There are times I wish I could be a fly on the wall at whatever entomologists’ meeting spawned an insect’s unusual name. This is one such time. I would love to hear the story behind the common name of the “exasperating platynota moth”, Platynota exasperatana. It’s the only notable name in a family full of moths so boring as to have no common name. How did this particular species become “exasperating”? It’s barely notable enough to have five sentences on Wikipedia.

As you may imagine from the minuscule Wikipedia article, this lovely but unassuming moth lives in North America and was formally identified in 1875. It’s a tiny one, with a wingspan of about 13mm.

This individual was identified via iNaturalist.

This individual was also identified via iNaturalist.