Hello Bill. You answered yourself correctly!
1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Usually yes
4. Yes, it's an irregular plural.
Similar to "ala/ali" I can only think about "arma/armi" (weapon).
But there is a number of words related to body parts which are irregular in different ways.
- La mano, le mani (hand). Feminin articles are used, but the final letters follow the masculine nouns' rules.
- Il braccio, le braccia (arm). The singular is masculine, the plural is feminine but a bit mixed up.
- Il labbro, le labbra (lip). Same here.
- Il dito, le dita (finger). Same.
- Il ginocchio, le ginocchia (knee). Same
- Il sopracciglio, le sopracciglia (eyebrow). Same.
- Il corno, le corna (horn). Same. Not a human body part, but still a body part.
- L'orecchio, le orecchie (ear). The singular is masculine, the plural is feminine.