A County-first on Tuesday, and a garden-first today when I found this beauty in the moth trap this morning: Pale Prominent (Pterostoma palpina). I’m assuming that the second part of the Latin name refers to the stonking mouthparts, or palps, which are particularly noticeable on this male. With the tail tufts at the other end and the pale but cryptic colouring, you can see how any hungry birds would struggle to find this individual tucked away during the daylight hours!
Hi Steve, Pterostoma comes from Pteron (a feather) & stoma (a mouth), palpina refers to the long labial palps as you say as does the first part of the name. Ref is "The Scinetific Names of the British Lepidoptera Their hisroty and meaning" by A Maitland Emmet (Harley books 1991)
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