Inside Iowa State

May 22, 2008

Rare butterfly emerges at Reiman Gardens

by Diana Pounds

A rare butterfly emerged from a recent shipment of chrysalises to Reiman Gardens' Butterfly Wing. The butterfly, among a batch of 50 Leopard Lacewings (Cethosia cyane), emerged from its chrysalis on May 13 with both male and female markings, said entomologist Nathan Brockman.

The scientific term for an insect that exhibits female and male chracteristics at the same time is "gynandromorph." Such insects are the result of chromosome loss during early cell division.

"They are extremely rare and highly coveted," Brockman said. "When this happens in butterflies, you usually have an individual that is split right down the middle with half of the butterfly exhibiting the female wing pattern and the other half the male wing pattern."

That's the case with Reiman Gardens' special butterfly. One wing contains the orange, black and white markings of a male. The other wing is colored in the pale greenish white, brown and black marks of the female.

On display

On average, butterflies live about two weeks . After the unusual Lacewing flew around the Reiman Gardens Butterfly Wing for a week, staff collected and preserved it for display. It will be on exhibit in Reiman Gardens conversatory complex, starting this weekend.

"When this happens in butterflies, you usually have an individual that is split right down the middle with half of the butterfly exhibiting the female wing pattern and the other half the male wing pattern."

Nathan Brockman, entomologist, Reiman Gardens