From: scharle@lukasiewicz.cc.nd.edu (Scharle)
Subject: Re: Lesbian Cross-Dressing Lizards!
Reply-To: scharle@lukasiewicz.cc.nd.edu (Scharle)
Organization: Univ. of Notre Dame
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 13:22:22 GMT

In article <1992Aug13.220306.6964@techbook.com>, mongo@techbook.com (Max Webb) writes:
...[quoting article <1992Aug12.130908.7094@news.nd.edu>,]
|> >    1.  I believe that there are species of lizards which are 
|> >parthenogenic.  Apparently, they have evolved, by microevolution,
    [aside ... I have since learned that the proper term is
    "parthenogenetic"]
|> >from one or more bisexual species on the Ark in the last 4000 or so
|> >years since the Flood, so that a male and female of each could be
|> >taken on the Ark?  Or is there some other explanation?
|> 
|> The parthenogenetic whiptail (Cnemidophorus Uniparens) lizards are worth
|> looking at in some detail. The females apparently still need to be 'courted'
|> in order to get hot and sticky in the right places; luckily females also
|> engage in male style courting behavior. Those that are the target
|> of this role playing are much more likely to bear a clutch of eggs.
|> 
|> Page 214 of Animal Behavior by John Alcock shows photos of  the male-female
|> dance in one sexual species side by side with a female-female dance in a
|> parthenogenetic species. (I bought this book on the strength of a
|> recommendation by Chris Colby - Thanks, Chris!).
|> 
|> The other text I have that describes these lizards pointed me at the following
|> reference, but I haven't had a chance to look it up yet: Crews, D.
|> _Alternative reproductive tactics in reptiles_ Bioscience, (1983)
|> 33:562-566

    I just looked up in our library catalog (don't ask me why I didn't
do this in the first place), and found far more articles about
parthenogenesis in lizards than I could imagine.  There is a bunch of 
species (one source says 15) in the genus Cnemidophorus (does that mean 
a whole kind is parthenogenetic? :-)), a couple of geckos (I think), 
Heteronotia binoei and Nactus arnouxi, a grasshopper, Warramaba virgo,
and the wax moth, Galleria mellonella, all mentioned as being 
parthenogenetic.  (Of course, the grasshopper and the moth, being 
invertebrate, weren't on the Ark :-))

    Here are some articles in popular magazines on the subject of this 
male courtship behavior in parthenogenetic lizards (BTW, I haven't read 
any of them yet):
David Crews, Courtship in unisexual lizards, Scientific American, 
             December '87, pp.116-21
Diane D. Edwards, Leaping lizards and male impersonators, Science News,
             May 30, '87, pp. 348-9
Sarah Boxer, Does pseudosex enhance virgin birth?, Discover, April '87,
             pp. 5-6

|> 
|> So, creationists, what _IS_ the divine plan behind these transvestite
|> leaping lesbian lizards, anyway? [heh]. The evolutionary explanation
|> is straightforward (or so it seems to me).

    Well, it may be straightforward, but it isn't obvious to me -- I 
guess I'll have to do some reading.

|> 
|> Regards,
|> 	Max G. Webb
|> 
|> Damn, I love bio. Kind of wish I'd studied that, now.

    Ain't nature wonderful?

|> -- 
|> mongo@techbook.COM          ATT: 1-503-227-1284
|> SNAIL: 1983 nw Flanders #205, Portland OR 97209

-- 
Tom Scharle                |cm65n6@irishmvs(Bitnet)
Room G003 Computing Center |scharle@lukasiewicz.cc.nd.edu(Internet)
University of Notre Dame  Notre Dame, IN 46556-0539 USA
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc