Emily Rose Wright
- Ring
- 2025
- oil on panel
- 41×51 cm
- courtesy of the artist and Harkawik
The ant Mycocepurus smithii can perform virgin births. Most colonies are populated entirely by female clones, with no males in sight.77 Once a queen gives up sex, the switch is irreversible: none of her descendants will ever mate.78
- Sexual populations do exist, but they are very rare. Asexual colonies spread more widely because queens don't depend on males.
- Rabeling et al., 2011