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Parasitic ant species where every individual is a queen discovered in Japan
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2026
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Biodiversity
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Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species in one region or ecosystem. Biodiversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery.
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How many animals can you name that reproduce only asexually? The rate of evolution in an asexually reproducing species will always be significantly slower than a species that reproduces sexually, and over time it will be out-competed.
Again: not necessarily. That there are still asexually-producing organisms suggests that it's not enough of a disadvantage for the environment they're in.
This form of reproduction can also be an advantage: the rate of reproduction tends to be faster and more offspring are produced. In the case of this organism, instead of one queen producing all the offspring, every ant is able to produce offspring.
tl;dr: it isn't the case that sexual reproduction is always favoured over asexual reproduction. Evolutionary pressure isn't fixed like that.
Again, what other animals are there that reproduce only asexually? Of course there can be advantages to reproducing asexually, however every other multicellular animal that does it also reproduces sexually at times, because those that don't reproduce sexually have gone extinct
From some quick research just now, all these species are female-only and reproduce asexually:
It's nowhere near as common as sexual reproduction, but it doesn't mean it's an evolutionary dead-end.
Plenty of sexually-reproducing species have gone extinct too: that's not an argument that sexual reproduction is unfavourable.