The persistence of sexual reproduction in the face of competition from asexual invaders is
more likely if asexual lineages are produced infrequently or have low fitness. The generation …

Sexual reproduction is almost ubiquitous among multicellular organisms even though it
entails severe fitness costs. To resolve this apparent paradox, an extensive body of research …

Parthenogenesis has been documented in almost every phylum of animals, and yet this
phenomenon is largely understudied. It has particular importance in dipterans since some …

Embryo segmentation has been studied extensively in the fruit fly, Drosophila. These studies
have demonstrated that a mechanism acting with dual segment periodicity is required for …

Facultative parthenogenesis has great adaptive significance, especially with regard to low
pairing efficiency. In the termite Reticulitermes speratus, females that fail to mate with males …

In hexapods, unlike the majority of animals, development without fertilization is a common
phenomenon. They evolved a striking diversity of unisexual reproductive types that include a …

Termites are known as social insects worldwide. Presently in China 473 species, 44 genera
and 4 families of termites have been reported. Of them, 111 Reticulitermes species are …

Background A decade ago, the mixed reproductive strategy Asexual Queen Succession
(AQS) was first described in termites. In AQS species, the workers, soldiers and dispersing …

The reproductive biology of bivalves and echinoderms, mostly of economic importance, is
described in this book. Sections on the cytoskeleton of gametes and reproduction in the …

Ejaculates function as an integrated unit to ensure male fertility and paternity, can have a
complex structure, and can experience multiple episodes of selection. Current studies on the …