Chapter 173: Division (3)
Parthenogenesis, also known as asexual reproduction or agamogenesis, refers to the process in which an embryo develops and matures without fertilization by sperm.
In other words, the genetic material of the female alone divides to create a fertilized egg. This meant that the queen bee of the Golden-Furred Wasp King, the worker bees, and the new queen all shared the exact same genetic makeup.
Put another way, the society of the Golden-Furred Wasp King was essentially a massive colony of clones—an entire community of genetically identical, monozygotic twins. Their relationships were simultaneously those of mother and daughter, sisters, and, in a sense, themselves.
A society of hundreds of identical female wasps—it was almost surreal.
For a brief moment, I was caught off guard by the sight of the identical queen bees, but I quickly collected myself and asked the queens of the Golden-Furred Wasp King:
"You can reproduce without males?"
Bzzzz.
Bzzzz.
In perfect synchronization, the two wasps hovering in the air nodded at the exact same moment.
I hadn’t noticed until now, but when I took a closer look inside the hive, I realized that all the worker bees were essentially miniature versions of the queen. They were just slightly smaller and lacked fully developed abdomens since they didn’t lay eggs.
‘A society with no males at all... That’s ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ fascinating.’
While it was an unusual reproductive structure, parthenogenesis itself wasn’t all that rare.