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Originally Posted by Janszoon
Wow, that's weird! I didn't realize anything larger than a microorganism did that.
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Yes, I believe males have never been found for some of the species
It's definitely an interesting subject. Why did they evolve this way? I remember I had a lecture about a parasite which spread from mother to her female offspring before they were born. The same wouldn't work with males (from father to offspring) as children grow inside the mother and so for evolutionary reasons pertaining to the fitness of the parasite, the parasite evolved to influence its hosts' ratio of male and female births, making it so that the host insects birthed more females which would then carry the parasite. I don't know the story behind the evolution of stick insect parthenogenesis, but perhaps they too for much of their evolutionary history have been hosts to such a parasite.
Or maybe moving around is so dangerous for them, even for sex, that this form of reproduction is safer. Who knows?
I'm gonna have to see if I can find some litterature on the subject.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovethesun
Yikes! That scared me. Aren't insects supposed to be poisonous?
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Not generally. Many do have poison glands and stingers, but I can't think of an insect with poison that would kill you if you ate it.