Butterflies! is an Academy of Natural Sciences exhibit at Drexel University. It's nothing unusual then to see a butterfly emerge from a chrysalis, but it is definitely noteworthy when that butterfly happens to look like a male and a female at the same time.
Discovered by Chris Johnson, the unusual butterfly has two male left wings, dark with purple, blue and green coloring, and two female right wings, brown with spots of white and yellow. Additionally, the wings were also different in shape, again following characteristics depending on whether they're carrying the male or female side, a distinction that runs along the butterfly's entire body, which is split lengthwise like a side-by-side comparison.
Johnson, a retired chemical engineer who has been volunteering at the Academy for five years, spotted the butterfly in October when he was clearing out the pupa chamber for the exhibit. All cocoons and chrysalises are placed in the pupa chamber after being received from shipments from overseas, allowing butterflies (and moths) to develop properly. After emerging, butterflies are then released to become part of the exhibit.
The volunteer called on his supervisor David Schloss after making the discovery and the two isolated the butterfly, contacting Jason Weintraub, Entomology Collection Manager at the Academy and a lepidopterist.
Weintraub confirmed the butterfly was a Lexias pardalis, and it was manifesting an unusual condition known as bilateral gynandromorphy.
Most noticeable in butterflies and birds with male and female species distinct from each other, gynandromorphism is a condition where sex chromosomes didn't separate. It's rare but much is unknown because it is often overlooked in species where males and females look similar.
The Lexias pardalis in question was one of many shipped from a butterfly farm in Malaysia's Penang Island, arriving in October. Commonly called the "brush-footed" butterfly, it is part of the Nymphalidae butterfly family and thrives in tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia.
Given the size of the Entomology Collection at the Academy, it was difficult to determine if gynandromorphism was also exhibited in other specimens. According to Weintraub, most of the time specimens showing the condition are only stumbled upon by researchers in museum collections when they are carefully examining the reproductive parts of insects under a microscope. Johnson's discovery then was truly remarkable.
The gynandromorphic Lexias pardalis will be on display at the exhibit from Jan. 17 to Feb. 16.
