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Ants give up on men, too
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In a quick follow up to my post from yesterday, Same-sex pairing among animals not uncommon, I came across this story today about how some species of ants have become asexual and now only produce females.
Apparently, according to the study, the Mycocepurus smithii is the the first recorded species of ant to be without males. There are, of course, other species of insects that are asexual--aphids for example, but they use both asexual and sexual reproduction. As curious as this seems, asexual reproduction is the preferred method of reproduction in this species.
The lead author of the study, Anna Himler, states, "Sexual reproduction is costly in several ways and asexual reproduction -- the lack of sex -- can be advantageous."
Take it or leave it, the animal kingdom is a weird and wonderful place. There is a lot we can learn from animals and a whole lot more that we do not know or understand. But to be sure, humans and human social behavior is far more complex than that of animals.
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." --Charles Darwin.
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