Xindi - Insectoid Xindi - Insectoids were members of the multi - species Xindi race . Physiology . The Insectoids , like all Xindi species , had distinctive ridges on their cheeks . They were , as their name suggests , insect - like in appearance . Their average life expectancy was estimated to be twelve years . It was easy to find , on their ships , individuals about ten years old , who were probably considered " elders . " They were genderless and reproduced asexually . Also , because of their insectoid nature and the shortness of their life span , they were strongly concerned over the survival of their offspring . They protected their young by making a hatchery attached to their ships and shielded it in case of danger , even at the expense of the ship ' s life support system . Each individual was able to produce large clusters of egg s . The eggs could not survive out of the ship and were equipped with a gland capable of producing a powerful and subtle neurotoxin . If an unexpected presence was detected in the vicinity of the eggs , the clusters would spray the substance on the intruder , causing ( in the latter ) an instinctive , obsessive interest in protecting and nurturing the hatchling . ( ) Language . The Xindi - Insectoid language was a clicking dialogue that was the most unusual and complex of all Xindi language s , save that of the Aquatics . In fact , there were sixty - seven dialects of the Insectoid language . Insectoid had names that grew longer and more difficult to pronounce as they grew older . ( ) Philosophy and external affairs . Insectoids interpreted raised voices as a sign of hostility . They were quick to make decisions and were often in alliance with the Xindi - Reptilian s . Both species used to trade their technology between each other and usually agreed on all decisions . Like the Reptilians , the Insectoids were mostly determined to do the bids of the Sphere - Builder s and exterminate Human ity . ( ) History . At the conclusion of the Xindi Civil War on their geologically unstable homeworld of Xindus , the Insectoids , together with the Reptilians , committed an act of desperation by detonating gigantic explosions under the eight largest seismic fissure s . Thus , the Insectoids contributed to Xindus ' destruction and the extinction of the Xindi - Avian s , though some Insectoids managed to escape . ( ) Two Insectoid ambassador s sat on the Xindi Council . These were an Insectoid councilor and its aide . ( ) Very soon after entered the Delphic Expanse and visited the ruined remains of Xindus , numerous Xindi - Insectoid vessels were either sent or at least intended to be sent to destroy " Enterprise " . The deploment of these ships was planned by the Xindi - Insectoid councilor , who voiced frustration with the rate at which the Xindi Council was proceeding . ( ) Aboard " Enterprise " , there were multiple instances when Xindi - Insectoids were hallucinated . On one such occasion , the starship ' s tactical officer , Lieutenant Malcolm Reed , thought one was hiding in the shadows of his quarters . ( ) Also , two imaginary Insectoids were among numerous hallucinations that Doctor Phlox believed he actually saw while he alone was conscious aboard " Enterprise " . ( ) The Xindi - Insectoids allied themselves with Commander Dolim in a plan to steal the Xindi weapon and destroy Earth against the will of the Xindi Council . But when the other species tried to stop them and the Sphere - Builders intervened with the help of a nearby Sphere , the Insectoid councilor began to doubt and started to suspect there was truth in what Captain Archer told the Council . ( ) Uniforms and equipment . Insectoid ambassadors who were included in the Xindi Council wore long robes . ( ) For battle , Insectoids also had black body armor available . ( ) The Xindi - Insectoids utilized a diversity of spacecraft . Members of the species most commonly used Xindi - Insectoid starship s . ( , " et al . " ) Other Insectoid vessels included patrol ships , scout ships , and shuttlecraft . ( ) Insectoid technology additionally included a type of rifle . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Physical design . Creating and depicting the Xindi - Insectoids required the input of multiple contributors . ( " " issue 24 , pp . 14 & 16 ) The Insectoids were also extremely expensive to represent . ( " In a Time of War , Part Three : Final Conflict " , ENT Season 3 Blu - ray special features ) The notion of there being an insect - like race of Xindi was devised by Executive Producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga , who also decided that the Insectoids , in common with the Xindi - Aquatics , would be created with CGI . ( ) The fact the Insectoids were to be " computer - generated characters " was noted in the final draft scripts of ENT Season 3 episodes and . This choice having been made , the process of designing the Insectoids was about to proceed with sketches done by Visual Effects Producer Dan Curry . ( " Visual Effects Magic " , ENT Season 4 DVD special features ; ) The brief for the Insectoids was that they should be generally humanoid , rather than creatures which crawled around on the ground . " " We wanted a creature that was about the size of a Human being so people could look into its face , " " said Curry . " " I looked at macro shots of various insects and then did kind of an amalgam of a fly and an ant . " " Curry initiated the design as a concept sketch , dated . ( " " issue 24 , p . 