From the Associated Press...
A tiny green butterfly not seen in the United States in more than 70 years likes the new butterfly garden at Falcon State Park, experts said.
Berry Nall of Falcon Heights took a photograph of his find on Monday, posted it on his Web site and asked members of an online mailing list to help him identify it.
"I tried to get as many pictures as I could, but it took off," Nall said.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department informed him that he had taken a picture of a telea hairstreak butterfly.
"I knew something was going on when I couldn't find it (in any books)," he said.
Mike Quinn, an invertebrate biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife's wildlife diversity program, said he immediately started reviewing his books to verify the insect was a telea hairstreak after he saw the posting.
"As soon as I saw the photo, my jaw dropped. It was fresh as a daisy and crisp," he said.
Avery Freeman first captured a telea hairstreak in Laredo in 1935, Quinn said. The specimen is at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Quinn said two other types of green hairstreak butterflies, the xami and the silver-banded, can be spotted in the Rio Grande Valley and feed off the same plants as the telea hairstreak.
A telea hairstreak has tiny filaments on the lower back sides of the wings. It also has false antennae, also on the backs of the wings, that serve to dupe predators, he said.
David Dauphin of Mission said he and his wife, Jan, saw the green butterfly at the state park on Tuesday and took pictures of it. They say they saw other types of hairstreaks later in the week.
Fran Bartle, Falcon State Park's volunteer park naturalist, said the sighting has created a stir and people are coming to the park to look for it.
Jeffrey Glassberg, president of the North American Butterfly Association, said people could have overlooked the telea hairstreak butterflies before because they are so tiny.
"Only recently have there been knowledgable people looking for butterflies," he said. "When you have nobody looking, you don't see anything."
Quinn and the butterfly watchers believe the butterflies hatched in the Valley rather than migrated here.
"There might already be an established community at Falcon State Park," he said.
Butterfly sighting causes stir in Texas
I tell ya'll...you need to come down to south Texas to do some butterflying :o)
Remember our 11th Annual Buttefly Festival starts October 18-21st. The headquarters is in Mission, TX but we have tours going to the east, west, ranch country and wetlands. We'll be trekking through parks in Brownsville, Laguna Atascosa, Harlingen, Weslaco, Edinburg, Mission, Hidalgo, Roma, Rio Grande and perhaps go an extra 30 miles to Falcon Dam area too.
For more info on our festival:
www.texasbutterfly.com
~ Cat
that is such wonderful news
Cat wish I could come but just not physically able
My Dad always likes stories where they find some animal they thought was extinct or an endangered one shows up where they didn't think it would, etc. I think it gives him hope that we aren't messing everything up.
Donna...if I ever win the lottery I will send my personal jet to bring you down here for one of our butterfly festivals!!! :o)
So true Mellie. Am sure all of the little wildlife habitats we (as backyard gardeners) make and all the parks gung ho on conservation in the midst of our concrete jungle help too. Of course, now that people are becoming aware of butterflies and moths we also have more eyes out there looking.
I got into butterflies and moths back in 2005 and since then I've been lucky to have a few rare and uncommon species show up in my yard. Am a firm believer in "If you plant it, they will come" - I've got all sorts of larval hosts to attract the not so common butterflies and moths :o)
Am still waiting for that Atala Hairstreak that's only found in Florida to find it's way to south Texas.
~ Cat
That's great news! Probably OT, but every time I see another fairly untouched area "developed" around here, I wonder how many species will lose some of their habitat, impact can be huge on the environment and on the species who use those areas. There is a large ranch (1766 acres) right next to our little subdivision area that fell into the hands of a large greedy and unethical development comany. I feel like crying every time I allow myself to think about their plans for 3500 homes and a fairly large area set aside for businesses. We're fighting it, but it's hard. Like a rather pathetic, poorly funded David against a huge Goliath with extremely deep pockets. We're way out in the country...this area is in the corner of two pretty rural counties and water availability is iffy.
I feel for you Linda.
Same thing going on out here...so many new subdivisions and businesses and parking lots! Am glad the ranch is still somewhat untouched...although the oil and gas companies keep moving in - tearing up 40 to a hundred or more acres at a time for the pooling of oil or gas when necessary.
Tourism seems to help...as this area is famous for it's wildlife - birds, butterflies, moth and dragonflies pull in lots of photographers and leps. Most all the cities have jumped on the band wagon and created reserves and gardens. A good thing :o)
~ Cat
Florida citizens are pretty good about keeping things in check. Most of us moved here because we enjoy the environment (I'm a native Floridian though!) and we make a lot of money through tourists wanting to visit our environment. I think it's kind of sad how humans can change things so quickly. Like the Atala Hairstreak lost a lot of its habitat because we were pulling up all the coontie. Now, it's become really popular as a landscape plant and you see it everywhere. I actually bought some myself this weekend at the USF plant festival. There's also a bunch planted downtown across the street from the county center, where I work. I have plans to catnap some Atalas and bring them up this way, but I hope they can find their way back on their own. It just makes you wish we had just left the coontie where it was along with the butterflies. As much scientific progress as we've made there is still so much we don't know about how everything interacts with each other. Removing one plant doesn't seem like such a big deal until you learn how many other living things depend on it.
Okay...I hooked up with a couple of butterflying friends and we made the trip to Falcon. Got to see the infamous Telea Hairsteak as well as a Ruddy Hairstreak, possible Muted Hairstreak, East-Mexican White Skipper and a rekoa (hairstreak) - species unknown at this time . People are going to look at the photos and try to identify it...as well as the photos of the possible Muted Hairstreak.
Lots of the usual butterflies. The place was literally full of butterflies...sensory overload!!! The garden is a big patch of blue mist bushes, lantana, croton, plumbago and other nectar plants...and it is truly an oasis of nectar for insects. The terrain around there is dry native scrub brush so again...it is an oasis!!! There were thousands of butterflies there...really hard to see everything.
My word...we counted 12 different species of hairstreaks...and there were hundreds and hundreds of Clytie Ministreaks, Gray HS, Lacey's Scrub HS, Lantana Scrub HS, Duskyblue Groundstreaks, Silver-Banded HS and others I cannot remember. Can you imagine trying to look at each one in the hopes that it will be something rare like a Marius, Ruddy or something as such.
Here's the bugger that made Falcon famous.
~ Cat
Telea Hairstreak
