http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7998931.stm
QuoteAn Amazonian ant has dispensed with sex and developed into an all-female species, researchers have found.
The ants reproduce via cloning - the queen ants copy themselves to produce genetically identical daughters.
This species - the first ever to be shown to reproduce entirely without sex - cultivates a garden of fungus, which also reproduces asexually.
MOAR: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7998931.stm
heh cool.
i am assuming they mean the first ant species ever? cause the first species ever is just wrong.
Quote from: Regret on April 20, 2009, 11:27:10 PM
heh cool.
i am assuming they mean the first ant species ever? cause the first species ever is just wrong.
Regret, that is the first thing I thought when I saw that a week ago.
Except with more foaming at the mouth and :x at the term "fingerprinting". As if the general word BARCODING isn't easy enough?
Parthenogenesis is rather common in insects. Complete parthenogenesis is less so, but still occurs. Its just seldom you find it in hymenoptera due to the sociality.
Thanks for posting this Telarus. I was wondering if anyone would catch it.