Colonies of the white ant speciesGlyptotermes nakajimaiare doing without Male , something that may be more and more enticing for many . Although other species have been known to regurgitate asexually , this is the first fourth dimension the phenomenon has been run into in white ant , whose social status fix for a peculiarly interesting case survey .
Previous study of termite colony always found males present . Moreover , the sexes existed in adequate numbers , unlike among most social insect where worker are all female . This makes the evolution of all - distaff population more surprising than previous reports amongants and honey bees .
Nevertheless , a paper inBMC Biologyannounces the find of entirely male - free colonies ofG. nakajimaifrom coastal Japan . The author compared 37 of these Colony with an adequate numeral where the sexes were miscellaneous . They confirmed the males were not just last separately , Gate to Women ’s Countrystyle , or veil in female - await consistence but that most termite queen store sperm in organs called spermathecae . However , in female - only colonies , the spermathecae were empty and eggs unfertilized .
This did n’t stop a new generation of termites , all distaff naturally , hatching from the unfertilized nut with an extra chromosome and larger genome than in sexual colony .
The female person - only colony had fewer members of their soldier caste but made up for this by being better at their elemental defensive maneuver of plug tunnels using their heads . The greater body in head width in asexual colonies appears to make for better plugs . The motive to expend less of the settlement ’s resource on defense may be one of the reasons all - female colony are flourishing .
“ Interestingly , we observed the occasional development of unfertilized ballock in the mixed - sexuality populations too . This suggest the power to make offspring from unfertilized bollock may have originated in mixed - sexuality ancestors and allow a likely nerve tract to the phylogeny of all - distaff colonies . ”Dr Toshihisa Yashiroof the University of Sydney say in astatement .
The authors propose that some unusualnakajimaitraits set the scene for sexlessness to flourish . This includes colonies being institute collectively by multiple queens and wide geographical dispersal by rafting across water barrier .
In other animals , asexual reproductive memory usually proves relatively short lived – without the genetic reshuffle sex provides , animals are less able to live change condition , such as the arrival of a new sponger . However , the intimate and asexualnakajimaipopulations diverged 14 million year ago , and while sexlessness itself may have appear more of late , it appears to have considerable staying power .
Ominously for some , the paper reason that its findings provide “ grounds that Male are dispensable for the maintenance of innovative animal societies . ”
