Cloning is common among a few species of insects, like wasps, aphids, leaf insects, cockroaches, and other insects that can produce clones by themselves.
Can Ants Clone Themselves? Ants can clone themselves by asexual reproduction, particularly parthenogenesis, when a queen produces female workers or queens for a colony without mating with males. These insects usually reproduce by swarming, which involves mating with males and the production of both males and females, as fertilized eggs produce females, and unfertilized eggs produce males.
Reproduction is essential for survival as a lack of ability to reproduce without males can put a risk to their survival in the absence of male partners in the surroundings.
Some insects adapt to reproduce without mating and produce eggs without sperm fertilization that help maintain the continuity of their population and replace dead members.
Why do ants clone themselves?
Ants can reproduce through sexual and asexual reproduction, depending on the time of year and species. A few species are capable of cloning themselves and producing identical offspring.
These insects can clone themselves by asexual reproduction, but this cloning is not traditional cloning, as they reproduce by parthenogenesis.
This reproduction process helps produce offspring that look like their parents, particularly identical to mothers, if queens do not mate with male drones.
Moreover, this cloning behavior helps increase the population size rapidly when the queens cannot mate and need more members to ensure their survival.
These insects benefit from this type of reproductive strategy when food and water sources are abundant to support the massive increase in the colony size.
The beneficial genes pass on to the next generations, making them resistant to diseases like their mothers. Some external factors also trigger parthenogenesis, like a lack of mating opportunities.
It also removes the need for male partners for mating and reproduction, and the queens can still reproduce without males. Finding suitable males is hard, so the queen ant reproduces by herself.
In addition, it is a suitable strategy to colonize a new habitat when the queens reach a new habitat and produce a large mass of eggs without mating.
Furthermore, cloning helps maintain genetic purity in the colony when all colony members have the same genetic makeup similar to their mothers.
How do ants clone themselves?
These insects clone themselves by asexual reproduction, or you can consider this type of reproduction as parthenogenesis, in which female ants can produce offspring without the involvement of males.
Queens can produce offspring or daughters without mating that are identical to her. Two types of parthenogenesis occur in reproductive female ants; thelytokous and arrhenotokous.
All offspring are clones of the mother, including female workers and reproductive offspring in the thelytokous parthenogenesis, as they inherit genes from mothers only.
In addition, all offspring are males and clones of the father in arrhenotokous parthenogenesis when the queens lay eggs without fertilizing with sperms, and females are produced in sexual mating.
It differs from typical sexual reproduction in which the females are produced through fertilization of eggs, and unfertilized eggs become male drones.
So, the female offspring are clones of mothers, and male drones are identical to their fathers in this parthenogenesis, which is referred to as asexual reproduction.
Which ant species reproduce asexually?
Many species of ants can reproduce asexually and produce identical offspring when there are no opportunities for mating, and the colony needs more members for survival.
The Mycocepurus smithii, or fungus-growing ants, produce clones by reproducing via thelytokous parthenogenesis, as there is no evidence of the presence of drones in their colonies.
This species produces only female offspring that contribute to a colony as workers or queens in the future and help maintain the continuity and survival of their population.
In addition, Cataglyphis cursor is another species that can produce females without mating through automictic thelytokous parthenogenesis.
It occurs through meiosis, with the fusion of two haploid cells to produce a diploid offspring. Most of their workers are a result of asexual reproduction, according to molecular studies.
Moreover, the desert ants belonging to the Formicinae family also produce clones that look like their mothers and possess the genetic makeup of the queens only.
Furthermore, the leafcutter ants are reported to produce asexually and give birth to clones in the colony that ensure the continuity of their colonies.
Are all ants clones of each other?
Ant colonies contain clones of the queen because she can reproduce alone and pass her genetic trait to female offspring. Different castes are present in a colony, including male and female offspring.
The female ants are clones of their mother, while male drones are clones of their father if their parents reproduce asexually. The reproductive females get genes from their mothers only.
The type of reproduction and fate of the egg determines whether they are clones of each other or get a mixed genome from their parents.
Commonly, half of the colony has female offspring, and the other half are males if both males and females are involved in egg production.
These offspring are clones of their parents but are colony members or sisters of each other, so they cannot be clones of each other.
However, all of them are clones if the colony contains only females produced by queens. The most appropriate term for these clones is to call them sisters because all are females.
So, all ants are clones or not depends on the species of insects and their mating habits, whether they reproduce individually or swarm together for sexual reproduction.
What types of reproduction are common in ants?
Ants usually reproduce sexually when the male and female ants swarm together and get out of their nests. The males and females belonging to the same colony do not mate with each other.
They look for other potential mating partners in the surrounding during mating season. The swarms of these flying insects appear on the sidewalks and pavements.
Female queens begin to fly higher in the air, and male drones chase them when the competent male gets a chance to mate with her higher in the air.
In addition, a few species also reproduce by budding in a colony where the fertile queens leave the nest and move to a new location. Some workers also migrate with the queen to build a new nest.
The female queens produce eggs and increase the colony size that connects with an older colony. This way, they reproduce by colony budding and increase the colony size without swarming.
Furthermore, asexual reproduction is also common among these insects, which does not bring any change in the gene pool of the colony because queens produce identical clones.
Level of homozygosity increases in each successive generation because males from other colonies do not participate in their parenting through the sexual mating process.
Parthenogenesis is the common type of asexual reproduction among ants, enabling female queens to reproduce without partners and produce clones.
Related Articles:
