllegalAlien'', the Tosoks' females have four wombs, so that group sex is the norm for them, with four males impregnating each. Half-siblings are also far more common as a result. Occasionally though just one male inseminates all four of a female's wombs. Their term for God possibly even reflects that -- one human, learning about all this, reflects how they thought the Tosoks were saying "Foremother" but it may have really been "''Four''mother".

* The Xel'naga of ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' reproduce via two separate species, one with purity of form (psionic power) and one with purity of essence (CannibalismSuperpower), merging together and being granted the essence of the previous generation of Xel'naga. Then they find a new universe, seed it with life, and hibernate in the void between universes until the next two races find them.

** Sex or more specifically semen is required for impregnation as with humans, but succubi can willfully control when they want to get pregnant, obviously useful for a race of nymphomaniacs. Additionally, semen can be absorbed anywhere on the succubus body. Males from any species can conceive with succubi as can orcs (who are otherwise sterile) or succubi utilizing “futa” spells and regardless of the father, the children are always succubi. Succubi using “futa” spells on women of any other species doesn’t work, however. So, a bit like a sexier version of how the [[Franchise/MassEffect asari]] do it.

* Prokaryotes physically merge when mating, in a process called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacterial_conjugation bacterial conjugation.]] Mating also has little, if anything, to do with reproduction; they reproduce asexually. As a result, traits and genes can jump species and ever across ''kingdoms''. This is why the non-eukaryotic parts of the evolutionary tree are more like a tangle of roots.

** This trope is also deconstructed; this form of reproduction is ''so'' bizarre and impractical that when the life-creating pulsewaves from Vector Sigma started dwindling to a stop, it put the cybertronian race in serious concern about the future of their existence. By the time of the comics, all of the hot spots on Cybertron have stopped creating sparks (there ''are'' hot spots on some [[LostColony metrotitan-created colonies]] but it's not said if they're still working). This, alongside the Great War, has greatly reduced the Cybertronian population, making them an endangered species in galactic terms. [[spoiler:Until the end of ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye''. Between the shell-shocked alternate-universe transplants from Functionist Cybertron and the newborn wave of sparks spawned on Luna-1 by Rung's HeroicSacrifice, eventhe loss of Cybertron and most of its colonies to Unicron's hunger hasn't pushed them that much closer to extinction.]]

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': The kreel used to be gender benders as a race, capable of changing their physical sex in their later lives, but the church of the Sangtee Empire started working on making women utterly despised and socially unacceptable to the point that they are killed, enslaved or hidden away until they're able to present themselves as male and the race has relied on cloning to reproduce. Unfortunately for the raging misogynists their natural ability to change sex later in life means that cloning a man might result in a girl.

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' movies show the über-orc Uruk-Hai growing out of weird pit full of presumably magical mud stired by regular Orcs, the Uruk-Hai is born fully grown and even some times kills the stirer. This is movie-only, as reproduction of Orcs is never established in the books (and is still today subject of a lot of fan debate) but is presumably a way to represent how the Uruk-Hai were created by Saruman.

** In ''Literature/TheGodsThemselves'', the inhabitants of the parallel universe are "Soft ones", photosythetic gas creatures who have three sexes, of which one provides the seed, one the energy for the conception, and one the womb (referred to as Rational/left, Emotional/mid, and Parental/right) which reproduce by temporarily fusing at a molecular level ("melting"). After bearing three children, they "pass on". [[spoiler:permanently fusing into adult "Hard ones", a ruler caste that act as mentors to the Soft ones and pretend they're another species]].

** Jotoki hatch as wormlike, nonsapient tadpoles. As they mature, a group of these combinies into a five-limbed, five-brained alien that achieves higher intelligence through its components collective brainpower but has a habit of arguing with itself.

* The Entians in ''Literature/WizjaLokalna'' are BirdPeople evolved from PlantAliens. They have live birth, but insemination is accomplished by the female breathing in pollen from several males. The effect this has on their culture and their inability to understand humans with their way of reproducing is examined at lenght.

