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This
group includes taxa of rather slender, delicate build, with long, slender,
forwardly directed but somewhat upcurved labial palps. The margin of fore- and
hindwings are usually slightly to strongly angled.
They are unusual amongst the traditional Ophiderinae sequence in the extreme
reduction or loss of the pair of phragma lobes at the anterior of the second abdominal
tergite. The male eighth segment shows extremes of conditions from lack of
modification to various modifications of the framed corematous structures. The
structure of the male genitalia is similarly diverse, but the aedeagus is
generally small with a single diverticulum that has a scobinate or spined apex.
A
potential synapomorphy in the female genitalia is the migration of the ostium
with the ventral part of the eighth segment anteriorly, such that the posterior
margin of the latter is deeply cleft. In most genera this is accompanied by the
virtual obliteration of the seventh sternite (Microselene Hampson is an
exception). The three genera following Throana Walker share an
unusual development of the orbicular on the forewing into a conspicuous pale
mark on the underside and, in Microselene, also on the
upperside, though a similar feature is seen in Thyrostipa Hampson in the
next sequence of genera. “Pangrapta” hyriona Hampson, noted
as misplaced on p. 336, shows both these characters and may therefore represent
a further member of the group.
The
only larval host records, for Throana and typical Nagadeba Walker, are from
the Rubiaceae.
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