Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Minerva owl butterfly

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Kingdom
  
Animalia

Class
  
Insecta

Family
  
Nymphalidae

Rank
  
Species

Phylum
  
Arthropoda

Order
  
Lepidoptera

Tribe
  
Brassolini

Scientific name
  
Opsiphanes blythekitzmillerae

Similar
  
Opsiphanes sallei, Opsiphanes cassiae, Opsiphanes tamarindi, Opsiphanes cassina, Opoptera

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.

References

Minerva owl butterfly Wikipedia