The queen initially raises the first several sets of wasp eggs until enough sterile female workers exist to maintain the offspring without her assistance.

In Darwinian terms, a sterile worker is not better off for being in a colony.

Each wasp colony includes one queen and a number of sterile workers.

Most ants in a swarm never reproduce; they're sterile workers - tools, peripherals, hardware.

Eusociality appears to be maintained through manipulation of the sterile workers by the queen.

In addition to the queen the colony contains four castes of sterile female workers:

But, since the sterile workers are all the produce of a single queen, they are one collective.

A mature Acromyrmex niger colony contains mostly sterile female workers.

A mature Acromyrmex crassispinus colony contains more than 8 million ants, mostly sterile female workers.

The sterile workers are all females that forage for food and defend the colony.