For generation , documentarian and natural scientist Sir Richard Attenborough has inspired his spectator to explore and protect the earth around them . His employment earned him a knighthood , and in 2008 he was evennamed a national treasurein the UK . The latest plume in his roof is an insect : a black - eyed lech butterfly list in his honor .
An external team of lepidopterists plant two new coinage in the Amazon Basin . Euptychia attenboroughiwas advert after Sir David . The other coinage , Euptychia sophiae , was call for squad member Thamara Zacca ’s niece .
At first , the researchers were n’t sure what they ’d found . The two new butterflies looked like other fellow member of the genusEuptychia , but the manlike specimens were missing the genital excrescence that ’s characteristic of the residual of the genus . To find out for sure , they used molecular testing to compare the new butterflies with museum specimen . blow - less though they may be , the new bozo were definitelyEuptychia .
In the journalZooKeys , the researchers depict the new species and their motivation for naming one of them after Attenborough , who , they compose , opened " the eyes and inwardness of millions to the natural world through his inspiring and enlighten work . ”
The ripples ofSir David ’s workhave spread far and encompassing through scientific communities . E. attenboroughiis just one ofmany speciesbearing his name . The beloved spreader ’s cognomen is also currently attach to a fossilized fish , a grasshopper preserved in amber , a flowering Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , a wild helianthus , a carnivorous plant , a ghost peewee , a weevil , a goblin wanderer , an anteater , an entire genus of flowering plants , and another of extinct marine reptiles . At this pace , he may someday catch up with Darwin himself , whose name has been give tomore than 220 speciesand 24 genus .
