One wing to rule them all: Scientists name a butterfly after Sauron
The last two decades have been quite an incredible time for The Lord of the Rings, between the movies, TV series and countless spin-offs. Its omnipresence almost makes me worry there's too much of it, and the pipeline shows no signs of slowing down (in games, we'll be seeing The Lord of the Rings: Gollum(opens in new tab) at the end of this month). One new LOTR-related piece of news, however, actually brought a smile to my face.
Scientists have identified and named a new group of butterflies after Sauron, the series' villain and scourge of Middle-Earth. The name is because the insects have bright orange wings with black ring markings, which apparently reminded the experts of Sauron's all-seeing eye described in the novels and realised magnificently in the Jackson films.
The genus is called Saurona and so far two species have been added to it: Saurona triangular and Saurona aurigera. It's expected there will be many more joining them. A fellowship, perhaps?
Dr. Blanca Huertas, senior curator of butterflies at the Natural History Museum, is part of the team that described the new genus in a paper published in the journal Systematic Entomology(opens in new tab). Dr. Huertas reckons the name will get some attention on the creatures and inspire more research.
«Giving these butterflies an unusual name helps to draw attention to this underappreciated group,» said Blanca(opens in new tab). «It shows that, even among a group of very similar-looking species, you can find beauty among the dullness. Naming a genus is not something that happens very often, and it's even more rare to be able to name two at once. It was a great privilege to do so, and now means that we can start describing new species that we have uncovered as a
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