A group of Amazonian ants have evolved an extremely unusual social system: They are all female and reproduce via cloning. Though their sexual organs have virtually disappeared, they have also gained some extraordinary abilities.
University of Arizona biologist Anna Himler originally began studying the ants, called Mycocepurus smithii, because they had incredible success as farmers. Many breeds of ant keep domesticated “farms” where they breed various kinds of fungus for nourishment. But Mycocepurus smithii was able to breed fungus far more successfully, and in greater varieties, than other ants Himler had encountered.
As she and her team studied the insects, they realized there were no male ants anywhere to be found. Himler told the BBC that it’s possible the ants evolved so as “not to operate under the usual constraints of sexual reproduction.” Interestingly, the fungi that the ants cultivate also reproduce asexually. But why would these ants choose to emulate the reproductive cycle favored by their crops? Himler explains:
It avoids the energetic cost of producing males, and doubles the number of reproductive females produced each generation from 50% to 100% of the offspring.
All the members of the colony are clones of the queen. While that means the queen can control every aspect of the population, it also makes the colony vulnerable to pandemics. A virus that can kill one ant can kill all of them, since they all have the exact same immune systems. On the other hand, it seems that a lack of men gave these women more time and energy to cultivate some of the most elaborate forms of ant agriculture ever studied.
According to Himler, ants often evolve highly unusual reproductive strategies. But all-female ant societies are highly rare.
via BBC News
yeah, lesbian ants, it’s funny alright.
The drones hatch and fly out of the nest or hill (I got mound builders) and the queens fly out after them and they mate in the air before the drone drops dead. The infertile females are the workers.
Now the interesting thing about the queen (the fertilized female who drops her wings as she takes to the underground) is that she doesn’t release all her eggs right away. So the work of the drone goes on. The mounds I am told are active for eight years. So he may be dead but his work goes on.
Queenie emits a smell which programs all the workers.
But really, if one is looking for lesbian validation of sexual preference in the non human animal kingdom, look no further than the cow. And ain’t that sweet with the sun in Taurus. The female in heat will be mounted (that’s farm girl talk) by other females. The female in heat will allow the mounting if she is in heat.. It is how the farmer knows the cow is ready to be bred. Some farmers chalk the butt of the tail (where it meets the spine) and when the chalk is rubbed off, he knows she is ready. I have heard farmers say that the girls are lesbians. Of course, that doesn’t stop the human male from mounting the cow. What are those guys thinking? Gives a whole new meaning to animal husbandry now doesn’t it?
AMEN, PH, that was absolutely beautifully put. I want to type, but I have nothing more.
Wow, (ok, so I dig your writing), spill a little more, eh?! That’s what I mean to say.
Your tripper friend,
Jere
OK…OK…OK
As I stare down the smoking barrels of “….misogyny…typical male”…….let us preface the following discourse with an appreciation that Eric’s leader has “Lesbian” right up there….ie Anthropomorphism is a gesture of humour to highlight the issues……. humour… girls…….humour…..elastic gussets do snap from time to time….!!
So…the mussel organ has degenerated ( click on BBC link for original story…)…through lack of use….sex is impossible….and males were no longer produced because it was an expensive and energetic process………… thus saving zillions….!! On top of all that….the girls have long since forgotten that he WAS a fun guy….(fungi…)!! What exactly…are we going to do all day…!!Nights are easy…..drink and sleep….!!
My friend Ant(Antony) Munsen truly has a revolutionary and unusual way of procreating….. roughly translated…”any place anywhere anytime….” So what are we to make of mutant off shoots that have obviously been eating their own genetically modified sterilisers….? “Physically incapable of mating….”
The Chinese Ming Dynasty was brought down by the political manoeuvering of 100,000
Eunuchs….who were the Civil Service of their day…..!! (Yes…they really did cut off their lunch packs…on a promise of high honour….) Government workers ….who lobbied for privilege and a certain lifestyle….but who were basically completely useless parasites…hence their swift and effective Darwinian demise….!!
I have to be very careful…where this may lead…because the Jazz Improvisation in me picks up on the synchronicity of the names Keller….and Himmler….(again see original BBC article…)
Helen Keller..as Google will tell you…was a young blind girl in Europe…whose diaries inspired many thousands….and who was also the subject of a Hollywood movie….
My creative brain explodes with a million ideas……..
So I already have an image of blind asexual mutants…celebrating the “you are what you eat” mantra…….”look out for those South American mushrooms son….Peyote was never this misogynistic…or archetypally stereotypical….!!
It is at this point that the name Himler….starts to ring bells….lots of them….in fact all the way to Goebbels….and Dr. Mengele….!!!!
Genetic modification was the Nazis plan for a super race….1930s Germany…!!
Young Jews were stripped of their testicles and spleens in an attempt to produce an homeopathic remedy to rid Europe of the Jewish race…which is why extermination was all that was left …after such heinious and macabre mutilation….!!
And only yesterday….an author called Timothy rybank….has collated hitlers library….books he used to make speeches from….and books for private reading….and yes folks….he got all of his anti-semitic ideas from a young american business man in the 1920s….Henry Ford…….now there is a surprise…..!!!
So to dabble with the idea that these ants have anything for us…….is not realistic…a precautionary note….for it seems to me that if you have already lost the evolutionary plot…then you really are toast….!!
“In a colony of clones, if one ant is susceptible to a parasite, they will all be susceptible. So if you’re asexual, you normally don’t last very long.”(sic)
Any extremely not normal asexual mushrooms care to give yourselves up and become the feast….??
If Big Brother….and Orwellian State Control …already has arrived…….and yet we…the people can still exercise our Democratic right….Cogito ergo sum…..then follow the example of the people of Liverpool ….who this week….live on television……. lobbied the Government to right an inhumane wrong….and with peace and prayers ….finally achieved the placing of the responsibility for the 1989 Hillsborough disaster….firmly on the shoulders of South Yorkshire Police. Like Joshua…in Jericho…..we simply marched around their walls ….and played a mean trumpet until they just fell down…..!!
And Orwellian Big Brother….has just become “our kid”….we have already begun to dismantle this innappropriate Social abuse…..
Seize the Time….was the calling of Bobby Seale in the 1960s…..Black Consciousness…….Black Power……the Olympics…..Tommy Smith and John Carlos…..the gloved fist….!!
May I humbly suggest that Barak Obama is living proof that their Faith was strong and true….and appropos of gender and sex…never has it been more important to put androgyny….asexual ants……and any other misdemeanours to one side…..get yourselves truly loved up….and teach your kids that they really can change the world…..for we are doing it every single day…..!!
PH