The Ourapterygini are one of the large

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

s of

geometer moth The geometer moths are moths belonging to the family Geometridae of the insect order Lepidoptera, the moths and butterflies. Their scientific name derives from the Ancient Greek (derivative form of or "the earth"), and "measure" in referen ...

s in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Ennominae Ennominae is the largest subfamily of the geometer moth family (Geometridae), with some 9,700 described species in 1,100 genera. Most species are fairly small, though some (such as the peppered moth) grow to be considerably large. This subfamily ...

. The tribe was described by

Charles Théophile Bruand d'Uzelle Charles Théophile Bruand d'Uzelle (5 March 1808, Besançon – 3 August 1861, Besançon) was a French entomologist who specialised in microlepidoptera. He described several new species and erected the families Elachistidae, Oecophoridae and Roes ...

in 1846. They are particularly plentiful in the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeog ...

. Ourapterygini are generally held to be the youngest tribe of their subfamily, and at least seasonally have characteristic

apomorph In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to ha ...

ic asymmetrical processes of the anellus. Many members of this tribe are remarkably

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

like. The tribe contains more partially diurnal species than usual for geometer moths, and many do not have the cryptic coloration typical for the family. There is a tendency to light yellowish hues and either little or a quite bold pattern, making some species rather conspicuous. It is known that at least some are noxious to

predator Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...

s, and such coloration might be

aposematic Aposematism is the Advertising in biology, advertising by an animal, whether terrestrial or marine, to potential predation, predators that it is not worth attacking or eating. This unprofitability may consist of any defenses which make the pr ...

Genera and selected species

As numerous Ennominae genera have not yet been assigned to a tribe,See references in Savela (2008) this genus list is preliminary.

Footnotes

References

* (2008)
Family group names in Geometridae
Retrieved 22 July 2008. * * (2008)
"Characterisation of the Australian Nacophorini using adult morphology, and phylogeny of the Geometridae based on morphological characters"
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Zootaxa ''Zootaxa'' is a peer-reviewed scientific mega journal for animal taxonomists. It is published by Magnolia Press (Auckland, New Zealand). The journal was established by Zhi-Qiang Zhang in 2001 and new issues are published multiple times a week ...

''. 1736: 1–141. Moth tribes {{Ourapterygini-stub