Species of butterfly named for Iryna Zarutska

CHARLOTTE — The victim of a deadly stabbing on Charlotte’s light rail train is being recognized with a new butterfly named in her honor.

Iryna Zarutska, 23, was killed on Aug. 22 in an attack that caught national attention. The Ukrainian refugee had moved to Charlotte in 2022 to escape the war with Russia. She had just left work when she was killed by a suspect identified by police as Decarlos Brown.

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Channel 9 learned on Thursday that a previously unrecognized species of the “Celastrina” butterfly is being named as a “tribute to Iryna Zarurtska.”

In The Taxonomic Report, published in late September, an abstract by Harry Pavulaan says he came into possession of distinct Celastrina specimens collected from the coastal area of South Carolina and Georgia.

One of those species is now known as Celastrina Iryna.

The species is described as being “similar to Celastrina neglecta but differs by possession of the unique dorsal overlay of clear wing scales found in Celastrina ladon males.” The paper says it may be a hybrid species.

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