BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- For as little as or much as -- depending on the size of your bankroll -- 50,000 U.S. dollars, you can purchase the right to name a new species of Mexican butterfly and fund two more years of research.

    That's what researchers who helped discover what is presently called the "owl eye" butterfly are hoping for from an auction on the Internet auction site Igavel.com, that wraps up Friday. The 4-inch butterfly lives in Sonora, a Mexican state bordering Arizona.

    "That would support at least two years of research for our team down in Mexico," Warren said. "Money goes a long way down here in Mexico."

    According to the scientific tradition, discoverers of a new species have the say in naming it. In recent years, some discoverers have auctioned off their naming rights to raise money.

    Warren said the amount being sought for the butterfly isn't out of the question, noting that naming rights for a new monkey species brought in 650,000 dollars two years ago. A group of 10 new fish species that went on the naming auction block at the same time earlier this year brought in a total of 2 million dollars.

    The butterfly discovered by Warren and researcher George Austin ranges as far north as Magdalena de Kino, about 120 miles south of Tucson, and is known to live in the area along Highway 16 west from Yecora, near the Chihuahuan border, to near Hermosillo.

    But the discovery itself wasn't made in Mexico.

    The butterfly was actually in a collection, misidentified as an example of another species, at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, said Warren.

    (Agencies)