Colony encrusting or erect bifoliate. Pore chambers usually present. Ancestrula tatiform or ascophoran. Frontal shield cryptocystal, perforated by pseudopores and marginal areolae, pustulose or granular, with an outer layer of aragonite in most species. Ascopore subcircular, transversely elliptical, reniform or crescentic, often partly occluded by marginal teeth, radial septa or a sieve plate, located adjacent to proximal edge of orifice or separated from it by an area of frontal shield lacking pseudopores. Orifice semielliptical, the almost straight proximal edge bearing small teeth or a pair of condyles or both; oral spines present or absent, basally articulated. Ovicell surface cryptocystal, variably porous, in some species personate and associated with a peristome in the maternal zooid. Avicularia adventitious, single or paired, sometimes lacking in particular zooids, varying in location from close to mediolateral margin of autozooid to adjacent to orifice, oriented distally, distolaterally or laterally, cross bar complete, rostrum a high-sided triangle, sometimes with an open channel at tip, mandible simple, setiform with a basal beak or lanceolate with a pair of hooks near base. (Kuklinski and Taylor, 2008)