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This
tribe can be defined to include a core group of genera that share the presence
of a black-scaled, slender process on the valve of the male genitalia, the main
lamina of which is often reduced, and a series of more peripheral genera with
similar facies, particularly narrow, grey or brown forewings with a strongly
angled postmedial and more transverse antemedial such that the medial area is
much wider centrally. Several genera have groundplan venation, but others show
modification in the radial sector of the forewing and stalking and loss of the
M2 to CuA2 sequence of the hindwing.
In
the male genitalia usually the tegumen on each side is elongate, expanding
ventrally to overlap the vinculum, often supporting hair pencils or dense masses
of scales in the zone of overlap. The saccus is typically well developed. A
major group, involving the genera from Etanna Walker to Garella
Walker in the sequence below, shares possession of slender processes bearing a
distal zone of black scales and arising from the base of the valve costa.
Male tymbal organs, when present, have the members of the pair rather elongate
and close to each other (e.g. Figs 126-131). However, the structure of these
shows considerable variety within this general form. Similarly elongate tymbal
organs are found in some Ariolicini genera.
The female genitalia mostly have the ovipositor lobes acute rather than
transverse or ring-like. The ductus is usually long, slender, and the bursa may
be generally scobinate or have signa.
Gardner (1947) placed members of the Etanna group referred to above
together with Nycteola
Hübner in a subgroup of his Division C, sharing characters of head setae and
relative positions of the ocelli. The body setae are generally long.
The Etanna group mentioned above has several records of larvae
feeding on flowers, seeds and fruits as well as on foliage (e.g. in Robinson
et al., 2001). Also noted below is the ability of larvae in two of the
genera to move in reverse as well as forwards, unusual amongst the
Macrolepidoptera.
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