Apropos of nothing, today I'm sharing an old watercolor of a honey bee, Apis mellifera. The sex of honey bees (like most Hymenopterans) is determined by their number of chromosomes. Females are diploid, containing two sets of chromosomes, and develop from fertilized eggs. Males are haploid, with only one set, developing from unfertilized eggs. All workers in a honey bee hive are female; the drone's only job is to go out and mate with a new queen, a task which is invariably fatal. When autumn rolls around, any remaining virgin drones are summarily kicked out of the hive, quickly dying from exposure to the elements. This prevents them from wasting valuable resources over the cold winter. Thus, the honey bee rightfully declares: No Kings.