I don't think any of us on here are millionaires but just in case...here's an article from the Associated Press.
Researchers sell butterfly naming rights Mon Oct 29, 5:54 PM ET
Researchers who helped discover a new species of Mexican butterfly are offering to sell the naming rights to raise money to fund more research.
Co-discoverer Andrew Warren is 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.
"That would support at least two years of research for our team down in Mexico," Warren said. "Money goes a long way down here in Mexico."
According to the scientific tradition, discoverers of a new species have the say in naming it. In recent years, some discoverers have auctioned off their naming rights to raise money.
Warren said the amount being sought for the butterfly isn't out of the question, noting that naming rights for a new monkey species brought in $650,000 two years ago. A group of 10 new fish species that went on the naming auction block at the same time earlier this year brought in a total of $2 million.
The butterfly discovered by Warren and researcher George Austin 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.
But the discovery itself wasn't made in Mexico.
The butterfly was actually in a collection, misidentified as an example of another species, at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, said Warren.
Warren, a postdoctorate researcher specializing in Mexican butterflies, said fellow McGuire researcher Austin spotted the impostor early this year. They soon began the arduous process of determining that it was indeed a "new" model of butterfly.
After checking photos and comparing it with other known species, they determined it was a separate species. It's in the Opsiphanes group, near the morphos and monarch branches on the butterfly section of the tree of life.
It just needs a name to come after "Opsiphanes."
The auction, on the Internet auction site Igavel.com, wraps up Friday.
Researchers sell butterfly naming rights
Wow, it's already up to $ 40,800.00. A little tooo rich for me. : )
I wouldn't be too orginal, anyway. I would just call it Opsiphanes owl eye. lol
~Lucy
In case you wondered how it turned out...
Online Auction Sells Naming Rights To New Butterfly Species
The Associated Press
Published: November 23, 2007
GAINESVILLE - 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 is 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 new species while looking through a butterfly collection at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville earlier this year.
They found that 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.