Weird Insect Sex
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Calilasseia
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Re: Weird Insect Sex
Heh, if you find a bilateral gynandromorph of Ornithoptera alexandriae, it's worth £25,000 on the collector's market.
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PsychoSerenity
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Re: Weird Insect Sex
Unless they find a mate which is bilaterally gynandromorphed the other way.Calilasseia wrote:Don't think so. I suspect the genital abnormalities I've illustrated prevent this.JimC wrote:Can they, and do they mate?
[Disclaimer - if this is comes across like I think I know what I'm talking about, I want to make it clear that I don't. I'm just trying to get my thoughts down]
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Tyrannical
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Re: Weird Insect Sex
Why are they symmetrical?
A rational skeptic should be able to discuss and debate anything, no matter how much they may personally disagree with that point of view. Discussing a subject is not agreeing with it, but understanding it.
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JimC
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Re: Weird Insect Sex
Like most (but not all) metazoans, insects are bilaterally symmetrical. At various stages during embryonic development, a stem cell will divide in two, one destined for the left, the other the right side. If this coincides with a chromosomal abnormality leading to a different set of sex chromosomes between left and right, we will have a symmetrical division of male and female parts.Tyrannical wrote:Why are they symmetrical?
Nurse, where the fuck's my cardigan?
And my gin!
And my gin!
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Calilasseia
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Re: Weird Insect Sex
There also exist mosaic gynandromorphs, where there's a mix of male and female characteristics not divided laterally, but they're not as spectacular as the bilateral ones. 
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FBM
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Re: Weird Insect Sex
Papua New Guinea, eh? I think I'll just keep my day job and buy lottery tickets...not that I wouldn't love to visit PNG, but I'd probably wind up as dinner long before finding what I was looking for.Calilasseia wrote:Heh, if you find a bilateral gynandromorph of Ornithoptera alexandriae, it's worth £25,000 on the collector's market.
"A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there. A theologian is the man who finds it." ~ H. L. Mencken
"We ain't a sharp species. We kill each other over arguments about what happens when you die, then fail to see the fucking irony in that."
"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion."
"We ain't a sharp species. We kill each other over arguments about what happens when you die, then fail to see the fucking irony in that."
"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion."
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