Jean-Baptiste's friend's butterfly

According to some click-baity website I read this morning, Milbert is currently the 432,755th most popular surname in the world. No kidding.

I don't know anything about its popularity as a first name.

In any case, two hundred years ago the French entomologist Jean-Baptiste Godart had a friend Milbert. Jean-Baptiste named this butterfly for his friend. And the name, Milbert's Tortoiseshell, stuck — despite the competing name “Fire-rim Tortoiseshell” also being out there. Who would have guessed?

Here, this morning, Milbert's namesake was feeding, with some flies, on our blooming Astilbe. If you want a flower to attract bees, butterflies and, yes, house flies, plant an Astilbe. This plant is at least twenty years old; it was here when we got the house.