In the previous post I showed a photograph of a Green-veined White butterfly and wondered if it was a gynandromorph. This is the image:
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| Gynandromorph Green-veined White butterfly |
My first thought was that the butterfly was entirely female, but the right wing had been rubbed or damaged in some way, removing some of the scales and hence the pattern. But then I realised that the pattern on the right wing looked exactly like the pattern on some male wings. I then noticed that the abdomen is 'kinked' rather than straight, which is a feature that I have seen in other gynandromorph images, though admittedly of different species. I suppose that if the internal organs are male on one side and female on the other, then the inconsistent internal structure will be reflected in some way in the outer surface.
I showed the image to a number of people and it has now been confirmed as a very rare bilateral gynandromorph.
Bilateral gynandromorphs are female in one half and male in the other, and arise from incorrect cell division at some very early stage in the development. They are very rare and I have been unable to find any other images of this particular gynandromorph anywhere in the literature or on the internet.
