I heard aphids are born pregnant. Is this true? If so, how does it work? –Lilian Wentworth, Silver Spring, Maryland
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
You think your life is miserable, cucumber, just be glad you’re not an aphid. Not only are they born pregnant, they’re pregnant without benefit of sex. Not that sex with an aphid sounds like much of a treat. Two things are at work here: parthenogenesis and paedogenesis. Parthenogenesis, also known as virgin birth, is rare in humans (one known case) but common in insects. The baby bugs, all of which are female, develop from single cells in mom’s body. The advantage of this is that reproduction is very quick–none of this flowers and perfume jive–which helps when you’ve got as many natural enemies as aphids have. Paedogenesis–pregnancy in the young–speeds up the process even more. “Although the young are not born until the aphid has reached the adult stage,” it says here, “their development may begin before she is born while she is still in the ducts of the grandparental generation.” Aphids can give birth ten days after having been born themselves. The baby showers must be murder.
To engage the cross-shaped indentation in the head of a Phillips screw you need a Phillips screwdriver (you probably guessed this), whose pointed tip makes it self-centering. This is helpful when you’re using a power screwdriver, which is the reason the Phillips screw was invented: it lends itself to assembly-line screwing, so to speak.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
