In DISCOVER's gallery of cannibal animals, we listed species like the praying mantis that engage in sexual cannibalism, with the female eating her mate. But Mycocepurus smithii ants don't need males in the first place. Nary a male of this species has ever been found. Instead of reproducing sexually, the species reproduces only when the queen clones herself with a muscular reproductive organ that scientists don't yet understand.

A University of Arizona research team first studied this ant species because of its ability to farm not just fungi, like leafcutter ants do, but other crops as well. But when the researchers couldn't find any males, they performed DNA analysis and found all the ants to be clones of their queen. Asexual reproduction by females is terribly rare, and the team doesn't know how long ago this species evolved their peculiar behavior.