The coxcomb prominent (''Ptilodon capucina'') is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of ...

of the family

Notodontidae Notodontidae is a family of moths with approximately 3,800 known species. The family was described by James Francis Stephens in 1829. Moths of this family are found in all parts of the world, but they are most concentrated in tropical areas, esp ...

. It is a common species throughout the

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Si ...

from Ireland to Japan. It was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. Lophopteryx capucina VIII Wilkasy

This species has brown forewings, varying considerably in tone, with indistinct darker markings. The hindwings are buffish with a black spot at the

tornus Tornus may refer to: * Tornus (insect anatomy), an entomology term for the posterior corner of the wing * Tornus (gastropod), ''Tornus'' (gastropod), a gastropod genus in the family Tornidae Biology disambiguation pages {{dab ...

. At rest, the species has a very distinctive profile with tufts of hairs protruding upwards from the

thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the ...

and the hind edge of the forewings (this latter feature shared with other prominents). The margins of the forewings are also wavy. This rather "lumpy" appearance has led to the rather fanciful comparison to the comb on a cock's head. Two broods are produced each year with adults on the wing in May and June and again in August and September. This moth flies at night and is attracted to light. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. Th ...

is green or brown with a yellow stripe down each side and two red humps at the rear end. It is

polyphagous Feeding is the process by which organisms, typically animals, obtain food. Terminology often uses either the suffixes -vore, -vory, or -vorous from Latin ''vorare'', meaning "to devour", or -phage, -phagy, or -phagous from Greek φαγ� ...

and feeds on a wide variety of

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, a ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s and shrubs (see list below). The species overwinters as a

pupa A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

. # ''The flight season refers to the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles (O ...

. This may vary in other parts of the range.'' Coxcomb Prominent moth

Recorded food plants

For detail see Robinson et al., 2010. *''Acer'' -

Norway maple ''Acer platanoides'', commonly known as the Norway maple, is a species of maple native to eastern and central Europe and western Asia, from Spain east to Russia, north to southern Scandinavia and southeast to northern Iran. It was introduced to ...

*''Alnus'' -

alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

*''Betula'' -

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

*'' Crataegus'' - hawthorn *''

Malus ''Malus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 30–55 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples, wild apples, and rainberries. The genus is native to the temperate zo ...

'' - apple *''Populus'' - poplar *''Prunus'' -

bird cherry Bird cherry is a common name for the European plant '' Prunus padus''. Bird cherry may also refer to: * ''Prunus'' subg. ''Padus'', a group of species closely related to ''Prunus padus'' * ''Prunus avium ''Prunus avium'', commonly called wild ...

*''Quercus'' -

pedunculate oak ''Quercus robur'', commonly known as common oak, pedunculate oak, European oak or English oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native to most of Europe west of the Caucasus. It is wid ...

*''Rosa'' -

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can b ...

*''Salix'' -

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist ...

*''Sorbus'' -

rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus'' of the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the Himalaya ...

*''

Tilia ''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Britain and Ireland they ...

'' - lime *''Ulmus'' -

European white elm ''Ulmus laevis'' Pall., variously known as the European white elm, fluttering elm, spreading elm, stately elm and, in the United States, the Russian elm, is a large deciduous tree native to Europe, from France northeast to southern Finland, east b ...

References

* *

External links

Coxcomb prominent (with photos) on ''UKMoths''
*
''Fauna Europaea''''Lepiforum e.V.''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q659174 Notodontidae Moths described in 1758 Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Recorded food plants

References

Further reading

External links