No, not Jamie Lee Curtis

July 12, 2011 9:49 AM

Freshly hatched at London's Natural History Museum - a gynandromorph butterfly.

While hermaphrodites generally have both male and female reproductive organs, gynandromorphs have their entire physiological systems divided across the genders, and contain traits of both across their forms. While butterflies can have the most striking demonstrations of gynandromorphy, many insects can demonstrate the mutation, as well as other types of creatures including birds.

posted by FatherDagon (32 comments total)

Fascinating. I had no idea this was possible.
posted by auto-correct at 9:52 AM on July 12, 2011

The dual-sex butterfly is an example of a Great Mormon, Papilio memnon - a species that is native to Asia.

Great mormon hermaphrodite, that's a pretty butterfly!
posted by lurkElongtime at 10:00 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

With a shortage of butterfly-specific gender neutral pronouns, the butterfly is being referred to as "it",

Nice way to be sensitive to the intersex insect, guys.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:05 AM on July 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

GenjiandProust: "Nice way to be sensitive to the intersex insect, guys"

Did you notice the "he-she" in the headline? "It" is being sensitive!
posted by Xoder at 10:07 AM on July 12, 2011

Great mormon hermaphrodite mutant, rather.

morphing morman mutant
posted by lurkElongtime at 10:10 AM on July 12, 2011

I will try to use the word "puparium" as much as possible today. Whether appropriate or not. It's fun to say. Puparium.
posted by atomicstone at 10:12 AM on July 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

So, if you have a non-disjunction in an X chromosome in an XX individual during the first division of the zygote, then you will end up with an individual that appears half male (on one side) and half female (on the other side). This is called a bilateral gynandromorph. The non-disjunction can occur during later divisions, however, giving you a smaller portion of the body/wings that looks like one sex and a larger portion that looks like another. It can even happen more than once during development, so that you end up with patches of female and male scattered around on the individual, resulting in what is called a mosaic (see second Tiger Swallowtail, below). VERY bizarre!.

Next time I hear some creationist complaining about the lack of "transitional" species I will remember this example as a demonstration of the vast and abrupt changes possible from minor genetic mutations in animals. Nature is very bizarre indeed.
posted by three blind mice at 10:16 AM on July 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

That is awesome. God, I love DNA.
posted by maryr at 10:18 AM on July 12, 2011

God, I love DNA.

It doesn't love you back, though. It's way too selfish for that.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:20 AM on July 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

Whatevs.
posted by Mister_A at 10:20 AM on July 12, 2011

I'm a molecular biologist. I know it doesn't love me back. Goddamn ligation failed again.
posted by maryr at 10:22 AM on July 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

I want it to dress up in half a dress and and half a tuxedo and do a corny dance. Can they do that, please? The half mustache will be adorable!
posted by artychoke at 10:23 AM on July 12, 2011

We need to study this phenomenon more closely before we start getting excited and jumping to conclusions. There's no need to go off half-cocked.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:23 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Or half-assed, for that matter.
posted by Curious Artificer at 10:25 AM on July 12, 2011

I thought we were declaring a moratorium on Lady Gaga posts.

Seriously, this is fascinating. Nature is pretty damn awesome.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 10:26 AM on July 12, 2011

Get that to Sir Joseph Blaine and he'll be delighted.
posted by Jorus at 10:36 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've never seen this before. Very cool!
posted by troublewithwolves at 11:07 AM on July 12, 2011

Way, way cool! A butterfly researcher once showed me a specimen of this phenomenon, and it totally blew my mind. The differences between the two halves was even more striking with that specimen, since the color schemes were wildly different. When I first saw it, I thought someone must've tried stitching the two pieces Frankenstein-style, like some rogue butterfly collector was out to make a mutant collection and sell them off like a bunch of fragile Fiji mermaids.
posted by Diagonalize at 11:23 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow, neat! Thanks for sharing.
posted by stoneweaver at 11:27 AM on July 12, 2011

I will try to use the word "puparium" as much as possible today. Whether appropriate or not. It's fun to say. Puparium.

It's funny because it could be misread as "pooparium," which would be a comical name for a restroom.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:27 AM on July 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Does this happen in other species where males and females look very different - for example, in birds?
posted by mippy at 11:41 AM on July 12, 2011

This should be the next Batman villain.

(Awesome post!)
posted by lesbiassparrow at 11:43 AM on July 12, 2011

While butterflies can have the most striking demonstrations of gynandromorphy, many insects can demonstrate the mutation, as well as other types of creatures including birds.

::cough::
posted by FatherDagon at 11:46 AM on July 12, 2011

I just found the last photo >here<>> as well.
posted by mippy at 11:52 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Humans can have some pretty interesting intersex conditions, but I've never heard of anything quite so dramatic as this. But I did meet someone who was born with some sort of ovary/testes hybrid. I'm not sure exactly how it worked. It was removed when that person was very young, for no particular reason other than it being considered "icky".
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 12:00 PM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Opinions were divided over the bisectual curiosity, but butterfly enthusiast Luke Brown was beside herself with excitement.
posted by ShutterBun at 12:44 PM on July 12, 2011

bisectual curiosity

Or "bi-curiousity" as it's normally called.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:11 PM on July 12, 2011

Don't you think it's a little bit too soon to be forcing gender labels like 'gynandromorph' onto it?
posted by Not Supplied at 1:26 PM on July 12, 2011

At moments like this I'm left with the immortal words of Katamari Damacy's King of All Cosmos:

My, Earth really is full of things.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 4:31 PM on July 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

This should be the next Batman villain.

OMG, I just realized - this has to be what The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend's kid would look like.
posted by maryr at 6:13 AM on July 13, 2011

mippy: "I just found the last photo >here<>> as well."

The cardinal photo (#9) is interesting. It's half red, half white - but female cardinals aren't white, they're brown, no?
posted by Gordafarin at 6:13 AM on July 13, 2011

It was removed when that person was very young, for no particular reason other than it being considered "icky".

Actually poorly developed gonads are at risk for developing malignancies, so that is why they are removed.

This paper describes a human with a condition similar to what the butterfly has, although not as dramatic and evidently leaning more towards female physiology.
posted by TedW at 12:20 PM on July 13, 2011