On April 27th I was walking my butterfly transect along the
River Tyne in Haddington. It was quite a disappointing walk, with very few
butterflies around. All I recorded was one Peacock, Aglais io, one Small Tortoiseshell, Aglais urticae, and four Orange Tips, Anthocharis cardamines. One of the Orange Tips appeared to be
damaged as it was flying strangely and appeared to be missing the top of one of
its wings.
On my way back I saw the same Orange Tip land in front of me
and realised that it wasn't damaged after all. It turned out to be a
Gynandromorph - half male and half female, divided exactly down the middle. Its
left hand wings were marked as a male, with an orange tip and the right hand
wings were marked like a female. I noticed that the wings were slightly
different shapes and the antennae were different lengths.
Unfortunately, that day I had my new phone with me. I tried
to take some pictures, but it took me a while to do so and all I could manage
were these two fuzzy pictures. Prior to this, it was posing beautifully with its
wings open!
I then met two dog walkers who I regularly see. They often
ask me how my transect is going and I couldn't contain my excitement that day.
I explained about the half and half butterfly I had seen and they both showed
an interest. I returned over the next five or six days with my camera hoping to
see the butterfly again, but sadly I didn't see it.
However, I learned that one of the dog walkers had seen it
300 metres further downstream two days later and the other lady had seen it on
a tributary about 500 metres upstream the following Sunday. Although it was sad
not to have managed to get a better picture of the butterfly, I was pleased
that two other people had also managed to witness this curiosity.
