A butterfly species discovered in a Florida museum will be called “Minerva,” after an anonymous bidder paid $40,800 for the naming rights.
The butterfly’s common name will be the Minerva owl butterfly. It’s being named after Margery Minerva Blythe Kitzmiller of Malvern, Ohio, who died 35 years ago.
The butterfly’s scientific name will be Opsiphanes blythekitzmillerae.
Researchers discovered the new species while looking through a butterfly collection at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.
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Think you have problems with your mother – this kid has three moms.
A 2-month-old dolphin at the National Aquarium in Baltimore is being nursed by three females.
The calf was born to a dolphin named Jade, who is being helped in her nursing duties by the mother-daughter team of Chesapeake and Shiloh.
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A pet rabbit has become a surrogate mom to six abandoned kittens in Scotland.
“It’s amazing to see,” said owner Melanie Humble, 29, of Aberdeen.
“For some reason, they just took to the rabbit instantly and thought she was their mum,” she said.
“They started climbing all over her and were looking to get milk from her. She just sat there and let them do it.”
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In other bunny news, a pair of muggers snatched an Austrian woman’s handbag – which contained only a dead rabbit.
The crime happened as Hilda Morgenstein, 42, and her young daughter were about to hop a train to bury their pet.
“They saved us a trip,” Morgenstein said.
“I told my daughter they were angels and were taking Bunny to a better place.”
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The parking chief of Rome has been fired for parking illegally.
Giovanni Catanzaro got the boot after a local paper reported that he had parked his red Alfa Romeo Brera in a tow-away zone Friday while using a handicapped permit as cover.
The permit, by the way, belonged to an 86-year-old woman – and it was no longer valid.