# Parthenogentic.



## 4upakabra (Oct 28, 2009)

All greetings! On one web-site information Founded: "-Are there species, who do not need a male for reproduction?-Yes, less species are able to parthenogentic. These are (eg) Brunneria subaptera, Mantis religiosa und Miomantis savignii." How to treat such information? Is this true? Someone had been cases hatch unfertilized ooths?


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## Rick (Oct 28, 2009)

Only one I know of is Brunneria borealis.


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## cloud jaguar (Oct 28, 2009)

I had 3 mantis hatch parthenogenically from an unfertilized Miomantis Paykulii ooth - still have one nymph left actually - it is L4.


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## Katnapper (Oct 28, 2009)

_Brunneria borealis_ are all females and always only reproduce parthenogenically.

There have been rare cases of _Cilnia humeralis_ reproducing parthenogenically, but it is not common. The resulting hatchlings are few and weak, and usually die before reaching adulthood.

There may be more, but I do not know of them.


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## Ntsees (Oct 28, 2009)

Whether it's possible or not, I have never seen parthenogenesis in _Mantis religoisa_. But, I have seen parthenogenesis in _Iris oratoria_.


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## MantidLord (Oct 30, 2009)

Ntsees said:


> Whether it's possible or not, I have never seen parthenogenesis in _Mantis religoisa_. But, I have seen parthenogenesis in _Iris oratoria_.


+1, I've heard of parthenogenesis in _Mantis religiosa_ and I know it's supposedly common in _Iris oratoria_. Though I'm curious to know how these species end up reproducing that way. Is it the lack of detected male pheromones or an increase in female pheromones?


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## Ntsees (Oct 30, 2009)

MantidLord said:


> ...Though I'm curious to know how these species end up reproducing that way. Is it the lack of detected male pheromones or an increase in female pheromones?


For that question, I don't really know. I'm guessing that that's just one of the reproductive abilities that has co-evolved with the species.


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## ismart (Oct 30, 2009)

I have whitnessed parthenogenetic ability in _Tenodera angustipennis_ Only a hand full of nymphs hatched out of the ooth. Unfortunately they all died soon after. They were extremely weak! I caught her as a sub-adult. So i know for a fact she was not mated.


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## Peter Clausen (Oct 30, 2009)

Parthenogenetic is commonly misspelled.


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## ismart (Oct 30, 2009)

Peter said:


> Parthenogenetic is commonly misspelled.


I just fixed my above post! :lol:


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## PhilinYuma (Oct 31, 2009)

4upakabra said:


> All greetings! On one web-site information Founded: "-Are there species, who do not need a male for reproduction?-Yes, less species are able to parthenogentic. These are (eg) Brunneria subaptera, Mantis religiosa und Miomantis savignii." How to treat such information? Is this true? Someone had been cases hatch unfertilized ooths?


This question is best answered in genetic terms, and not everyone here remembers their genetics, so here is an attempt at a non-technical answer.

With very few exceptions (dragonflies being one) all orders of insects have some species that can reproduce parthenogenically in the absence of males (facultative parthenogenesis), and fewer always produce by parthenogenesis. The only U.S. mantis that uses obligate parthenogenesis is B. borealis. Obviously, such critters have reached the topmost twig of their genetic tree!

No, parthenogenesis has no necessary connection with the presence or absence of pheromones, only of males.

Parthenogenesis is hardly a great success story when it comes to mantids, or to phasmids, for that matter. The hatching from a B. borealis ooth is pathetic, and the adult is hardly a lean, green, killing machine, and as folks here have reported almost unanimously, if facultative parthenogenesis does occur, the offspring are weak and puny. They will almost certainly, in mantids, be all females.

Superfreak has kept colonies of facultative parthenogenic phasmids, who operate somewhat differently from either type of parthenogenic mantis in that they regularly produce parthenogenically in the absence of males (i.e. facultative parthenogenesis), where succeeding generations become smaller and less fecund but can be restored in size and vigor if males are introduced into the colony.

I hope that helps a bit, and I am sure that this will. Mantids produced parthenogenically are always, so far as I know, females. This phenomenon is called thelytoky. In some insects, particularly the hymenoptera, under certain circumstances, only male offspring are produced, and this is called arrhenotoky (often misspelled, Peter, for some reason!  ). In my youth, if I found that if I were alone at a mixed social gathering, mention of one or both of these terms almost guaranteed that I scored. Give it a try.


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## sk8erkho (Nov 4, 2009)

> There have been rare cases of Cilnia humeralis reproducing parthenogenically, but it is not common. The resulting hatchlings are few and weak, and usually die before reaching adulthood


YEP! Yep! Yep!!! Happened to me and the boys!! We thought it odd when the little guys hatched because we knew the othecae were infertile and yes, they died not too long after!!! Wow, I've been away far to long almost forgot about that one!!!!! Hello Guys!!!!!!! Incidentally, they are one of my absolute favourites!!! Voracious appetites!!! Very aggressive species!!!


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## Matticus (Nov 5, 2009)

PhilinYuma said:


> I hope that helps a bit, and I am sure that this will. Mantids produced parthenogenically are always, so far as I know, females. This phenomenon is called thelytoky. In some insects, particularly the hymenoptera, under certain circumstances, only male offspring are produced, and this is called arrhenotoky (often misspelled, Peter, for some reason!  ). In my youth, if I found that if I were alone at a mixed social gathering, mention of one or both of these terms almost guaranteed that I scored. Give it a try.


In Hymenoptera, the queen chooses which eggs to fertilize. Those she fertilizes become female, and the unfertilized eggs become male. It all depends what the colony needs.


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## JoeCapricorn (Nov 5, 2009)

Parthenogenesis only results in females because they are essentially laying eggs containing clones of themselves. Does this mean all Bruneria borealis alive are sisters?


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## PhilinYuma (Nov 6, 2009)

JoeCapricorn said:


> Parthenogenesis only results in females because they are essentially laying eggs containing clones of themselves. Does this mean all Bruneria borealis alive are sisters?


Parthenogenesis doesn't "only result in females" as I pointed out a few posts back, and no, all B. borealis are not sisters, only the ones with the same mother!

Look, parthenogenesis is a very elegant fall-back position for species preservation, but it wasn't dictated by some Great Plan, so you will find a whole bunch of variations, all of them interesting, many of them elegant, some of them not. But even the most elementary discussion of the subject requires you to know terms like "diploidy" and "haploidy" etc. If you are really interested, first Google meiosis and study some of the really cute illustrated articles, like this: http://www.biology.iupui.edu/biocourses/n1...iosisnotes.html, then do the same for mitosis. Next get a shot glass and draw a lot of circles so that you can draw the stages in both processes from memory. Isn't this fun? Now, you can look up articles on parthenogenesis on the net, starting with the one on Wikipedia, and when you read something like "fertilization can cause the female genetic material to be ablated from the zygote" you'll say "cool!" instead of "wha?" If you can diagram a shotgun offense (you can use the same shot glass to show the position of the QB, HB, WRs, etc) and explain why it helped an over-the-hill Joe Namath, you'll master the two "Ms" in half and hour. Good luck!


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