A rare specimen of the extinct Urania sloanus butterfly was discovered at the Darwin Museum

During a detailed scientific review of old collections, a unique specimen of the rare Urania sloanus butterfly was discovered at the State Darwin Museum (SDM). The find was made in a collection that the museum received at the beginning of the last century from the aristocrat and collector of natural history rarities, Alexei Stepanovich Khomyakov.

A Species That Extincted from the Face of the Earth

The Urania sloanus butterfly was endemic to Jamaica and became extinct due to human activities in the early 20th century. It was last reliably observed in the wild in 1895. The butterfly is named after Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), whose collection of 71,000 specimens formed the basis of the British Museum. The primary cause of its extinction was widespread deforestation on the island, which deprived the butterfly of its natural habitat. Today, only a few specimens of this species exist in Europe. In Russia, it was previously believed that Urania sloanus did not exist at all—until now. The discovery was a real surprise: the butterfly, known only to a select group of specialists, being extinct over a hundred years ago in distant Jamaica, and it was unlikely that it would survive in a museum collection here in Russia. However, some specimens held in European museums bear labels not from Jamaica, but from Brazil and Venezuela, raising new questions for scientists: did the butterfly once have a wider range, or was this a collector’s error? Science still has no definitive answer. Research is ongoing!

The Scientific Significance of the Discovery

The discovery of such a rare extinct species confirms the Darwin Museum’s status as a key repository of biodiversity in Russia and globally. But the significance of the discovery goes much deeper. The museum’s collections are unique genetic archives, which, with the advancement of molecular genetics, hold great promise for scientific research. Each specimen is a unique "window into the past," allowing scientists to study and, in the future, obtain DNA and resurrect extinct species.

For reference:

The State Darwin Museum is one of the largest natural history museums in Russia. The museum houses one of the largest entomological collections in Russia, comprising approximately 100,000 butterfly specimens. Its core is the collection of Alexei Stepanovich Khomyakov, which was acquired by the museum in 1920. Known for his passion for acquiring the most interesting and rare specimens, the collection already included 1,050 butterfly specimens. The butterfly collection was later expanded by other Russian enthusiasts, and now includes butterflies from all over the world: not only tropical species but also butterflies from Arctic regions and the Moscow region. Many specimens are over 200 years old. The museum’s collection includes type specimens of various species and subspecies of diurnal butterflies described by Russian researchers in the 1990s and early 2000s, representing significant scientific value and of great interest to lepidopterists worldwide.

In addition to Urania sloanus, the museum’s collection also includes other species that disappeared from the face of the Earth in just the last few centuries. These include the skeleton of a Mauritian dodo, stuffed great auks, passenger pigeons, and the huia—species driven to extinction by humans in the late 17th and early 20th centuries.








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