(Photo : J.D. Weintraub/ANSP Entomology) This butterfly is apparently both male and female and is indigenous to Penang, Malaysia.


A bizarre and extremely rare butterfly has reportedly been discovered that is half male and half female, and its appearance shows that it is male and female split down in the middle.



The butterfly was discovered by Chris Johnson, a volunteer at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel while working on the Butterflies! exhibition in Pennsylvania. Johnson says he noticed that the butterfly had just emerged from its chrysalis just a few hours earlier, and when it spread its wings, it showed unique, different sets of wing patterns on each side.



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The right wings exhibited female characteristics which are normally brown with yellow and white spots, while the left showed darker colors with green, blue and violet. Even its wing shape were different from one another.



Johnson was surprised when the wings slowly opened to reveal that they were both dramatically different from each other. He then got in touch with lepidopterist Jason Weintraub, and they eventually isolated the butterfly in order to gain confirmation of the insect, which is classified as a Lexias pardalis that had the condition of bilateral gynandromorphy. Gynandromorphy occurs when the presence of chromosomes of both sexes appear in different tissues of the body.



According to Weintraub, gynandromorphism is usually common in bird and butterfly species where two sexes have different coloration in appearance. This is caused by a certain nondisjunction of the sex chromosomes which is an error that occurs when chromosomes divide during the early stages of development.



Most cases are found when a researcher further inspects museum collections and their specimens under a microscope where they see that the physical appearance including vital organs are indeed split into half male and half female.



The rare butterfly is indigenous to Penang island in Malaysia where it had arrived in the U.S. as a pupa. They are commonly found in the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia and will be on display from January 17 until February 16.




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