ABSTRACT

The terms for reproductive processes are defined, but there are several more general terms that need to be understood before discussing reproduction effectively. Reproduction Processes have heretofore been grouped or classified under several simple sets of terms: sexual vs. asexual, bisexual vs. unisexual, gametic vs. nongametic, amphimictic vs. apomictic, and meiotic vs. ameiotic. The variety of these systems is apparently due to the fact that none of them are free of ambiguity and exception. It will emphasize the existing diversity to discuss these term-systems and their difficulties. Occasionally "sexual" is so rigidly defined as involving two individuals that parthenogenesis is treated as asexual. A species is bisexual when there are both male and female individuals, but a bisexual individual would be an hermaphrodite. In some dioecious animals there is no karyogamy. The species are bisexual because there are two types of individuals, but the reproduction is unisexual.