15 ) A particular consideration was exactly how many arms and legs the Insectoids were going to have . Dan Curry revealed , " " My first thoughts were they would have six appendages like insects on Earth , but Rick [ Berman ] felt that they evolved to a higher life - form . So the middle two became vestigial and actually went away . " " ( ) The thinking behind this was that , as the Insectoids had become bipedal , they had no longer needed their third pair of appendages . In practical terms , omitting them also minimized the time it would take to animate the creatures . ( " " issue 24 , p . 15 ) One requirement was that the Xindi - Insectoid seem visually compatible with the other Xindi , so the design for the Xindi - Reptilian s proved to be a significant influence . Noted Curry , " " The scaling pattern on the head of the insectoid is not dissimilar . " " ( ) While crafting the design of the Insectoids , Dan Curry paid much attention to working out precisely how the Insectoids functioned . He decided their method of speaking was by making a series of clicking noises with their mandibles , rather than using a conventional voice box powered by air from their lungs . ( " " issue 24 , p . 15 ) Despite designing the Insectoids to have only four appendages , Curry still kept them obviously based on real - life insects . He recalled , " " I kept a lot of insect attributes like the compound eyes and breathing tubes through the side . So the creature we have now is basically inspired by a variety of different insect species that I put together – the head ' s kind of fly - like , with a little ant - ness . " " ( ) Wanting to make the Insectoids look intelligent , though , Curry made the foreheads slightly larger than normal . ( " " issue 24 , p . 15 ) In the script for " Hatchery " , fetal Insectoids were referred to as " spider - like " . For that project , Dan Curry returned to his original design concept for the Insectoids and sketched a young - looking member of the species . He later described this as a " Bambi - fied " version of the Insectoids . ( " " issue 24 , p . 17 ) Creating CGI . Dan Curry ' s concept artwork was provided to Eden FX , who were tasked with building the CGI model for the Insectoids . Recalling the illustrations , one of Eden ' s CG artists , Digital Effects Supervisor John Teska , stated , " " That was a sketch of the character , and a couple of revisions for the head close - up and things like that . I had a pretty good idea of what they looked like before we started building . " " ( " Visual Effects Magic " , ENT Season 4 DVD special features ) Because designs for Insectoid chairs and clothing were also produced , Teska was impressed by how much thought the design team were spending on the Insectoids . He related , " " When I got that [ sketch ] , I realized , ' OK , they are taking these guys seriously ! They ' ve got wardrobe , they ' ve got chairs ! " " ( ) John Teska created the digital model for the Insectoids . ( " Visual Effects Magic " , ENT Season 4 DVD special features ; ) It was built as a full 3D model . In early renders of at least an Insectoid head ( if not also a full Insectoid body ) , Teska arranged the basic textures in place . ( " " issue 24 , pp . 15 & 14 ) He recalled , " " I dug out all my insect reference – great books with scanning electron micro - photography – where I got a lot of the ideas for the smaller details , like little hairs around the eyes , the things that didn ' t show up in the pencil sketches . " " ( ) Teska elaborated , " " It was several weeks of first working up the geometry , building this basic polygonal , you know , polygon cage , sort of like low [ resolution ] at first , just to work out proportions and what they looked like . Then , building this elaborate skeleton that would basically allow us to move them like a character , like a puppet on the screen . " " ( " Visual Effects Magic " , ENT Season 4 DVD special features ) John Teska not only digitally built the Insectoids but also determined how they would move . In addition , he created a CG version of the baby Insectoid , working out how it would move . The final step in the creation of these infants was to create a fully rendered version of them , which could be shown moving . ( " " issue 24 , pp . 16 & 17 ) For the adult Insectoids , however , having a CG model was merely the beginning of the process . Dan Curry pointed out , " " The Insectoids had to convey emotion , they had to give a performance , they had to have body language . " " ( " " issue 24 , p . 