parthenogenesis

A form of reproduction in which an unfertilized egg develops into a new individual, occurring commonly among insects and certain other arthropods.

The artificial activation of an unfertilized usually mammalian egg, resulting in an embryolike cell cluster from which stem cells can be harvested.

Reproduction by a virgin; in zoology, one of the phenomena attending alternate generation among animals which have sex, a kind of agamogenesis in which an imperfect female individual, hatched from an egg laid by a perfect female after ordinary sexual intercourse, continues to reproduce its kind for one or more generations without renewed impregnation. Parthenogenesis characterizes the reproduction of many insects, as aphids or plant-lice.

In botany: The production of a perfect embryo without the intervention of pollen.

Alternation of generations; metagenesis.

The type of parthenogenesis in which the fertilized eggs produce only one sex.

The normal development of some of the eggs laid by a female animal without fertilization, as in the honey-bee. After the nuptial flight the queen bee returns to the hive with the spermatic receptacle filled with spermatozoa, which retain their vitality for the rest of her life, and fertilize some of the eggs, but not all, as they pass through the oviduct past the duct of the spermatic receptacle. The eggs that are not fertilized develop into male bees or drones, while the fertilized eggs produce females, which may become queens or perfect females, or workers or arrested females, according to the treatment which they receive from the workers after they have been laid. The workers, which make no nuptial flight and are incapable of sexual union, sometimes lay eggs which give rise to males.

The production of new individuals from virgin females by means of ova which have the power of developing without the intervention of the male element; the production, without fertilization, of cells capable of germination. It is one of the phenomena of alternate generation. Cf. heterogamy, and metagenesis.

The production of seed without fertilization, believed to occur through the nonsexual formation of an embryo extraneous to the embryonic vesicle.

Referring to various aspects of asexual reproduction: