Bill McGuire donates $41M worth of butterflies to Fla. university

Bill McGuire of UnitedHealth Group
Former CEO of UnitedHealth Group Bill McGuire on Tuesday donated $41 million worth of butterflies and moths to the University of Florida.
MPR Photo/Jeff Horwich

There is big news today in the world of lepidopterology.

Lepidoptra are butterflies -- and moths. On Tuesday, lepidoptera researchers at the University of Florida learned they're about to get millions more specimens to study, and they're getting them from Minnesota.

Dr. William McGuire, the former CEO of UnitedHealth, and his wife Nadine are donating their collection of more than 2 million moths and butterflies to the university. The collection includes butterflies from every continent in the world -- except Antarctica -- and it includes some very rare and extinct species.

The collection is valued at $41 million.

Bill McGuire talked to Tom Crann about why he donated the collection and what researchers might discover from the butterflies and moths.

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