Non-bilateral gynandromorph Cecropia Moth.

This is, I believe, a non bilateral gynandromorph Cecropia Moth. What that means is, It has features of both sexes in one individual. This moth eclosed about 2 weeks ago, of which I first thought was a normal male. But it started acting odd, doing things a normal male OR female Cecropia would not do. It was gyrating its abdomen in circular movement, and I thought it was injured or something. Later on it did it again, and this time I really looked at "him", and my eyes grew open wide. Here, its abdomen was the size of a females abdomen, even after his wings were fully dried and hardened. I went to get it out of the emergence cage, and turned him over. That is when my eyes could not believe what I was seeing. He opened his anal claspers to reveal dual sex organs, both an ovipositor, and directly below that, a reduced penis. The last time I saw that was in a gynandromorph Luna Moth I raised back around 2003. Aberration that does not happen very often, but it does happen. This specimen is proof of that...

Notre-Dame Cathedral 1972 "Pizza Box Model", Revisited...

Because of recent events in Paris with the devastating fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral, I thought it would be a good time to do some refurbishing work on my old 1972 model. It is like the real building in dire need for some maintenance/ repair and enhancing work. The way the model was, it is still the way I completed it in '72. It has  silverfish damage that needs to be addressed. I was 14 when I built this, but I am now almost 62. I feel this is my last chance to solidify this model one last time before I pass on...

This will be an ongoing project, and as I make progress I'll add new pictures, here.

As you can see, I have painted the roof and repainted the spire. I have also added cut bamboo skewers to the outside edges of the flying buttresses to simulate the spires that were incorporated on them on the actual building.

 More later as I make progress, mostly refreshing the window and door details on the old model

This picture shows the model with the new  south side transept spires in place. They are more proportionately correct than the old ones were. This would be the view one would have of the cathedral if you were on the Seine River looking back at it. Note now that all the window details have been highlighted with a No. 2 lead pencil to make them stand out more.

 This is the view of the north side with the new transept spires in place there.

This is a before photo showing the old and incorrectly proportioned transept spires.

What you are looking at here is the demolition debris of the 47 year old transept spires which I made at the time out of acid based typewriter paper. They were so brittle with age that they literally crumbled in my hands when I removed them from the model building. Also in this picture is a spare new transept spire along with an extra spire tower tube sheet that I did not need to use and fold up into a tube as I only needed to make 4 of these, and I did enough to produce 6. I did make 5 complete ones, though.

Replacing the North and South transept spires alleviates almost all the serious silverfish damage the model did have, There is some minor silverfish damage to what I now call my incorrectly installed transept wings, but nothing serious that would affect the structural integrity of them , or the model as a whole. Anyway, I have been thinking about removing these as the actual building never had them. The view of the photo I used showed these what I thought were attached, they way I did with the model, are actually completely detached parsonage buildings.  They way they are actually positioned, they will not fit on the existing posterboard baseplate the model is built on. The transept facades actually have doors located there, instead.