Rare butterfly spotted in Starr County

October 11, 2007 - 7:08PM
FALCON HEIGHTS — Berry Nall knew he saw something special while butterfly watching recently at Falcon State Park.

Taking pictures of the colorful winged insects at the park’s new butterfly garden, he noticed a tiny green one on a flower — a type he had never seen before.

“When I found it I had no idea what it was, so I took a picture of it,” the Falcon Heights resident said. “I tried to get as many pictures as I could, but it took off.”

He posted the picture of the fingernail-sized green butterfly on his Web site after his outing Monday and asked members of an online mailing list to help him identify it. He also searched for it in books cataloging butterfly species.

Nall received word back from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department that what he caught on camera was a telea hairstreak butterfly, which hasn’t been spotted in the United States in more than 70 years.

News: Rare butterfly spotted in Starr County | butterfly, park, butterflies - The Monitor

(Falcon State Park is 572.6 (144 developed) acres located north of Roma at the southern end of the 98,960-surface-acre International Falcon Reservoir in Starr and Zapata Counties. The park was leased from the International Boundary and Water Commission in 1949 and was opened to the public in 1965.)