* ''Series/AlienNation'': Three Newcomers are required to make a baby: a male, a female, and a binnaum who catalyzes the impregnated female. Part way through the pregnancy, the female [[MisterSeahorse transfers the fetus to the male]], where it slips inside his belly somehow and attaches an umbilicus to one of the male's nipples. It is the pregnant male who gets to have the wacky BornInAnElevator scene at the end.

* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryDoubleFeature'': the [[TheGreys aliens]] are a DyingRace and abduct humans in order to create alien-human hybrids. However, their scientific techniques are quite otherwordly: the biological sex of the host [[MisterSeahorse does not matter]], the pregnancy bears all the typical aspects of a human pregnancy (sensitivity in the chest, strange cravings, morning sickness) except that it is inhumanly fast, lasting for a few days/weeks ; and as for the delivery... Well, as the alien doctors say, [[ChestBurster "life finds its way"...]] (though it should be noted that not all human hosts die upon delivering their babies, some are able to fall pregnant several times without any threat to their life)

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E5TheTsurangaConundrum The Tsuranga Conundrum]]": Among Gifftans both sexes get pregnant, with males giving birth to males and females giving birth to females. We don't see how female pregnancies work, but males are pregnant for only a week, have a "birthing sac" that must be painlessly cut open to have the baby, and the babies are born with two umbilical cords.

** 90% of Taresians are born female. They claim to reproduce by implanting embryos in the wombs of females of other species, but the child will be fully Tersian. The truth is even weirder: They spread a retrovirus that turns males of other species into pseudo-Teresians, and then he's driven to return to the planet where they'll extract his DNA, fatally.
** Female Ocampa go through "Elogium", a puberty-like stage where they can successfully conceive a child (in a growth on their back), but it only happens once. Also leads to a very large bit of FridgeLogic, every Ocampa female can only conceive once, and multiples births seem to be rare to non-existent... so if every female Ocampa can only produce one child in their entire life... how is the species not extinct already? The FridgeLogic factor of Ocampan reproduction goes far further than that: Despite only being able to reproduce once and only living for nine years, the females have constantly engorged breasts. The reason why humans have breasts and dogs don't is because we can reproduce whenever we feel like it -- there is no biological reason why they should grow breasts a good ''four'' years before they can conceive. Secondly, they reproduce through a bizarre system of massaging feet and gluing their hands together ''for an entire week'' using a thick, sticky mucus -- in the wild no creature could do this without being eaten by predators. This would logically mean both the males and females have nothing between their legs and are around about the same size -- if this was real life and not being played by human actors and actresses the only way to determine a male from a female would be those anomalous breasts.
*** The "one mating = extinction" dilemma, at least, can be resolved if Ocampa are a sperm-sequestering species, such that one mating provides the male genetic contribution for multiple pregnancies over the female's lifetime. If said subsequent pregnancies happen in quick succession, the constantly-engorged breasts would make sense too: they don't have time to shrink between babies. However the only example we have of an Ocampan family is the alternate future from [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E20BeforeAndAfter one episode]] where Kes had one daughter in her lifetime and the daughter also had only one child.
** The J'naii are supposed to be genderless (although they all look very similar to female Humans). However, nothing about J'naii reproduction makes any sense, as the script muddles together three totally different kinds of genderlessness. The asexual cast to their society would make sense if they reproduced by cloning, but they do reproduce sexually, in which case being a OneGenderRace should make their interactions ''more'' sexual, not less. The persecution of those who prefer a gender would make sense for a race of hermaphrodites (where everyone is both sexes simultaneously) but Soren describes their sex act as a precisely symmetrical affair (i.e. the J'naii are all one single sex—they're isogametes.) An isogamete preferring one sex over another makes about as much sense as a Cyclops preferring one eye over another. [[spoiler:It makes more sense after it's revealed that they weren't always this way, and slowly evolved to change. As such, having a vestige of their old sexual habits and retaining these preferences, in however small, tangential a way, does make a lot of sense.]]

