‘Fire-rimmed’: rare genus of butterflies named after Sauron from ‘Lord of the Rings’

Entomologists have discovered a new genus of butterflies with distinctive orange wings and dark eye patches. It was the striking appearance that prompted the international team to name the House of Sauron after Sauron, the evil lord of Mordor from The Lord of the Rings, whose all-seeing fiery eye terrified Middle-earth and the Shire.

As the author J. R. R. Tolkien himself describes: “The Eye was surrounded by fire, but it was itself glassy, ​​yellow, like a cat’s, alert and focused, and the black slit of its pupil opened into a hole, a window into nothingness.”

And the two species that form the new genus, Saurona triangula and Saurona aurigera, are certainly distinguished by bright orange and jet-black eye-like markings, although they are unlikely to cause the same horror as the cruel ruler of Mordor, writes The Guardian. They are relatively small even by butterfly standards. Nevertheless, their discovery and naming is important, scientists say.