To the Greek, the Amazons where a mythical ancient nation consisting of females only. According to BBC News, scientists from the University of Edinburgh now believe that the Amazon Mollies – who also live in this type of all-female societies – might occasionally grab some DNA from males of other species to avoid the problems linked to cloning. Just like the ancient Amazons who, according to the Greek, visited a nearby tribe to engage in sexual activity with men once a year, the Amazon Mollies does interact with males – but only males from other species and only to trigger cloning. According to the researchers, the Amazon Molly has survived for 70,000 years without engaging in normal sexual reproduction.
Interestingly enough, the Amazon Mollies interact with males of other species and there are no male Amazon Mollies to be found. This interaction with male fish seems to be required to trigger spawning in the females. According to the scientists at Edinburgh University, the females might also occasionally use some DNA from the males just to refresh their gene pool a bit and avoid the typical problems linked to cloning.
The Amazon Molly does not live in the Amazon region of South America; this species is instead found in north-eastern Mexico and south-eastern Texas, U.S. where they typically interact with males belonging to the species Poecilia latipinna, Poecilia latipunctata, Poecilia mexicana and Poecilia sphenops.
You can read more about the Amazon Mollies and their mesmerizing reproductive methods at BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7360770.stm
The Edinburgh-led study was carried out in collaboration with Dr Dunja Lamatsch at the University of Wuerzburg, now at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The research is published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.