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An extremely rare cricket with female sex organs but male wings and behaviour is giving biologists insights into sexual behaviour.

Gynandromorphs, creatures that possess both male and female characteristics, are extremely rare. They sometimes appear in butterflies, other bugs and 鈥� occasionally the individuals are literally split right down the middle.

at the Miyagi Gakuin Women鈥檚 University in Sendai, Japan, and his team found the peculiar lawn ground cricket (Polionemobius Mikado) in the ruins of the Katsuyama-jo castle in Sakura City, east of Tokyo.

They found that the cricket had wings characteristic of a male and the egg laying organ of a female, making it desirable to male suitors but not to the females it seemed to prefer.

The researchers wanted to test how the animal behaved in an effort to determine 聽whether it behaves more like a male or female, as well as which sex it attracted.

Male crickets make several types of chirps with their wings either to attract receptive females, during sex or to repel other males. But Tanaka says that in laboratory containers, the gynandromorph raised its forewings in an effort to chirp but could not make a sound.

The rare cricket didn鈥檛 let this dissuade it from trying to serenade females placed in its container. But the attempts apparently didn鈥檛 have much effect on the females, which didn鈥檛 let the gynandromorph get too close.

Conversely, male crickets seemed to take a liking to the gynandromorph. One male even tried to snuggle up and deposit a sperm package, but the gynandromorph was not having it. It attempted to chirp aggressively at the males, and even bit one that got too close.

These organisms are very rare. When they do appear, Tanaka says they offer all kinds of opportunities for research on things like the molecular mechanisms of sex determination or sex behaviour.

David Smith, at the University of Hull, UK, says finding gynandromorphs is exciting for biologists.

He says they show a natural experiment that can provide insight into how male or female behaviour patterns are related to specific regions of the body, as well as which behaviour or physical cues are the most effective in attracting would-be mates. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty cool to see in sexual dimorphic species especially where the female and male are very different,鈥� he says.