Butterfly gets granny's name, at a price

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

MIAMI (AFP) — A winning bid of almost 40,800 dollars bought the right to name a newly discovered rare owl butterly species after a grandmother of five who died 35 years ago, the University of Florida announced on Tuesday.

The species will now be commonly known as the "Minerva owl butterfly" and its scientific name will be Opsiphanes blythekitzmillerae, named in honor of Margery Minerva Blythe Kitzmiller of Ohio.

The proceeds from the online auction will support further research projects in Mexico, said Tom Emmel, director of the university's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity.

"This is the first discovery in the last 100 years of this extraordinary species that lives in the middle of the desert," Emmel told AFP.

The butterfly originally...