Beautiful wings of butterflies

Due to genetic defects, these butterflies have a male half-body characteristic, female half-female.

Among the cases of genetic defects found today, longitudinal bisexual butterflies are considered to be the most striking and remarkable beauty. These Papilio memnon butterflies have half their bodies with the characteristics of males, the other half are females, leading to differences in color and size between the two sides of the body.

This phenomenon of heterogeneity also occurs in lobsters, crabs and birds, but only butterflies and new moths possess such beauty.

Below are pictures of some bisexual butterfly individuals studied by biology professor James K. Adams of Dalton State College (USA) and kept at many universities and research institutes around the world.

Most bisexual butterflies have different body sizes and colors, due to inheriting heterogeneous traits from male and female breeds.

Sometimes, the longitudinal bisexual butterfly possesses a balanced and harmonious beauty.

Bisexual phenomenon occurs when two sperms fertilize an egg. Normally, embryos with XX chromosomes will develop into females and XY will become male.

If the embryo loses a Y chromosome, it is still capable of developing a butterfly with the shape of the male, but not fertile.

Therefore, when two sperms fertilize an egg, it is possible that the embryo will carry both male and female sex.

Butterfly wings are covered with chitin - a protein that makes the insect's exoskeleton. These chitin layers are very thin and can see through.

Covering the surface of the chitin is thousands of tiny scales, which reflect light, creating different colors for butterflies.