Thank you for answers everyone — you've convinced me that they are stamens!

Bob.

Hi Lee.

That was my first thought, but they are on there so symetrically I just wanted to see if there was any other logical explanation. The proboscis would have had to have gone underneath the stamens for them to end up on top.

Thanks for your interest.

Viewing on my computer the pictures I had taken on my transect in Bishop's Stortford Southern Country Park on Monday, I came across this Small Skipper with what looks like a pair of extra antennae on its proboscis. Anyone come across this sort of aberration before? Or have an explanation for it? Sma...