Acronictinae

12. Acronictinae View in CoL View at ENA do not share any universal synapomorphies according to Kitching & Rawlins (1998); however, there are a few characters that distinguish most genera from other subfamilies. Many have greyish, cryptic forewing facies and dark dashes (or daggers) at the base and tornus of the forewing, particularly in members of the nominotypical genus Acronicta Ochsenheimer. The dorsal pinacula are frequently united over T2 and T3, and larvae frequently have secondary setae and a humped abdominal segment A8 (Kitching & Rawlins 1998). Also, A7 is frequently restricted and pale in the first instar (Kitching & Rawlins 1998; Rota et al. 2015). Holloway (1989) provided some genitalia features of Bornean Acronictiane which may appear elsewhere. He observed that the ovipositor lobes frequently develop into a setose ring and that the phallus vesica is frequently and extensively adorned with cornuti. The male eighth sternite always has lateral rods, apodemes of the basal abdominal sternite are very close together and convergent, and the second abdominal segment often bears hair pencils or abdominal courtship brushes, although these are especially unreliable characters.