Jellybeans.. female only tank?

[CrazyHedgehog]

OK, found these in the tank this morning, they were fed last night cut up trout and pinkies, and at first I thought it was the trout that I had found regurgetated...but they are jellybeans..

Notice the one in the middle has a darker area, a few did so I decided to take a closer look.... now bear in mind that this is probably about 5mm so really hard to get a good pic.... but one tiny snake

Now for the really odd thing, this is a tank of females, they havent had a male in with them for over a year!!

[adamanteus]

Damn, what a shame, Inge. What species are they?

[Lori P]

OMG!!! That poor little baby... so why did mom pass these at this point??

[Stefan-A]

Now for the really odd thing, this is a tank of females, they havent had a male in with them for over a year!!

Well, they can retain sperm for more than four years.

I'm not sure though that they even need a male to be able to pop out jelly beans.

[CrazyHedgehog]

These were the red sided garters, they all seemed to produce last year (millions of them), so I thought I would give them a rest this year..(that and I still have a few of the babies from last year)

[adamanteus]

I'm not sure though that they even need a male to be able to pop out jelly beans.

I think a male would be needed to produce a well developed embryo, as featured in the picture though. Then again, if enough study was done we might find evidence of parthenogenesis. It certainly occurs in some other reptile species.

[Lori P]

Really?? In snakes??

[adamanteus]

I know it happens in the Typhlopidae. Maybe others too.
A paper presented in 'Heredity' (2002 or 2003) by Groot and Bruins, puts forward some compelling evidence for parthenogenesis in Python molurus bivittatus.
There was also a study suggesting parthenogenesis in Wandering Garter Snakes from the mid '90s by a guy named 'Schuett', or something similar.

[adamanteus]

I 'Googled' it (in the absence of Stefan) and found this link.....Self-cloning snake

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

i read that article... really good stuff!!!