Minerva owl butterfly is the common name for the butterfly species Opsiphanes blythekitzmillerae. In November 2007 an anonymous online auction bidder paid US$40,800 for the naming rights to the butterfly. It was named after Margery Minerva Blythe Kitzmiller of the U.S. state of Ohio, who died in 1972. Researchers at the University of Florida discovered the new species in a butterfly collection at the Florida Museum of Natural History in 2007. It had been misidentified as an example of another species. The 4-inch butterfly is brown, white and black, and is found in the Mexican state of Sonora.[1]

Minerva owl butterfly
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Opsiphanes
Species:
O. blythekitzmillerae
Binomial name
Opsiphanes blythekitzmillerae
Austin & A. Warren, 2007

References

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