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Science 3 December 2004:
Vol. 306. no. 5702, pp. 1694 - 1695
DOI: 10.1126/science.1106673
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Perspectives

EVOLUTION:
Sex...Only If Really Necessary in a Feminine Monarchy

Raghavendra Gadagkar

The social organization of hymenopteran insects depends on their adoption of complex sexual and asexual reproductive strategies. In his Perspective, Gadagkar discusses a clever reproductive strategy used by the ant Cataglyphis cursor to circumvent the cost of sexual reproduction (Pearcy et al.). New ant queens of this species are produced by an asexual form of reproduction called thelytoky, whereas daughter worker ants are produced by normal sexual reproduction.

The author is in the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, 560 012 Bangalore, India, and the Evolutionary and Organismal Biology Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur, 560 064 Bangalore, India. E-mail: ragh{at}ces.iisc.ernet.in

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Clonal reproduction and genetic caste differences in a queen-polymorphic ant, Vollenhovia emeryi.
K. Ohkawara, M. Nakayama, A. Satoh, A. Trindl, and J. Heinze (2006)
Biol Lett 2, 359-363
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)