New butterflies are named after Sauron, ‘Lord of the Rings’ villain
A new butterfly genus, with dark, eye-like spots on its distinctive orange wings, is named after Sauron, the nemesis of JRR Tolkien’s fantasy epic “The Lord of the Rings,” whose gaze casts evil across the lands of Middle Earth.
An international team of scientists identified two species in the new genus – Saurona triangula and Saurona aurigera – but said there were likely more, The Natural History Museum in London announced this on Sunday.
Blanca Huertas, the museum’s senior curator of butterflies, helped name the genus, one of nine new ones identified by the researchers in a paper in the most recent issue of the journal Systematic Entomology.
The practice of naming new species after celebrities, fictional characters and others has a long history, and “giving these butterflies unusual names draws attention to this underappreciated group,” said Dr. Blanca. “It shows that, even among a group of very similar species, you can find beauty among the dullness.”
Found in the southwestern Amazon rainforest, the Saurona butterflies are part of a group called Euptychiina, which are difficult to distinguish due to their physical characteristics. The scientists used genetic sequencing to tell the new species apart.
“It’s important to study groups like the Euptychiina because it reveals that there are many species that we didn’t know about,” said Dr. Blanca. “Some of these species are in danger of extinction, so there’s a lot to do now that we can name them.”
Butterfly populations around the world are threatened by habitat loss and the effects of climate change. The monarch butterfly (or Danaus plexippus, which isn’t based on a Tolkien character) was classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature last year.
Tolkien often portrayed Sauron as a disembodied, all-seeing eye, writing in “The Fellowship of the Ring” in 1954: From his pupil opened on a pit, a window to nothingness. Film adaptations followed.
In addition to the newly designated butterflies, Sauron has an eponymous dinosaur, a dung beetle and a frog, according to the Natural History Museum. There is also NGC 4151a distant galaxy that astronomers have dubbed “the eye of Sauron.”
Tolkien’s characters have long been a rich source of inspiration for taxonomists, including a subterranean fish named after the cave-dwelling Gollum; a crab found in New Zealand – the filming location for the “Lord of the Rings” movies of the early 2000s – which was named after the wizard Gandalf; and the moss-blossom bat, also known as Syconycteris hobbit.