Male and female at the same time .. The first case discovery of the binary sex change of the stick insect | Science

Because Charlie’s case was “particularly surprising”, the insect was handed over to the Natural History Museum to stay there permanently.

A report published in the French magazine Le Point on February 18 mentions Lauren Garfield, a British man who has been breeding stick insects for many years, and found in his models a man with a strange personality, so that half of them appeared to be male. The other half, a woman, was the first case, according to Geo magazine.

Prior to its mutation, the insect – whose owner called it Charlie – showed no special features, but because this stick insect turned green on one of its sides and had a classic leg, both species grew at the same time. , These are female traits, the other appearing in brown and has a male characteristic suit.

Bisexual mutation

This seemed so strange that, to find out for sure, Charlie’s curious owner took him to Paul Brook, an entomologist at the Natural History Museum in London, to quickly find his pest. , I.e. the coexistence of male and female traits in an individual, each occupying a feature of its own.

Brooke, who raised similar issues with other neighboring species, explained that “this is the first time that this genotype has been identified in a stick insect known as” Diabetes gigandia “belonging to Charlie.”

The insect was taken to the Natural History Museum in London for permanent residence (Shutterstock).

The researcher added, “In 1958 another researcher pointed out that there was a 0.05% chance of binary mutations in Carassius morosus, a stick insect that has been found in Europe and elsewhere since 1901.”

Charlie’s case was “particularly surprising” because the insect was handed over to the Natural History Museum for permanent residence.