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Norman Day | all galleries >> Galleries >> Insect rarities, including aberrations, gynandromorphs, etc. > Gynandromorph 5 (Cymothoe caenis)
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28-SEP-2008

Gynandromorph 5 (Cymothoe caenis)

Image © Norman Day. Please do not reproduce without permission.
(High quality original available - please enquire)


Gynandromorphs are particularly spectacular when the males and females of a species are dimorphic (i.e differ markedly in appearance from one another). Here we have a rare (albeit well-worn) bilateral gynandromorph of Cymothoe caenis - left side male, right side female. Torben B. Larsen, the pre-eminent expert on African butterflies, has kindly provided me with the following interesting information about this phenomenon in Cymothoe butterflies:

"It is a rather strange thing that Cymothoe seem more prone to sexual aberrations than nearly anything else – the African Butterfly Research Institute has a large number of perfect bilaterals and several boxes of various intersexes. There are so many that it is useful in matching males and females with geographical variation and difficult taxonomy".

This specimen is from Mbale, Central African Republic. Wingspan = 58mm.

OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. E-510,Olympus OM 50mm f/3.5 Zuiko Auto-Macro
1/20s f/1.0 iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Ann Pettigrew04-Nov-2014 15:04
Wow, what an amazing find this must have been!! Great shot!
Norman Day19-Apr-2014 12:57
Ha ha - you are correct! This error occurs when you use OM (film slr) lenses on a fourthirds or microfourthirds camera, because there is no electronic link between camera and lens.
Guest 06-Apr-2014 02:22
don't think you can shoot a 50mm f3.5 lens at f1?
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