* The ComicBook/XMen have fought The Brood, a race of intelligent {{Captain Ersatz}}es of the creature from ''Franchise/{{Alien}}''. A human implanted with a Brood egg will eventually be physically (and mentally) transformed into a Brood member, and will retain any genetic-based abilities (e.g. mutant powers) the victim had.
* In Creator/PhilFoglio's ''ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire'''s "The Gallimaufry" storyline, a male alien Pog member named Qvakk states that he loved Oort, another male of his species/race, and was "gonna take him home, make lots of eggs".
* Transformers in IDW's ''Transformers'' comic have a truly bizarre reproductive cycle that doesn't even involve sex of any kind. There are "hot spots" on Cybertron and its moons where [[OurSoulsAreDifferent sparks]] form and are then "ignited" by an energy pulse from Vector Sigma, the life-giving core of Cybertron. This is known as 'forging'. Once the sparks are lit they are carefully removed from the ground and placed within a special kind of incubator known as the 'protoform', which it merges with. It then begins to take a form usually based on the person whom it has the most contact with as a protoform, and rapidly begins to develop the parts it needs for its future alt-mode. This all takes less than an hour, and the development from 'sparkling' into a full-size adult takes about two weeks.
** They can also artificially reproduce through "cold construction," which [[spoiler:supposedly]] involves surgically removing a portion of the spark from another cybertronian and using it to grow a new one. There was much [[FantasticRacism bigotry]] towards cold constructed bots in Cybertron's old days (to the point of there being a Cybertronian apartheid) as they were seen as blasphemy towards [[RobotReligion Primus]] but it's more or less died out after the Great War.
** Forging is also shown to have some strange limitations on it. For example, following the departure of most of the Thirteen Primes, sparks from Cybertron and its moons just...stopped forging more than one assigned sex, leading to a Cybertron so dominated by male-presenting robots that post-war some of them have trouble remembering that there ''are'' feminine pronouns. The thing where artists would put in the occasional {{Fembot}} in flashbacks and pre-War stories was eventually resolved by having them all be transgender (and [[AuthorsSavingThrow frantically patching]] the parts of Arcee's background that had UnfortunateImplications to lock her in as a proud trans woman whose murderous rampage was related to Jhiaxus's terrible aftercare). Some of the colonies have their own quirks: Camiens have blue [[AlienBlood energon]] instead of pink due to different spark frequencies, Devisiens are born as twins who form a combined altmode, Eukariens all have beast forms and so on.
** This trope is also deconstructed; this form of reproduction is so bizarre and impractical that when the life-creating pulsewaves from Vector Sigma started dwindling to a stop, it put the cybertronian race in serious concern about the future of their existence. By the time of the comics all of the hot spots on Cybertron have stopped creating sparks (there ''are'' hot spots on some [[LostColony metrotitan-created colonies]] but it's not said if they're still working). This, alongside the Great War, has greatly reduced the Cybertronian population, making them an endangered species in galactic terms. [[spoiler:Until the end of ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye''. Between the shell-shocked alternate-universe transplants from Functionist Cybertron and the newborn wave of sparks spawned on Luna-1 by Rung's HeroicSacrifice, eventhe loss of Cybertron and most of its colonies to Unicron's hunger hasn't pushed them that much closer to extinction.]]
** We later learn in ''More Than Meets The Eye'' that cold construction [[spoiler:actually involves taking essence from the Matrix (an ancient artifact) and using it to grow sparks in a lab, making transformer biology even ''weirder''.]]

