I heard ant eggs laid by a female (or queen?), if left unfertilized, will hatch into male ant offspring, but doesn’t that mean that the offspring should be clones of the mother and, therefore, should be female?

Question

I heard ant eggs laid by a female (or queen?), if left unfertilized, will hatch into male ant offspring, but doesn’t that mean that the offspring should be clones of the mother and, therefore, should be female?

In: Biology

Answer 1

In some species, Sex isn’t determined by the initial dna but by conditions during incubation or even during life. Alligators will vary sexes depending on the temperature of nest. There’s a fish that changes sexes during its lifetime.