A Butterfly Named Minerva

The butterfly has a name! You had your chance, and no, it's not Ruth or Diane, as I had kinda hinted. It's Minerva. Well, that's okay. Named for a lovely and talented lady, by her grandchildren.

The butterfly's common name will be the Minerva owl butterfly, named after the late Margery Minerva Blythe Kitzmiller of Ohio.

While the bidder's name was not disclosed, the payment was made on behalf of Kitzmiller's grandchildren. The butterfly's scientific name will be Opsiphanes blythekitzmillerae.
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The 4-inch butterfly is brown, white and black and lives in Sonora, a Mexican state bordering Arizona. Proceeds from the auction will go toward further research of Mexican butterflies.

Beverly Sensbach, director of development for the museum, said Kitzmiller's grandchildren wanted to honor her through the name of a beautiful butterfly because she was "an extremely creative person who wrote poetry, played piano and sang."

The tribute of having research and a butterfly named for you is something I could aspire to. I may start looking for unnamed praying mantises or box turtles, myself.

Fewer egomaniacs sending people to die and more lovely souls promoting butterfly research would certainly improve this world.