Butterfly naming draws $40K bid

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A butterfly species discovered in Florida has a new name after a bidder paid $40,800 for the naming rights in an online auction.

The butterfly’s common name will be the Minerva owl butterfly. It’s being named after the late Margery Minerva Blythe Kitzmiller of Malvern, Ohio, who died in 1972. Kitzmiller was a mother of three sons who all fought in World War II. The bidder chose to remain anonymous but the payment was made on behalf of Kitzmiller’s grandchildren.

University of Florida researchers George Austin and Andrew Warren discovered the species while looking through a butterfly collection at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville earlier this year. They found it was misidentified as an example of another species.

The butterfly lives in Sonora, a Mexican state bordering Arizona, and the proceeds of the auction will go toward further research of Mexican butterflies.

Warren had said before the auction closed that the researchers were hoping to raise at least $50,000, which would fund two years of work in Mexico.

The butterfly’s scientific name will be Opsiphanes blythekitzmillerae. The 4-inch butterfly is brown, white and black.