Moth Naming Auction On Ebay

An entomologist has launched a moth-naming auction on eBay.

16:56 21 October 2015

Eric H Metzler, an entomologist, has discovered a moth eight years ago and has been recently acknowledged as a new species. With the goal to raise money for charity, he has gone to eBay auctioning the right to give it an official name.

 

The highest bid so far is £4,581, with three days left on the auction.

 

The winner will get to choose the name but will have to follow guidelines issued by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. Once approved, the winner’s chosen name will be Latinised. Meanwhile, the money raised from the action will go to the Western National Parks Association, which funded Mr Metzler’s research.

"I am not a rich man and I don't have a lot of money to give to charity, but this is the way I could give them money in the form of service," he said.

"I could use my brains to help them."

 

Last month, botanist Dr Chris Martine confirmed that he and his students had named a new species of flora Solanum watneyi after Mark Watney, the lead role played by actor Matt Damon in a Hollywood film The Martian. The fictional character is a botanist.

 

Dr. Martine said: "There hasn't been anything like a Mark Watney hero botanist to draw attention to our branch of science in, well, ever.” 

"Scientist heroes are already unusual in Hollywood, but a space-deserted protagonist who studies plants as a profession is something extraordinary."