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This tribe (originating as the Urapterydae of Guenée (1857)) is
typified by the genus Ourapteryx Leach, a predominantly Oriental genus
that extends east into the Indo-Australian tropics as far as Sulawesi. There are
other Oriental genera such as Exurapteryx Wehrli and Tristrophis Butler
that are probably referable to the tribe, but a full survey of their
characteristics has not been undertaken. Forbes (1948) regarded the tribe as
being most diverse in the New World. The tribal features noted below are those
of the type genus.
The moths are large, with wings deep, the hindwing produced into a tail
at M3 that is usually ornamented submarginally with dark markings. The pattern
is of straight, transverse greyish brown fasciae on various shades of pale
yellow: postmedial and antemedial on the forewing, usually with a medial bar at
the end of the cell. The hindwing has one or two similar bands, set rather
obliquely. There are usually also transverse zones of fine striae and further
striae on the forewing costa and hindwing dorsum. The fringes are usually also
greyish brown, with a finer, darker line on the actual margin interior to them.
The male antennae are filiform, without ciliae, in all Bornean species.
The male hind-tibia enfolds a scent pencil, and the forewing lacks a fovea. The
male abdomen has a transverse comb of setae on sternite 3. In the genitalia
there is an asymmetric furca reminiscent of that in the Hypochrosini, but not
based in a pocket between the valves. Setose socii are well developed; the
gnathus is prominent, often broad, finely setose. On the valve, setae are more
numerous towards the ventral margin and directed basidorsally. The aedeagus
vesica usually bears a prominent tuft of deciduous spicules which can be found
detached in the bursa copulatrix of the female.
In the female the ductus bursae has a short, sclerotised basal section
and a broader, longer distal section, also sclerotised and somewhat fluted (picticaudata
Walker); the bursa has a large, asymmetric signum of the typical ennomine
‘spined mushroom’ type.
The larva of the type genus is described below.
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