<P> In apomictic parthenogenesis, the offspring are clones of the mother and hence (except for aphids) are usually female . In the case of aphids, parthenogenetically produced males and females are clones of their mother except that the males lack one of the X chromosomes (XO). </P> <P> When meiosis is involved, the sex of the offspring will depend on the type of sex determination system and the type of apomixis . In species that use the XY sex - determination system, parthenogenetic offspring will have two X chromosomes and are female . In species that use the ZW sex - determination system the offspring genotype may be one of ZW (female), ZZ (male), or WW (non-viable in most species but a fertile, viable female in a few (e.g., boas)). ZW offspring are produced by endoreplication before meiosis or by central fusion . ZZ and WW offspring occur either by terminal fusion or by endomitosis in the egg cell . </P> <P> In polyploid obligate parthenogens like the whiptail lizard, all the offspring are female . </P> <P> In many hymenopteran insects such as honeybees, female eggs are produced sexually, using sperm from a drone father, while the production of further drones (males) depends on the queen (and occasionally workers) producing unfertilised eggs . This means that females (workers and queens) are always diploid, while males (drones) are always haploid, and produced parthenogenetically . </P>

Give an account of parthenogenesis and its significance