Leaf-cutter ants, or so they say, are all female. According to a National Geographic article, these ladies “thrive without sex of any kind—ever.” As evidence of this essential sexlessness, scientists cite the fact that leafcutters have evolved to the point that they reproduce only when queens clone themselves.
Indeed, one author of the study explains that the (typically muscular) reproductive organ of the female leafcutter ant (M. smithii) “has evolved into a ‘sort of a ghost of an organ at this point,'” and that no male of the species has ever been found. Were a male “theoretically to appear somewhere, we’re not sure they could mate any more,” she said.
The author of BV would like to offer a few observations:
1) Some among us would probably chuckle, quipping that it will be a fine world when human females develop the same ability.
2) But others- the more sexually driven, certainly- would retort that a life “without sex of any kind– ever” was not nearly worth the benefit of a life without fighting for the remote or the correct arrangement of the toilet seat.
3) And there the debate might end, with the simple conclusion of “I’m glad I’m not an ant” or “I wish I were an ant,” but for the third group- the more flexible thinkers and those who swing that way- who might question the scientists’ assumption that the lack of males (and even of internal reproductive organs) neccesarily means a “lack of any kind of sex-ever.”
Rather denotes a lack of creativity, from a certain standpoint…
