Gynandromorph

Overview


A gynandromorph is an organism that contains both male and female characteristics. The term gynandromorph, from Greek "gyn" female and "andro" male, is mainly used in the field of Lepidopterology (butterfly/moth study) or entomology (all insects). These characteristics can be seen in butterflies, where both male and female characteristics can be seen physically because of sexual dimorphism. Cases of gynandromorphism have also been reported in crustaceans, especially lobsters, sometimes crabs and even in birds.

A gynandromorph can have bilateral symmetry, one side female and one side male, or they can be mosaic, a case in which the two sexes aren't defined as clearly. Bilateral gynandromorphy arises very early in development, typically when the organism has between 8 and 64 cells. Later the gynandromorph is mosaic.

In his autobiography, Speak, Memory, the writer and lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov describes a beautiful gynandromorph butterfly, male on one side, female on the other, that he caught as a youth on his family's Russian estate.