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Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I SUPPOSE YOU MIGHT SAY THEY COME FROM MIDDLESEX

Yesterday I wrote two articles about halved gynandromorphs. I thought they were mildly interesting and thought nothing more about them. However, this morning as I wandered into the office after having let Biggles out to rush around the garden and bark joyously at the brand new day, I was greeted by a mild shock.

No less than five emails saying essentially the same thing: The butterfly pictures are very pretty, but what is a halved gynandromorph?

A gynandromorph is an animal in which the male and female charecteristics both appear, and a halved or bilateral gynandromorph (most often seen in butterflies, and occasionally crabs) is a specimen which has the left hand side of its body one gender and the right hand side the other. This is most noticeable in species with marked sexual dimorphism like this Diana fritillary (Speyeria diana) - found in several wooded areas in southern and eastern North America.

It is one of the State Animals of Arkansas, from who's website I stole the following:

"The orange males have black outer margins and the females are iridescent blue or blue-green above and black below.

The Diana once had a wider range, but now it is found only in or near rich bottomland woodlands in the Appalachians and sparingly in the Ozarks. "

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