The family is almost entirely tropical or subtropical. Although variable in size, the adults usually have a characteristic, fine, reticulated wing pattern and distinctive resting posture, with the body raised at a steep angle and the wings expanded. They differ from pyralids by the unscaled proboscis and absence of abdominal tympanal organs.
Small to large; head smooth-scaled; ocelli usually and chaetosemata always absent; antennae simple, dentate, or pectinate; proboscis present, naked, or rarely absent; maxillary palps minute, 1- or 2-segmented; labial palps porrect or recurved, sometimes very short and only 2-segmented; epiphysis present; tibial spurs 0-2-2, 0-2-3 or 0-2-4; male hind tibiae sometimes with expandible hair-pencil; fore wing with retinaculum in male a long slender hook on Sc, without wing-locking microtrichia; chorda and M stem absent from cell, all veins often separate, CuP absent, 1A + 2A with basal fork or 2A vestigial; hind wing with 2 or 3 frenular bristles in female, all veins separate, Sc sometimes connected to Rs by R
and approximated to, or fused with, Rs beyond cell, M
arising nearer to M
than to M
, CuP vestigial, 2 anal veins; tympanal organs absent. Egg of upright type. Larva without secondary setae, prothorax with 2 L setae, prolegs short, crochets uni- or irregularly biordinal, in circle or ellipse; tunnelling in twigs and stems, sometimes producing swellings, or in shelter between green leaves. Pupa with maxillary palps and pilifers defined, without dorsal abdominal spines; in silk-lined cell.
Several of the genera occurring in Australia have a wide distribution through Asia and some occur in Africa.
, one of the stout-bodied Striglininae, occurs as far south as Melbourne its larvae feed on
, first in a cone-shaped shelter, later in a folded leaf shelter or between joined leaves.
(6 spp.) belongs to the Siculodinae, in which Sc is fused with Rs beyond the cell in the hind wing.
occurs in southern Qld and N.S.W.; the larvae feed gregariously between joined leaves of
from the N.T. and Qld has larvae feeding, also gregariously, between joined leaves of
. [Whalley 1976.]