n. Reproduction by a virgin; in zoology, one of the phenomena attending alternate generation among animals which have sex, a kind of agamogenesis in which an imperfect female individual, hatched from an egg laid by a perfect female after ordinary sexual intercourse, continues to reproduce its kind for one or more generations without renewed impregnation. Parthenogenesis characterizes the reproduction of many insects, as aphids or plant-lice.n. In botany: The production of a perfect embryo without the intervention of pollen.n. Alternation of generations; metagenesis.n. The type of parthenogenesis in which the fertilized eggs produce only one sex.n. The normal development of some of the eggs laid by a female animal without fertilization, as in the honey-bee. After the nuptial flight the queen bee returns to the hive with the spermatic receptacle filled with spermatozoa, which retain their vitality for the rest of her life, and fertilize some of the eggs, but not all, as they pass through the oviduct past the duct of the spermatic receptacle. The eggs that are not fertilized develop into male bees or drones, while the fertilized eggs produce females, which may become queens or perfect females, or workers or arrested females, according to the treatment which they receive from the workers after they have been laid. The workers, which make no nuptial flight and are incapable of sexual union, sometimes lay eggs which give rise to males.