Beautiful aren't they?
Posted on 10/12/2007 9:13:25 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
FALCON HEIGHTS, Texas - 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.
That was funny, thanks. I used that stuff once when I had trouble sleeping. It leaves an awful taste in your mouth. So bad it took days to get rid of it. I would rather be awake then take that cr@p.
No. It is a rightful occupant that was forcefully pushed out of its home by racist cold fronts from the Great White North. Now that pasty faced xenophobe Algore wants to chase it back out just because it came back looking for a better two week life.
I think you’re taking this butterfly thing a little too seriously. ;^)
The ads creep me out - the whole sucking of the soul while your sleeping thingy.
Thank you. You saved me five minutes of posting the same thing (less the one minute it took me to post this). O.K., I’m slow.
Yes they are creepy. Every time I see them I am reminded of my father chasing a bat (sort of like that video) when I was a child. He kept yelling cover your hair & swinging a broom to chase it out. We thought he had lost his mind until he finally got it. The stuff is really awful, trust me & never try it.
Why because I want a new tattoo? I have them all over my back, whats one more? I don't have this one. EFG ~Pandy~
“Every time I see them I am reminded of my father chasing a bat (sort of like that video) when I was a child. He kept yelling cover your hair & swinging a broom to chase it out. We thought he had lost his mind until he finally got it”
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Mention bats and it makes me think of the hilarious scene in “The Big Chill.” I believe Kevin Kline did in the offending bat with a tennis racket in that one.
Every time I see someone with a lot of tattoos, I think “prison”. Sorry...
You’re welcome. I’ve spent literally minutes of my life pretending to be a geo-entomologist and I gladly stand on the front lines for all of us who want to see this butterfly have a better life. Algore is just an evil speciesist entophobe.
I’m pretty sure the thing in the Lunesta commecial is supposed to be a Luna moth...
Thats ok. I cover them up when I don’t have a bathing suit on & I am very aware of what other people think. I really don’t care either. People who have a problem don’t know what I am thinking about them. I’ve never been to prison & doubt I ever will be. What do you think of the yuppie girls with the tiny diamonds in their noses? No, I don’t have any, I don’t like them. But I do like my back & I like butterflys. You would be really surprised at how many women have them too..You just don’t see them.
bfl
lmao...I think a tennis racket would have worked way better then the broom did. I liked that movie too.
I was just thinking BabyGene that you ought to not express your opinion about tattoos out loud to the men & woman of our military who have tattoos. You might get clobbered. I don’t think they would take kindly to you thinking they were in prison when they were off fighting. I hope I am not offending you ..just a word to the wise...~P~
Actually, my best female friend of 40 years has a tattoo of a butterfly on her ankle. Don’t know what made her do that, but she’s cool... (never been in prison either) She just got her master’s degree in economics.
Maybe she just wanted it..Some women do like to be a little on the wild side & just want a small one. Others like me just like them & want to be able to cover them up unless I want to show them. I wouldn’t ever place one where it can’t be covered. Just remember that its not what is on the outside but its what is on the inside that counts. I don’t care for the tattoos I see all over young adults. Nor do I think a woman ought to get them on their arms. What about the nose diamonds? You never answered ...
“What do you think of the yuppie girls with the tiny diamonds in their noses?”
I wonder what it’s like when they have a runny nose. id they think of that?
“you ought to not express your opinion about tattoos out loud to the men & woman of our military who have tattoos”
I spent 4 years in the Navy in the early sixties.
I spent 4 years in the Navy in the early sixties. I said “sorry” when I posted...
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