TRIBE OURAPTERYGINI
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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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