16 ) Capturing performances . Unlike with the Xindi - Aquatics , stand - in s were used for the Xindi - Insectoids , to give the directors and animators references for CGI placement . The decision to use this procedure was inspired by the success of the CG character from , he having commonly been " played " by actor . " " I decided , I want to go into this with the same idea , " " explained Visual Effects Supervisor Ronald B . Moore . The stand - ins wore special suits , which helped to track their movements for such episodes as " The Xindi " – the only episode wherein Moore used motion - control because the production staffers wanted to digitally replicate even the minutest actions of the performers . " " So , Dan [ Curry ] came up [ . . . ] as only Dan can do , with roles of tape and started putting grids all over these guys , " " Moore continued . " " We got black suits made for them . And put the grids on , so we could follow them [ . . . ] [ We ] didn ' t exactly know what we were up against , with these guys . " " As it turned out , the animators did so well at replacing the stand - ins with the CGI that it was evident motion - control was not required . ( " Visual Effects Magic " , ENT Season 4 DVD special features ) Whenever the Insectoids were to appear on screen , the creation of the footage began with one or more of the stand - ins on stage , each dressed in one of the grid - covered suits which gave the artists at Eden FX reference for all the different movements . ( " " issue 24 , p . 16 ) Each set of clothing primarily consisted of a form - fitting pair of cotton trousers , a long - sleeved shirt with a hood that had an eye opening , a pair of gloves and a pair of black Reebok shoes . The grids were white and stitched into all the clothing apart from the shoes . Except for the grids , each entire outfit was black . Both pairs of shoes were inscribed " D . Madalone " . Similarly , even during ( and after ) being used for the Insectoid stand - in work , one of the shirts was branded with a tag inscribed " Ethan Phillips " , a name tag which had been written over . The fingers in the gloves were taped together , which gave each hand a three - fingered alien appearance . Each partitioning of the fingers was attached to a thin replication claw . The claws were made out of foam core by Dan Curry , who crafted them with the intention of providing the stand - ins the feeling of having insectoid claws . ( " " issue 24 , p . 17 ) " " The stand - ins [ were ] just on regular boxes , though ; they don ' t have a butt like that [ of the Insectoids ] ! " " exclaimed Curry . ( ) The stand - ins who " played " the role of the Insectoids were Evan English and Tarik Ergin . ( " Visual Effects Magic " , ENT Season 4 DVD special features ) It was Ergin ' s clothing which featured the written - over " Ethan Phillips " name tag , although Ergin ' s clothing also featured multiple other sewn - in tags showing his own first name . Dan Curry remembered , " " Ron Moore [ . . . ] was very strong in using the stand - ins for performance ; that way they could read dialogue and participate in the scene , so the other actors knew where to look . " " ( ) Regarding how much enthusiasm the stand - ins put into their portrayals , Curry offered , " " [ They ] were really into playing the Insectoids [ . . . ] They really gave a performance and didn ' t just walk through it . " " ( " " issue 24 , p . 17 ) Typically , after footage of one of the stand - ins was recorded , the process continued with him stepping out of the frame , followed by the action being re - staged and re - filmed without him in shot . The absence of the actor allowed space for the animators to digitally add the Insectoid , later . ( " " issue 24 , p . 17 ) Executing animation . Adding the Insectoids into pre - filmed footage was far from easy . Even though the shot of the actor gave the animators a reference for positioning the Insectoid ' s head and arms , the CG creature still had to be blended seamlessly into the background , which meant the animators needed to recreate 3D space . Where he could , Dan Curry used a considerably low - tech technique to provide them with some useful reference . " " A lot of times I would use a little bounding box I made out of chopsticks hotglued together , " " he remembered . " " By looking at that the animators could see the changes in perspective as the camera moved around . " " Animating each Insectoid was done by moving a wireframe skeleton under the CG flesh . Thereafter , basic animation of the CG Insectoid was created to match the movements of the stand - ins , visually replacing them in the pre - recorded footage . The final step of the process was to create the creature in full resolution , carefully matching the CG lighting with the lighting on the set . ( " " issue 24 , pp . 17 & 16 ) Thus , the live - action footage gave the CG animators reference of not only what the stand - ins ' performances were like but also how light had affected those performers . ( ) It was somewhat difficult for the animators to match the on - set lighting , as the sets were dark , with many different sources of light . ( " " issue 24 , p . 