Essays Upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems: Authorised TranslationWeismann, August
Science
Essays Upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems: Authorised Translation
Weismann, August
Evolution (Biology); Genetics; Reproduction
The transformation of heterogeny into pure parthenogenesis has
obviously been produced by other causes as well as by those mentioned
in the main part of this paper. Other and quite different circumstances
have also had a share in its production. Pure parthenogenesis may be
produced without the intermediate condition of heterogeny. Thus, for
example, the pure and exclusive parthenogenesis with which the large
Phyllopod crustacean, _Apus_, is reproduced at most of its habitats,
has not arisen from the loss of previously existent sexual generations,
but simply from the non-appearance of males, accompanied by the
simultaneous acquisition of the power, on the part of the females, of
producing eggs which do not require fertilization. This is proved by
the fact that males occur in certain scattered colonies of this
species, and sometimes they are even present in considerable numbers.
But even if we were not aware of these facts, the same conclusions
might nevertheless have been drawn from the fact that _Apus_ produces
eggs of only one form—viz. resting eggs with hard shells. In every case
in which parthenogenesis has been first introduced in alternation with
sexual reproduction, the resting eggs are produced by the latter
generations, while the parthogenetic generations produce eggs with thin
shells, in which the embryo developes and hatches very rapidly. In this
way parthenogenesis leads to a rapid increase of the colony. In _Apus_
such increase in the number of individuals is gained in an entirely
different manner, viz. by the fact that all the animals become females,
which produce eggs at a very early age, and continue producing them in
increasing fertility for the whole of their life. In this manner an
enormous number of eggs collects at the bottom of the pool inhabited by
the colony, so that after it has dried up, in spite of loss from
various destructive agencies, there will still remain a sufficiency of
eggs to reproduce a numerous colony, as soon as the pool has filled
again.
This form of parthenogenetic reproduction is especially well suited to
the needs of species inhabiting small pools which entirely depend upon
rain-fall, and which may disappear at any time. In these cases the time
during which the colony can live is often too short to permit the
production of several generations even from rapidly developing
summer-eggs. Under these circumstances the pool would often suddenly
dry up before the series of parthenogenetic generations had been run
through, and hence before the appearance of the sexual generation and
resting eggs. In all such cases the colony would be exterminated.
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