Nuptial Flight
Created | Updated Feb 11, 2009
The dark, damp, earth mound ripples
Translucent, moonlit wings flicker
Glistening, brown bodies jostle
In constant, impatient motion
The rain has stopped
On this night, when colonies through all the forest
Reach out to each other
To form one glorious, rising swarm
A surge of hormones says it's time to go
Brothers and sisters - the gonads of their kind
Answering the call, to join in the rapture
Follow the gossamer trails of pheromones
Wings, as yet unused, flutter stiffly in preparation
Energy builds - excitement mounts until they erupt into flight
A glittering vortex, leaving the old queen and nest behind
Rising up through the shining wet canopy
Free of the limiting ground and towering trees
But still in thrall to that most basic drive
The ephemeral male must find and catch
The young virgin queen must attract
Almost all will fail to reproduce
Flying strongly - racing past him - she's an irresistible lure
Inviting him to follow, with overpowering waves of pheromone
Rich golden brown, on moonlight wings. Perfection. His queen
He catches, snatches her up - embraces her. Ecstatic, they fly as one
Their scents mingle. He drinks her in. She is the one -
The only one he will ever know. And when they are ready,
Her thorax gripped in his mandibles, gaster to gaster
He delivers the next generation - energy ebbing
They tumble from the sky. She must control the fall for he is done.
Down in the leaf litter, they are still clasped together, unmoving
Until, gently, she pulls away from him. Not unkindly
She leaves him for another - and another - and another...
His night of bliss is over, but hers has only begun.
Translucent, moonlit wings flicker
Glistening, brown bodies jostle
In constant, impatient motion
The rain has stopped
On this night, when colonies through all the forest
Reach out to each other
To form one glorious, rising swarm
A surge of hormones says it's time to go
Brothers and sisters - the gonads of their kind
Answering the call, to join in the rapture
Follow the gossamer trails of pheromones
Wings, as yet unused, flutter stiffly in preparation
Energy builds - excitement mounts until they erupt into flight
A glittering vortex, leaving the old queen and nest behind
Rising up through the shining wet canopy
Free of the limiting ground and towering trees
But still in thrall to that most basic drive
The ephemeral male must find and catch
The young virgin queen must attract
Almost all will fail to reproduce
Flying strongly - racing past him - she's an irresistible lure
Inviting him to follow, with overpowering waves of pheromone
Rich golden brown, on moonlight wings. Perfection. His queen
He catches, snatches her up - embraces her. Ecstatic, they fly as one
Their scents mingle. He drinks her in. She is the one -
The only one he will ever know. And when they are ready,
Her thorax gripped in his mandibles, gaster to gaster
He delivers the next generation - energy ebbing
They tumble from the sky. She must control the fall for he is done.
Down in the leaf litter, they are still clasped together, unmoving
Until, gently, she pulls away from him. Not unkindly
She leaves him for another - and another - and another...
His night of bliss is over, but hers has only begun.
