N. England Woman Nets Rare Butterfly--First Sighting in Almost 100 Years

The steel-blue early hairstreak butterfly was spotted in Massachusetts for the first time in nearly a century, a naturalist said.

Edna Dunbar said she saw 20 early hairstreaks, considered one of the rarest butterflies in the United States, in the beginning of June on Mt. Greylock, the state’s highest peak.

Dunbar saw four early hairstreaks on June 13, one of which she netted. In the two weeks that followed, several more were spotted by her and other Audubon members on Greylock.

“When I netted it, I knew it was something I hadn’t seen before,” she said. “I looked it up in the guide and realized what I had.

“Naturally I was excited,” she said. “When a fisherman catches a big fish, he gets excited. It’s the same idea.”

Chris Leahy, director of the Audubon Society’s conservation department and coordinator of the Massachusetts Butterfly Atlas Project, called the early hairstreak “one of the great mysterious species” of the world.

“It was last seen by Edward Scudder himself, the patron saint of New England butterfly collectors,” Leahy said.

Scudder made the rare butterfly legendary by including it in a book on butterflies in 1898, after he also sighted it on Mt. Greylock.

Less than an inch long, the hairstreak is generally steel-blue with black tips. It may also have a row of reddish-white rimmed spots, a white fringe or a dusting of orange.