Overview
The family contains the Drepaninae, Thyatirinae and Cyclidiinae; the Cyclidiinae are absent from Australia and the two other subfamilies difficult or impossible to define (Scoble and Edwards 1988).
Description
Small to medium-sized; head usually smooth-scaled; ocelli present or absent; chaetosemata absent; antennae filiform, laminate or bipectinate; proboscis present and unscaled, or absent; maxillary palps minute, 1-segmented or absent; labial palps short to long, porrect or upcurved; epiphysis present or absent; spurs 0-2-4, 0-2-2, 0-0-4 or 0-0-0; tarsal claws usually toothed, hind tibiae often with long scales; fore wing usually broadly triangular, apex often falcate, with or without wing-locking microtrichia, often with one narrow areole, CuP absent, 1A+2A sometimes with short fork; frenulum often clubbed or absent; Sc + R
1
separated from Rs at base, approximated to, or shortly fused with, Rs before or beyond end of cell, CuP absent, 1 or 2 anal veins; abdomen with paired, 2-chambered tympanal organs in segment 2 with tympanum situated within a sternal component between chambers. Eggs of flat type. Larvae with ventral prolegs on segments 3 to 6 with bi- or, rarely, uniordinal crochets in a mesoseries and, usually, a small uniordinal lateroseries; anal prolegs reduced or absent, secondary setae present or absent; exposed or in rolled leaf, with end of abdomen sometimes produced and raised when resting. Pupa without dorsal spines, cremaster rudimentary in cocoon among fallen leaves; not protruded at ecdysis.
Distribution
The Australian fauna is small with 4 named species in 4 genera of typical hook-tip moth, Drepaninae, and 6 species in
Hypsidia
. The brown
Oreta
jaspidea
, the largest Australian species, occurs in north-eastern Qld, while the yellow
Astatochroa
fuscimargo
, the smallest species, is found in east Qld.
Hypsidia
includes 2 rainforest species in north-eastern Qld and 4 species in south-western W.A; the immature stages of
Hypsidia
are unknown (Scoble and Edwards 1988).