Study confirms decades-long assumption about rare ant species

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7777980

A new study has now provided the first proof of an ant species that lacks both workers and males and consists exclusively of queens.

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    • piranhaconda@mander.xyzEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      “Now, the latest study shows that on top of killing the host queen, T kinomurai also reproduces asexually by producing clones of itself, and tricks the surviving host workers into rearing the offspring.”

      So do the clones then convince the workers to kill the original clone? Repeat until the colony falls apart because workers aren’t being produced?

  • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
    32·
    5 months ago

    There’s gotta be a point at which sexual reproduction comes into play, otherwise it’s an evolutionary dead end

    • Amnesigenic@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      5 months ago

      If that were true then sexual reproduction couldn’t possibly have evolved in the first place

      • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
        21·
        5 months ago

        When competing with an entire ecosystem of sexually reproducing species, it’s an evolutionary dead end.

            • Amnesigenic@lemmy.mlEnglish
              1·
              5 months ago

              Non-sexual genetic exhange exists, creatures that do not sexually reproduce are verifiably existing alongside and competing with ones that do right now