They Milk the Aphids

From deep inside her complex nest She rules her colony And sees that all the others there Her orders they obey. Hundreds of her daughters there live. Her strict rules they all fear. Their fathers now all of them dead. Only females live here. Each one has well defined duties And daily they must work, Cleaning and fettling this huge nest. But beware those who shirk. A long evolved social structure And all know where they stand, To keep the colony as one Accepting queen’s command. Those daughters can’t attract the males For she made each sterile So that they have no distractions And to queen stay servile. Wingless, they cannot fly away But may crawl from the nest To milk honeydew from aphids. Taste fresh juice at its best. Each springtime the queen will grow wings To fly and find the males And so becomes fertile again, Producing more females. The queen ant lives for some decades. Every spring, eggs she lays. Each daughter worn out within months And males last but two days.