• Question: The mother Oak Apple Gallwasp gives birth to only males, or only females - how is this advantageous to the survival of the species?

    Asked by oleander to Oak Apple Gallwasp on 8 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Oak Apple Gallwasp

      Oak Apple Gallwasp answered on 8 Nov 2017:


      Hello Oleander,
      This is a very good question, and one we would like to answer! On average, populations of gallwasps do contain a balance of males and females, so I guess that there is some mechanism that insures a balance of mothers of the two different types.

      It may be that whether a female produces sons or daughters is under a form of genetic control that guarantees a working balance of sons and daughters across the whole population. That said, we don’t even know if this process is under genetic control or not! In some other animals, production of sons or daughters is controlled by environmental conditions such as temperature – this is true in many reptiles, for example. the same could apply in principle to gallwasps, but we think not.

      The best way to work out what gallwasps are doing would be to look for genetic differences in female gallwasps that produce sons or daughters. It may well be that variation in only a single gene is responsible, and finding such a gene would require a genome!

      Feel free to ask other questions!

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