The "gypsies" are also non-hierarchical (at least amongst themselves) and very independent-minded by insectoid standards. Their society is better described as a "sisterhood." There are no workers nor drones, and its members are largely free to do as they please. There are few assigned social tasks or roles (though the race's nature leads most of them to pursue similar interests).
Besides following the absurdly elaborate code of behavior one expects from all Chitin Queens, an adult Szjna's only obligation -- a very strict one -- is to attend nightly communions in the forests of Top. There are no more than 70 such adults at any given time, and the communions are said to be intensely enhanced with psychosensory gadgetry, so over the course of time the adult come to know one another very intimately. In the matter of security, they lack the insidious subtlety of their cousins: intruders are never converted nor subverted. They are simply wired to Sjzna stripsense devices, subjected to phantasmagoric torments while under total mental isolation, and let go.
However, they do share their more courtly cousins' fixations regarding matters of fashion, etiquette, and control. They are not so snobbish as the more settled clans about the superiority of their own couture. They borrow freely from the modes of dress and expression of other societies, especially from their rebellious youth. Of course, these borrowings are usually near-unrecognizable once filtered through the many layers of mathematically precise social formulae and proprieties that govern Szjna culture.
Szjna etiquette is more interested in precision of demeanor than in content of character or the "saving of face." Whether it's pheromonal, gestural, or verbal, language is treated as a precision tool and its clumsy use or abuse is frowned upon. Emotional outbursts are not necessarily an embarrassment among the Szjna -- they must simply be delivered in an appropriately expressive manner. It's all right for a moth sister to lose her cool, as long as she proceeds to swear skillfully. Even the vilest outburst can be smoothed over, if presented with a curse that offers exceptional insight into the source of vexation.
The Szjna have a very peculiar reputation, upon which they pride themselves greatly. They are known as precise, logical thinkers, with a remarkable gift for analyzing and modifying things that exhibit predictable behavior. It is not so unusual, then, that they are also thought of as incorrigible liars, social manipulators, and rakes. Amongst themselves and other Chitin Queens, they approach etiquette with a hacker's ingenuity, seeking to exploit loopholes and technicalities in a way that ultimately shows a deep respect for the underlying system. With simpler creatures like robots and mammals, they show no such restraint.
The Szjna passion for freedom and independence really only applies to themselves. The only reason they don't indulge in the same elaborate dominance and submission games with other races that their cousin clans do is that they don't like the commitment. After all, if they had the burden of slaves and servants, where would they put them? But they have no qualms about "borrowing" an outsider to serve a particular task. Their fascination with engineering challenges most certainly extends to the sensual, so even it doesn't fulfill a major role in their society, the Szjna have because quite talented in means of physical and mental restraint.
Gypsy moth larvae have reputations as spoiled, grasping enfants terribles who conduct their vandalism and slander with the utmost of style. The adults, though much less destructive, are perceived by most Queens as trapped in a romantic state of arrested adolescence (which inevitably leads them to some sort of awful fate in Neke morality plays).
Actually, gypsy moth biology inclines adult bodies to die of old age every couple of weeks. (Perhaps the constant backups have contributed in some way to their eccentricities, like those of certain other notorious insects.) An adult who completes the mj-ryth is expected to opt out of the backup system, to their great honor. Their fate from that point is not known, though it would be most unlike the Szjna to let their clan's greatest expertise go to waste.
see http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/3698/rom.htm for cheat sheet