Cloned Fathers Mate with Insect Daughters – From Inside
A pest has recently been found in which, during development in the egg, the father’s sperm of the animal is embedded into the eggs tissue. What does this mean? Basically it means that the father is fertilizing the daughter’s eggs internally and without any form of actual sex occurring. This also causes the father to become “both the grandfather and the father of [the daughter’s] offspring.” Scientists worry that this happening will end in almost a domino effect of the pest’s population, which would eventually lead to really having no need for the male population of the species. Although this could be a bad occurrence for later on, studies show that the females of the species could actually benefit for the decreasing needs of males. Again, however, the outcome will have the most effect in later years. Although unknown as to when the spread of such declining of the males will happen, scientists fear that it will cause the species to suffer due to the asexuality – commonly seen to earlier extinction.
I found this topic to be overly interesting. For starters, I am NOT a fan of bugs of any sort – insects being included. My biggest fear for this occurrence is that the population of insects will begin to increase. I am really not very knowledgeable in the insect or reproductive field, however, if something such as this could be found with one species, does it mean that it will become more of a trend in other species? If the way this is happening according to scientists is actually true, I do not see how it really could not happen in every species. I think the whole process of sex is something that is unbelievable and is such a large branch of science. Without reproduction, think how much less of everything there would be! I think that the part of a newborn (of anything) that is so cool is that two separate individuals created it. If this same instance began spreading, the whole concept of a new creation would be completely altered.
This topic did not necessarily seem to be a huge concern for those studying it quite yet. As of right now, they are all more intrigued as to finding out both how this is happening and how commonly it is happening. One worry that the ones studying it did have was the earlier extinction for the species. If the different animals begin to die off, the food web will be drastically messed up and could become a large chain reaction. It could also result in defects in the species population with possible outcomes affecting anyone encountering them. Who knows what all could spin off? The declined need of males could also become an issue. Although males would not necessarily be needed anymore for the sexual favors in the species, I would think that they would still be needed in order for the animal’s community to work.
1 comment:
How interesting!
Post a Comment