This oughta really wind up the wingnuts.
"Living organisms are assumed to produce same-species offspring1,2. Here, we report a shift from this norm in Messor ibericus, an ant that lays individuals from two distinct species. In this life cycle, females must clone males of another species because they require their sperm to produce the worker caste. As a result, males from the same mother exhibit distinct genomes and morphologies, as they belong to species that diverged over 5 million years ago. The evolutionary history of this system appears as sexual parasitism3 that evolved into a natural case of cross-species cloning4,5, resulting in the maintenance of a male-only lineage cloned through distinct species’ ova. We term females exhibiting this reproductive mode as xenoparous, meaning they give birth to other species as part of their life cycle."

In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same mother having distinct genomes and morphologies.
In regards to Xena making a statement against the stigma surrounding HIV: in the episode 'Here She Comes... Miss Amphipolis', Xena enters a beauty pageant undercover. There, she encounters Miss Artiphys, a character played by the late Karen Dior, an HIV-positive actor, singer, former adult performer, and drag queen (reports on Dior’s gender identity are contradictory, and probably also affected by '90s culture).
When Xena discovers that Miss Artiphys was an AMAB character who entered the competition presenting as a woman, the latter explains her actions with the line: "You really don’t get it, do you? I guess being born a woman you wouldn’t. This is a chance to use a part of me most people usually laugh at, or worse. A part I usually have to hide. Only here that part works for me, you see?" expecting Xena to force her to drop.
Instead, Xena encourages her to stay in the competition, never reveals her secret, never disrespects her, and in the end, she ends up being crowned winner. After her victory, Xena and Artiphys share a kiss. That was an intentional statement against the widespread misinformation surrounding AIDS and the transmission of HIV that reportedly Lucy Lawless insisted on being included.
It is near impossible to fully explain how *ridiculously* groundbreaking it was that this entire plot happened in the mid '90s.
#Xena #XenaWarriorPrincess #LGBTQIA #LGBTQ #TransRights #HIV #trans #Gender #TV
Happy 30th anniversary to one of my favourite shows of all time, #XenaWarriorPrincess ⚔️💜
"You've always said that I was the brave one. Look at you now. If this is to be our destiny, let's see it out together."
Xena is the type of show that everyone should watch once in their lifetime. It’s one of the best examples of the right cast and the right crew. They really did “Capture lightening in a bottle.” To quote Lucy Lawless herself.
This video essay on dog acting contains few surprises but did please me for taking an entire section to ritually piss on the practice of using CGI to put human body language and facial expressions on dogs. Truly the worst. We hates it, precious.