113
Parasitic ant species where every individual is a queen discovered in Japan
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2026
113 points (99.1% liked)
Biodiversity
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Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species in one region or ecosystem. Biodiversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery.
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There's gotta be a point at which sexual reproduction comes into play, otherwise it's an evolutionary dead end
If that were true then sexual reproduction couldn't possibly have evolved in the first place
When competing with an entire ecosystem of sexually reproducing species, it's an evolutionary dead end.
Kinda seems like you don't actually understand how evolution works
Can you explain why you think that?
Non-sexual genetic exhange exists, creatures that do not sexually reproduce are verifiably existing alongside and competing with ones that do right now
Cloning!
Note: Typically ‘workers’ are non sexually reproducing females for ants
Yeah I read it, I'm saying that if an animal is only reproducing via cloning forever, it's an evolutionary dead end, because they will have completely lost the ability to adapt to environmental changes
Not necessarily: mutations will still happen. But there will not be any genetic crossing over that will contribute to greater variance.
How many animals can you name that reproduce only asexually? The rate of evolution in an asexually reproducing species will always be significantly slower than a species that reproduces sexually, and over time it will be out-competed.
Again: not necessarily. That there are still asexually-producing organisms suggests that it's not enough of a disadvantage for the environment they're in.
This form of reproduction can also be an advantage: the rate of reproduction tends to be faster and more offspring are produced. In the case of this organism, instead of one queen producing all the offspring, every ant is able to produce offspring.
tl;dr: it isn't the case that sexual reproduction is always favoured over asexual reproduction. Evolutionary pressure isn't fixed like that.
Again, what other animals are there that reproduce only asexually? Of course there can be advantages to reproducing asexually, however every other multicellular animal that does it also reproduces sexually at times, because those that don't reproduce sexually have gone extinct
From some quick research just now, all these species are female-only and reproduce asexually:
It's nowhere near as common as sexual reproduction, but it doesn't mean it's an evolutionary dead-end.
Plenty of sexually-reproducing species have gone extinct too: that's not an argument that sexual reproduction is unfavourable.
Or an en evolutionary peak