The caterpillar, or larval, stage of these species often has a distinctive appearance of alternating bristles and haired projections.

The subfamily Lymantriinae includes about 350 known genera and over 2,500 known species found in every continent except Antarctica.

They are particularly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and South America.

[1] Apart from oceanic islands, notable places that do not host lymantriines include the Antilles and New Caledonia.

An emerging adult female of some species collects and stores the hairs at the tip of the abdomen and uses them to camouflage and protect the eggs as they are laid.

In other species, the eggs are covered by a froth that soon hardens or are camouflaged by material the female collects and sticks to them.

It authoritatively explains the status of the family name Lymantriidae and its various alternatives as matters stood towards the end of the 20th century: In the 1980 The Generic Names of Moths of the World: Volume 2, Allen Watson, D. S. Fletcher and I. W. B. Nye wrote: Lymantriidae Hampson, [1893], Fauna Br.

During the present century, Orgyiidae has been used occasionally in contrast with Lymantriidae, which has been used many hundreds of times throughout the world.

In North America, the use of Liparidae has continued until, in the most recent revision of the family by Ferguson, 1978, in Dominick et al., Moths Am.