See the techroom entry on Shivans.
A leading hypothesis is the hive mind theory, arguing that Shivan society is broken down in specialized functions driven by a collective intelligence. The most convincing evidence supporting this theory is the behavior of Shivan forces following the destruction of the SD Lucifer, the turning point of the Great War. Other experts caution against attributing insectoid properties to the Shivans, regardless of their appearance and behavior.
The problem is this cites their appearance and behavior.
What we know of Shivan behavior in the missions is tactical, not strategic, not personal, not interpersonal. Given the huge variation in behavior among insects and how they approach the problem of killing or avoiding being killed, what we know cannot be described as having "insect-like behavior". Given that they're suggesting social insects with a hive-mind, this means it's likely they're referring to social or interpersonal behaviors that we have not seen.
There is something we
don't know but the GTVA does, which leads their experts, even the ones that don't necessarily believe in a hive mind, to ascribe
insect-like behavior to them. Without having the evidence for ourselves, and we know from this that we do not have all the available evidence, we can't judge the hypothesis being advanced.
With all due respect to Battuta, the final sentence is in a briefing for pilots (we're a pilot, that's why we know this) and could simply be included as an admonition not to think of individual Shivans as somehow less capable or dumber than you are. We really don't know what the breakdown of experts is or exactly how much the GTVA knows about how Shivans behave. It's possible that it's a great deal more than we expect if they managed to capture live Shivans during the Great War or exactly how many times Hallfight-esque boarding actions played out.