17 ) The editors nonetheless tried to ensure the CGI Insectoids fit convincingly into the appropriate shots . ( ) John Teska regularly animated the Insectoids . Robert Bonchune , effects supervisor at Eden FX , commented , " " The Xindi insects are kind of his baby , so when they come along we usually give them to him , 90 per cent of the time , at least on the shows I supervise . " " ( ) Reception . Ultimately , Ron Moore was impressed with the use of stand - ins . Although aware that the actors were intentionally playing different characters , he believed viewers can also see behavioral differences in the roles . ( " Visual Effects Magic " , ENT Season 4 DVD special features ) Dan Curry was also pleased with how life - like the Insectoids ultimately became , pointing out , " " The Insectoids are effectively " there " , they interact . " " ( ) He also approved of how the animators matched the CG lighting with the real on - stage lighting , remarking , " " They were really great at matching that . " " He was keen to acknowledge the collaborative means in which the Insectoids were brought to life , saying , " " The success of the Insectoids is really a testament to the artistry of our team . " " ( " " issue 24 , p . 17 ) Consulting Producer David A . Goodman and Director David Livingston concurred that the Insectoids ( in common with the Aquatics ) were " great " though " kinda weird . " ( audio commentary , ENT Season 3 Blu - ray special features ) André Bormanis remarked that the Insectoids " came off really well . " Making a statement Bormanis agreed with and found funny , Co - Executive Producer Chris Black jokingly observed , " " It would ' ve been so easy if only we ' d known , you only ever saw them on screens , that they were actually only like three inches tall and all you had to do was step on them . " " ( audio commentary , ENT Season 3 Blu - ray special features ) Phlox actor John Billingsley was extremely critical of the Insectoids , which he described as " clicking little centipedes , " and didn ' t believe they looked frightening enough , due to the series ' limited budgets . ( " In a Time of War , Part Three : Final Conflict " , ENT Season 3 Blu - ray special features ) Props and costumes . Having designed the Xindi - Insectoids to be incapable of sitting on a regular chair , Dan Curry designed a special type of chair for the ambassadors of the species , and their " Insectoid butts . " ( ; " " issue 24 , p . 16 ) John Teska digitally modeled a version of the Insectoid chair . " " We got a sample from the real chair , " " he reflected , " " and I matched the wood grain , and everything ; we actually had the prop chair here for a day . " " ( ) Although Insectoid armor appears only in the episode , in of two wireframe Insectoids showed them wearing armor . In the final draft script of " Rajiin " , this clothing was described as " shining , beetle - like armor . " Dan Curry additionally designed the Insectoid armor . ( ) He invested thorough thinking in the Insectoid clothing . Bearing in mind that insects breath through tubes in their sides , he made sure the sides of their clothing were open . " " It looks like the kind of thing Medieval knights would drape over their coats of mail , " " Curry observed . ( " " issue 24 , pp . 15 - 16 ) On the other hand , the medieval robes worn by the Insectoid ambassadors were designed by Bob Blackman , who usually designed costumes for live - action usage . " " Since he designed all the other Xindi garments , " " said Curry , " " I felt it was best if Bob gave us some direction . " " ( ) The Insectoid costumes were very popular with the creative team . Production illustrator John Eaves exclaimed , " " I so loved the costumes that Bob Blackman came up with for these nasty space demons ! ! ! " " Of course , the designs for the Insectoid chair and clothing likewise impressed John Teska . ( ) The suits used by Tarik Ergin and Evan English as stand - ins for the CGI Insectoids were sold off on the " It ' s A Wrap ! " sale and auction . Apocrypha . In the novelization of and ( entitled " The Expanse " ) , the Insectoids are described as having " darkly gossamer wings " and " slender , fine - haired limbs " as well as a " glistening black carapace , " under which was a thorax . The novelization specifies the Insectoids lacked a protective internal skeleton and " the teeth , tongue , and palate necessary to articulate primate speech . " The book also details how Insectoid behavior , seemingly manic by the standards of any other Xindi species , came about ; their shorter lifespans and absence of an internal skeleton resulted in the Insectoids developing mannerisms based on a sense of urgency . By rubbing its wings together , an Insectoid could create " a shrill blast , " which they did when requesting attention . The Insectoids are described as " notoriously skeptical " as well as typically agitated and , according to a frequently stated Xindi - Primate belief , Insectoids obviously didn ' t think at all . Following the announcement to the Xindi population that the Xindi Council were planning to destroy Earth , the Insectoids not only rallied to support the anti - Earth efforts but also presented lavish donations to a group of Reptilian children , who had been orphaned by the warrior who had piloted the Xindi probe which had attacked Earth .