Thursday, January 14, 2010

Lesbiants

An ant species native to the South American region has completely eliminated males from its population. Perhaps they're similar to a group of aunts in the bay-area region of California.

Mycocepurus smithii, a fungus-gardening ant, reproduces without any males whatsoever, and has been doing it for millions of years. Animals that are completely asexual are relatively rare, and this species appears to have been around for 2 million years, a relatively short existence compared to the 50 million years its fellow fungus-farming ant species have been around. A dissection the Mycocepurus smithii queens, and discovered their sperm storage vessels are empty, so it isn't as if they've produced a few males, gotten inseminated, and then killed them off quickly.

Technically these ants reproduce asexually, not through some kind of Nicola Griffith-style lesbian parthenogenesis. They are, however, one of the only known all-female animal species. More research is needed to determine exactly how these ants are maintaining genetic diversity, and when they diverged from similar species. And most importantly, if they're the Ellen type of lesbian or the
Zoe Britton kind.

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