In a beautiful illustration of the butterfly effect, Florida researchers George Austin and Andrew Warren are auctioning the naming rights of a new species of owl butterfly they discovered earlier this year. The proceeds will go to the McGuire Center at Florida’s Museum of Natural History to fund research into Lepidoptera, the species class that includes butterflies and moths.
This is a rare opportunity to buy this unique and eternal gift, since it’s been more than 100 years since a new owl butterfly has been named. “It is extraordinarily uncommon for such a large, showy butterfly to have escaped detection until now,” said Warren. “This likely will be one of the last times such a large and beautiful butterfly is named.”
The soon-to-be-named butterfly is native to the Mexican Sonoran Desert, which is just south of the Mojave, though Austin and Warren actually discovered the previously misidentified butterfly in a collection at Florida’s Museum of Natural History. The male has a bright orange hue, with the female having more distinct marking on its browner wings. Both have a wingspan of approximately four inches.
Convention allows that those who discover new species have a say in naming it. “We realized this striking discovery represents an exceptional opportunity to raise funds for continued research on Mexican butterflies, by allowing rights to the species-level name to be auctioned,” said Austin.
The butterfly lot is up for sale on iGavel.com, a high-end auction site which guarantees the authenticity of its items. So far there have been twelve bids, with the highest offer being $34,000. Bidding closes on Nov 2nd.
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