Rare half hermaphrodite butterfly spotted at Philadelphia exhibition

A rare half hermaphrodite butterfly has been accidently spotted at a Butterfly exhibit held at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

The discovery of the rare butterfly having half male and half female traits was made recently by Swarthmore-based retired chemical engineer Chris Jhonson, who was a volunteer at the exhibit.

Jhonson says he was quite shocked after seeing the unusual Butterfly.

While sharing his first encounter with the rare half hermaphrodite, Jhonson says he spotted an entirely different butterfly while he was emptying the pupae chamber.

According to him, there were some of the noticeable differences between the two wings’ sizes of the butterfly. While the wings on the right side were large and colorful with brown, yellow and white spots just like female species, the left wings were just like the male species, i.e. they were comparatively smaller with darker shades of green, blue and purple.

As soon as he spotted the incredible species of butterfly, he contacted the Entomology Collection Manager and handed over the butterfly to him.

The experts inspected the insect and found that the butterfly is a common Archduke Butterfly that suffered from a rare genetic condition, called gynandromorphy, where both the male and female traits appear in same species. Hence, the butterfly possessed the reproductive organs of both male and female and therefore called hermaphrodite.

Researchers said that similar condition also exists in birds.

The butterfly would be on display at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University between January17 and February16.