This gynandromorph Papilio Memnon butterfly fortuitously hatched in the puparium at this year’s Sensational Butterflies exhibition [at London's Natural History Museum]...
As the coloring denotes, the butterfly is literally half female, half male — its sexual organs are half and half, and, as the BBC adds: “…even its antennae are different lengths”.
The Museum explains: “Insects can become gynandromorphs if the sex chromosomes do not properly separate during the first division of a fertilized egg, resulting in an insect with both male and female cells. They can also occur when an egg with two sex chromosomes, instead of a single one, gets fertilized by two sperm.
Via
Wired Science. Pix of normal
Papilio Memnon here. Those interested in the biology of the phenomenon can see more at my
previous post on this subject.
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق