Butterfly not seen in U.S. for 70 years draws tourists to state park

[Xipe Totec]

FALCON HEIGHTS, Texas – A tiny green butterfly not found in the U.S. in more than 70 years likes the new butterfly garden at Falcon State Park in the Rio Grande Valley, experts said.

Photo: Berry Nall of Falcon Heights took a photograph of his find Monday before it flew away, posted it on his Web site and asked members of an online mailing list to help him identify it. "I knew something was going on when I couldn't find it" in any books, he said.

Identification: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department informed him that he had taken a picture of a telea hairstreak butterfly. A specimen of the first one found in South Texas – captured in Laredo in 1935 – is at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Description: 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, experts say.



http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-butterfly_13tex.ART.State.Edition1.4201b71.html

[soothsayer]

1. Man, I wanna' kill it and put it in my collection! What a beauty!

I kid! I kid! I'm not a butterfly collector.

[Xipe Totec]

2. More pictures here

http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabast/teleahairstreak.html

[soothsayer]

3. The green really shows up in that bigger pic. Cute!

[Javaman]

5. In a twist of irony, the massive crowds rushing to see the butterfly...

kill it in a stampede to get a good photo.

[jberryhill]

4. Someone Fetch Lord Beasely

He's been looking for that one for a while