The marbled crayfish or Marmorkrebs is a parthenogenetic crayfish that was discovered in the pet trade in Germany in 1995. Marbled crayfish are closely related to the "slough crayfish", Procambarus fallax, which is widely distributed across Florida. No natural populations of marbled crayfish are known. Information provided by one of the original pet traders as to where the marbled crayfish originated was deemed "totally confusing and unreliable". The informal name Marmorkrebs is German for "marbled crayfish".
Marbled crayfish
Marbled crayfish
Parthenogenesis
is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which growth and development of an embryo occur directly from an egg, without need for fertilization.
In animals, parthenogenesis means development of an embryo from an unfertilized egg cell. In plants, parthenogenesis is a component process of apomixis. In algae, parthenogenesis can mean the development of an embryo from either an individual sperm or an individual egg.
The asexual, all-female whiptail species Aspidoscelis neomexicanus (center), which reproduces via parthenogenesis, is shown flanked by two sexual species having males, A. inornatus (left) and A. tigris (right), which naturally hybridized to form A. neomexicanus.
A young Komodo dragon, Varanus komodoensis, produced through parthenogenesis. Komodo dragons are an example of a species which can produce offspring both through sexual reproduction and parthenogenesis.
Honey bee on a plum blossom
Komodo dragon, Varanus komodoensis, rarely reproduces offspring via parthenogenesis.