Parthenogenesis

This word was actually used in a gothic dance rock song as a metaphor for vampirism. Here's just the chorus to Shriekback's Nemesis:

Priests and Cannibals, prehistoric animals,
Everybody happy when the dead come home.
Big black nemesis, parthenogenesis,
Noone move a muscle when the dead come home.

Note that more modern definitions stipulate parthenogenesis as reproduction of organisms without the combination of gametes from opposite sexes... so technicially, vampirism would (if it existed) qualify as such.

parthenogenesis: development of an egg into a newborn without fertilization by a sperm. Parthenogenic species are monochoric, that is, all members of the species are of the same gonadal type; for example, some species of whiptail lizard. This is also called "virgin birth" in the vernacular.

Dictionary of Sexology Project: Main Index

Geographic parthenogenesis is the term to describe the segregation of thelytokous forms of a species due to some feature of the terrain.

For example, parthenogenesis occurs more often in extreme climates or situations -- high altitude, deserts, or on isolated islands.

Par`the*no*gen"e*sis (?), n. [Gr. parqe`nos a virgin + E. genesis.]

1. Biol.

The production of new individuals from virgin females by means of ova which have the power of developing without the intervention of the male element; the production, without fertilization, of cells capable of germination. It is one of the phenomena of alternate generation. Cf. Heterogamy, and Metagenesis.

2. Bot.

The production of seed without fertilization, believed to occur through the nonsexual formation of an embryo extraneous to the embrionic vesicle.

 

© Webster 1913.