Question #60032

1 Answer
Nov 28, 2017

Cockroaches don't change their sex, but they can grow a child without fertilization.

Explanation:

Cockroaches don't change their sex.

However, some kind of cockroaches are able to grow an embryo without fertilization. That is, they can reproduce without male cockroaches! This phenomenon is called parthenogenesis.

Recently, Katoh K. and his collegue found that American cockroaches can carry out parthenogenesis if there are three or more female.

https://zoologicalletters.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40851-017-0063-x

https://www.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/bio/2017/04/%E3%82%B4%E3%82%AD%E3%83%96%E3%83%AA%E3%81%AF%E3%83%A1%E3%82%B9%E9%9B%86%E5%9B%A3%E3%81%A0%E3%81%91%E3%81%A7%E7%94%9F%E3%81%8D%E5%BB%B6%E3%81%B3%E3%82%8B/ (Japanese abstract of the paper)