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 Editorials | Environmental | October 2007 
Researchers To Auction Butterfly Naming Rights Online
 Nidhi Sharma - AHN
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Click image to enlarge | | Check out the auction at Igavel.com |
Tucson, AZ - In attempt to raise money for their research, the University of Florida researchers George Austin and Andrew Warren are offering to sell the naming rights for a newly discovered species online.
The scientists, who helped discover a new species of Mexican butterfly, are hoping to raise at least $50,000 by auctioning off the rights to name the 4-inch "owl eye" butterfly, which lives in Sonora, a Mexican state bordering Arizona.
The discovery is significant because of the large size and color of the species. It is also the first butterfly from this group to be named in more than 100 years. Most newly discovered species are small and unremarkable because the more noticeable ones were discovered long ago.
According to a press release, the new butterfly ranges as far north as Magdalena de Kino, about 120 miles south of Tucson, and is known to live in the area along Highway 16 west from Yecora, near the Chihuahuan border, to near Hermosillo.
Since discoverers of a new species have the right to name it, many of then have auctioned off their naming rights to raise money. The naming rights for a new monkey species brought in $650,000 two years ago just as a group of 10 new fish species earlier this year brought in a total of $2 million.
The auction, on the Internet auction site Igavel.com, winds up Friday. |
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