Hypeninae

Joshi, Rahul, Zahiri, Reza, Banerjee, Diya & Singh, Navneet, 2025, A catalogue of the Erebidae of India (Lepidoptera, Noctuoidea), Zootaxa 5635 (1), pp. 1-247 : 7

2. Hypeninae

Kitching & Rawlins (1998) included Rivulinae under Hypeninae and Mitchell et al. (2006) raised Hypeninae to the family level. Zahiri et al. (2012) treated Hypeninae and Rivulinae as distinct subfamilies.

Adult characters. Many species are sexually dimorphic in colour and size, the males are larger than females and bear long, porrect labial palps, hence the common name as “snout moths”. Lödl (1993) and Kitching & Rawlins (1998) suggested the spinulose cuff at the apex of the aedeagus as a diagnostic character in most of the Hypeninae . Fibiger & Lafontaine (2006) believed that this structure might instead have been a remnant of the manica and not a part of the aedeagus.

Larval characters. Larval forms typically exhibit a green coloration and lack dark pigmentation.

Diversity and distribution. Around 1000 species are distributed worldwide. In India , 168 species in 31 genera are known.