<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

On the series Stargate Atlantis, a Wraith hive ship is a vast mother ship home to thousands of Wraith. The ship allows most of its inhabitants to hibernate for centuries and also has room for hundreds of humans which can be held in stasis until the Wraith are ready to feed on them. The first ship encountered in the series appeared not to be a ship at all but a mountainside complete with trees growing on its surface. Despite becoming a part of the landscape during its thousands of years of hibernation, the ship was still capable of flight and after the vessel's inhabitants were unintentionally awoken by Lt. John Sheppard and his rescue team, it later took off to cull the humans of the Pegasus galaxy.

Wraith ships are part biological and are capable of growth and healing. They are also capable of interstellar travel though with less efficiency than many Goa'uld, Asgard or Ancient vessels. Their hyperdrive engines require scheduled stops to prevent overload and as a result, are unsuitable for intergalactic travel. Since learning of richer feeding grounds in the Milky Way, The Wraith have sought out more efficient engines such as those on Atlantis, as a means of making their way across the Galactic void to Earth.

There were twenty-one hive ships in the same quadrant of the galaxy as Atlantis. Several have since been destroyed. As much as forty more are known to exist in other regions of the galaxy.