Butterfly phenomenon

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - One of the rarest butterflies in the world emerged at the Western Cape Butterfly Sanctuary in Ruiterbos, near Mossel Bay.

A butterfly breeder, Earle Whiteley, bred the butterfly, a gynandromorph pearl emperor.

PHOTO GALLERY: Butterfly Sanctuary in Ruiterbos

Gynandromorphs have both male and female characteristics.

Unfortunately the butterfly died after a few days, but it has been pinned and can be viewed.

It is a perfect half female and half male. One side of the butterfly has a larger wing with female coloration and markings and the male side has a smaller wing and male coloration and markings.

This gynandromorph pearl emperor is the only known one in existence, making it one of the rarest butterflies in the world.

Breeding process

Whiteley, a sixth-generation butterfly breeder, explains the breeding process: "We got hold of a female and we had the host plant. We got her to lay her first eggs and we harvested the caterpillars off the tree and collected about 647 larvae."

They started mating. "The half-male, half-female phenomenon happens very rarely in nature. This is the first gynandromorph pearl emperor that I have ever seen."

Whiteley says one cannot manipulate the genitalia of butterflies. "It hatched on the stump and it was still too soft to move, so I left it for a while. I saw the shape of one wing was too small, but I thought it was just a deformity."

Magical moment

Whiteley says it was a magical moment when he realised one side was male and the other, female.

Whiteley started as a butterfly collector when he was just five years old. "I used to catch them for my collection."

He has bred 282 different species of butterflies and has a record of all of them since he began breeding butterflies in 1973. Although there are only a handful of recorded gynandromorphs worldwide, two specimens are in the South African Butterfly Breeding Association (SABBA) collection.

The Western Cape Butterfly Sanctuary is one of the largest sanctuaries of its kind in the world and the largest in Africa. Visitors can view the pearl emperor in the sanctuary at Ruiterbosch Lodge, located at the foot of the Robinson Pass, 30km from Mossel Bay on the R328 to Oudtshoorn.

The larvae of a pearl emperor butterfly.