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.
💅💅💅💅
Vibes say these are more ant-parasites than parasite-ants, but they’re pretty interesting regardless. I was hoping to read about a clonal super-organism, but it seems like these supplant existing ant-queens, so I presume they are less collectivist than I was hoping. Still pretty cool.
“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?
I don’t know. I think queens have wings, so I presumed they flew off to kill a new ant nest, but maybe they split the nest or maybe there is some in-fighting. A good question for ant-biologists.
Somebody phone Ru Paul.
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