* The [[WidgetSeries French/Czech cartoon]] ''Animation/FantasticPlanet'' features the Draags. When the Draags wish to reproduce, they go into a meditative trance, which causes a spherical forcefield bubble to form around a small representation of themselves which then float up into the sky toward their planet's moon. Upon reaching the moon, they land on gigantic, headless Greco-Roman statues, which proceed to dance the waltz (no, really, that's all they do). In all fairness, that could have just been foreplay -- the Oms (humans) did sort of start destroying the statues mid-dance. Also, despite the Draags exhibiting sexual dimorphism (there are Draags with breasts and ones without), all Draags form pink bubbles and land on the female statues. The male statues have blue bubbles which are stated as coming from some other species "from other galaxies". It's implied in one of the history lessons that there have been Draags for longer than there has been meditation, so the entire thing may really just be literally foreplay with aliens before they actually reproduce amongst themselves.

* ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'': One of Atrus's journals describe an other-Agely creature called a "ting", which seals itself in a rock crevice, from which a bunch of lizard-like "solastings" emerge a couple of months later. It's unstated how the solastings give rise to the next generation of tings.

** Seamen start out as '''Mushroomers''', a larval form that more closely resemble floating eyeballs with tiny tails for locomotion. The only way for Mushroomers to survive after hatching is to be ingested by a host creature -- in this game's case, a nautilus -- which they feed on from the inside out before [[ChestBurster bursting out of the host's body]], fully formed in their next form...

*** The only exception is Manaphy, which will always produce an Egg conatining a Phione (which cannot evolve into Manaphy).

** Nihilego, an [[EldritchAbomination Ultra Beast]], does not breed like regular Pokemon, but [[https://i.imgur.com/wMYYOh2.jpg Concept art]] shows that it breeds by spawning polyps that grow into larve and then adults. Basically it reproduces like a real jellyfish. Other Ultra Beasts may have other methods of propagating that are different from the standard "male-and-female produce and egg in a daycare", such as Celesteela sprouting from the ground in its home world.
* ''Trials in Tainted Space'' is an [[PornWithPlot erotic]] SpaceOpera which has the player boldly going to new planets to earn their fortune while BoldlyComing into every alien they meet. While almost every alien has average human genitals the Nyrea have some thing far different. The males lack penises, instead they have sperm sacs inside a cavity in their hips. The [[OneHeadTaller larger]] female uses her spiked ovipositor, a organ that looks like a horse penis with spines at the tip, to rend the sperm sacs and suck up the sperm to fertilize her eggs. If the female is an alpha of her group, she will make a lesser female gestate her eggs. Yeah.

* In "Body Shifters Universe", the aliens are human sized bacteria that shapeshift into whatever form a person finds most attractive, absorbs the DNA and divides into two more shifters who continue to mate with the nonshifter parent.

** [[http://scp-wiki.net/scp-150 SCP-150 ("The Prosthetic Parasite")]] burrows into a human body and changes the nearest limb (arm or leg) into SCP-150 tissue covered with a chitinous exoskeleton. The victim is mind controlled into removing the limb, which then hatches out more SCP-150 larvae.

** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-695 SCP-695 ("Eels")]]: Juvenile SCP-695 perform a OrificeInvasion on a male human, grow to adult size and lay eggs. They then force the host to rape a female human and infect her with the eggs. The eggs will grow into juveniles, which will leave the female's body through either an OrificeEvacuation or performing a ChestBurster out of her abdomen.

** Dr. Zoidberg's species lay eggs into the ocean and then die off en masse. He's only lived so long because no female seeking a mate will even look at him. This doesn't prevent Zoidberg having a JewishMother-equivalent relative, or introducing himself as "Norm and Sam and Sadie's boy." This is kind of FridgeBrilliance; since only the most disgusting and pathetic members of his race survive to raise the young, who do you think's going to be teaching them their standards?

* "Literature/DoesABeeCare" describes an alien whose life-cycle is going to a planet, infiltrating it and influencing the growth of science and technology, and hitching a ride from one of their starships to fertilize other planets. The kicker is that ''all this is done unconsciously on instinct.''
->[[spoiler:The ovum spilt him forth at length and he took the shape of a man and lived among men and protected himself against men. And his one purpose was to arrange to have men travel along a path that would end with a ship and within the ship a hole and within the hole, himself.]]