Overview
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.
Description
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
1
and approximated to, or fused with, Rs beyond cell, M
2
arising nearer to M
3
than to M
1
, 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.
Distribution
Several of the genera occurring in Australia have a wide distribution through Asia and some occur in Africa.
Aglaopus
pyrrhata
, one of the stout-bodied Striglininae, occurs as far south as Melbourne its larvae feed on
Eucalyptus
, first in a cone-shaped shelter, later in a folded leaf shelter or between joined leaves.
Addaea
(6 spp.) belongs to the Siculodinae, in which Sc is fused with Rs beyond the cell in the hind wing.
A
.
subtessellata
occurs in southern Qld and N.S.W.; the larvae feed gregariously between joined leaves of
Mallotus
philippensis
.
A
.
polyphoralis
from the N.T. and Qld has larvae feeding, also gregariously, between joined leaves of
Diospyros
ferrea
. [Whalley 1976.]