{"id":113127,"date":"2023-05-12T13:29:33","date_gmt":"2023-05-12T12:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/?p=113127"},"modified":"2023-05-12T13:29:38","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T12:29:38","slug":"scientists-name-new-butterfly-after-sauron-from-lord-of-the-rings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/news\/12052023-scientists-name-new-butterfly-after-sauron-from-lord-of-the-rings","title":{"rendered":"Scientists name new butterfly after Sauron from Lord of the Rings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Scientists have named a butterfly after Sauron, the dark lord from Lord of the Rings.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A new genus of butterfly, discovered by scientists from the Natural History Museum in London, has been named Saurona, which includes two species: Saurona triangula and Saurona aurigera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The black eye-spot pattern on the insects&#8217; orange wings reminded the scientists of the \u2018all-seeing eye\u2019 from the&nbsp;world-famous books by J. R. R. Tolkien.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Blanca Huertas, one of the researchers that named the new genus, said: \u201cNaming a genus is not something that happens very often, and it&#8217;s even more rare to be able to name two at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt shows that, even among a group of very similar-looking species, you can find beauty among the dullness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"904\" height=\"678\" src=\"https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Saur1.jpg\" alt=\"Scientists have named a butterfly after Sauron, the necromancing dark lord from Lord of the Rings.\" class=\"wp-image-113133\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Saur1.jpg 904w, https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Saur1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Saur1-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 904px) 100vw, 904px\" \/><figcaption><strong>SPOT ON: The black eye-spot pattern on the insects&#8217; orange wings reminded scientists of the \u2018all-seeing eye\u2019 of Sauron from Lord of the Rings (Image Credit: B. Huertas (c) Trustees Natural History Museum)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>The Saurona butterfly is one of many scientific discoveries to be named after the iconic villain, with other examples including a dung beetle, a frog, a dinosaur, as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/NGC_4151\">an entire galaxy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While only two sub-species have been identified, researchers believe many more have yet to be discovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>London\u2019s Natural History Museum hopes the name linked to the Lord of the Rings will attract attention and help with further research.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0007149247.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-113147\" width=\"248\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0007149247.jpg 331w, https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/0007149247-199x300.jpg 199w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 248px) 100vw, 248px\" \/><figcaption><strong>BOOK CLUB: <\/strong>JRR Tolkien&#8217;s classic<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>The study conducted examined more than 400 different butterfly species, utilising the Natural History Museum&#8217;s butterfly collection, consisting of more than 5.5 million specimens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Due to developments in DNA science, the researchers were able to identify similar-looking species by their genetics, not just their appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study builds on of a decade\u2019s worth of research and was carried out by a team of 30 scientists from various institutions around the world, including Natural History Museum London, Harvard University, Florida Museum of Natural History, and Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/syen.12590\">Combining target enrichment and Sanger sequencing data to clarify the systematics of the diverse Neotropical butterfly subtribe Euptychiina (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae)<\/a>\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;was published in Systematic Entomology, a scientific journal dedicated to the study of insects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Featured image credit: B. Huertas (c) Trustees Natural History Museum<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have named a butterfly after Sauron, the necromancing dark lord from Lord of the Rings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":113134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25621,3],"tags":[33963,13406,2483,30332],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Scientists name new butterfly after Sauron from Lord of the Rings |<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Scientists have named a new genus of butterfly after Sauron, the necromancing dark lord in Lord of the Rings.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/news\/12052023-scientists-name-new-butterfly-after-sauron-from-lord-of-the-rings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scientists name new butterfly after Sauron from Lord of the Rings |\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scientists have named a new genus of butterfly after Sauron, the necromancing dark lord in Lord of the Rings.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/news\/12052023-scientists-name-new-butterfly-after-sauron-from-lord-of-the-rings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South West Londoner\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-12T12:29:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-12T12:29:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Sau2-e1683890848185.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"478\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"newsdesk1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"newsdesk1\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/news\/12052023-scientists-name-new-butterfly-after-sauron-from-lord-of-the-rings#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/news\/12052023-scientists-name-new-butterfly-after-sauron-from-lord-of-the-rings\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"newsdesk1\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/33256a28eec0215b00ba93c8158d52c8\"},\"headline\":\"Scientists name new butterfly after Sauron from Lord of the Rings\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-12T12:29:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-12T12:29:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/news\/12052023-scientists-name-new-butterfly-after-sauron-from-lord-of-the-rings\"},\"wordCount\":380,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swlondoner.co.uk\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"butterfly\",\"Lord of the Rings\",\"science\",\"zoology\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Kensington &amp; 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