The butterflies, which have black rings on bright orange wings, are not the first creature to adopt villain Sauron's name, with a dung beetle, a frog, and a dinosaur already borrowing his moniker.
The Lord Of The Rings villain Sauron has become the namesake of a new group of butterflies, chosen by scientists in a bid to draw attention to their beauty.
There are currently only two members of this new group - Saurona triangula and Saurona aurigera - however many more as-yet-undescribed species are thought to exist. Dr Huertas and a fellow researcher named the second genus Argenteria, which translates into English as silver mine, in reference to the silver scales on the flying insects' wings.
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