The butterfly species is named after the Lord of the Rings character Sauron
The name Saurona was given because the black ring on the wing of the insect is said to be similar to ‘the all-seeing eye’ described in JRR Tolkien’s book.
Scientists have named a group of butterflies after Sauron, the evil character from the novel ‘Lord of the Rings’.
The name Saurona was given because the black ring on the wing of the insect is said to be similar to ‘the all-seeing eye’ described in JRR Tolkien’s book.
The Natural History Museum in London hopes that the unique name will draw the public’s attention to the butterfly species to conduct more research.
Two species of butterflies have been added in the new genus Saurona.
Saurona triangular and Saurona aurigera were the first species to be included in the collection but more will be added later.
The name was chosen by Dr Blanca Heurtas, curator of butterflies at the museum.
She was also part of an international team of researchers who published an article about the new genus in the journal Systematic Entonology.
A group of 30 scientists from around the world have conducted a 10-year study on this Euptychiina butterfly.
More than 400 butterfly species are studied and classified based on DNA.
This is not the first time a group of animals has been named after Sauron.
Previously this name had been used for dung beetles, frogs and dinosaurs.
