Parestia C. Presl; Stenolobus C. Presl; Trogostolon Copeland; Wibelia Bernhardi (Oct-Dec 1801), not G. Gaertner, B. Meyer & Scherbius (1801).

Plants moderate-sized, epiphytic or sometimes terrestrial. Rhizome long creeping, with dark, peltate scales. Fronds remote, long stipitate, monomorphic or dimorphic; stipe articulate to short phyllopodia, terete or slightly winged; lamina bipinnate to 4-pinnate-pinnatifid, deltoid or pentagonal, firmly leathery or sometimes thickly herbaceous, glabrous; ultimate segments with crenate or lobed margins. Veins free, usually forked, terminating in lobes or crenations of cartilaginous margin. Sori terminal on veins, on small oblique lobes or crenations; indusium extrorse, elongate toward margin, attached at base and sides, long stalked; annulus longitudinal, consisting of ca. 14 thickened cells; spores monolete, elliptic, smooth, translucent; perispore absent. n = 10, (40).

The following taxa are excluded from the present treatment, pending further research: Davallia triangularis Baker (Ann. Bot. 5: 202. 1891), described from Yunnan, and D. lorrainii Hance (Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., sér. 5, 5: 254. 1866; D. trichomanoides Blume var. lorrainii (Hance) Holttum) recorded from Yunnan by W. M. Chu & Z. R. He (Acta Bot. Yunnan. 22: 261. 2000).

About 40 species: from Atlantic Ocean islands through Africa and S Asia to Malaysia, Japan, NE Australia, and Pacific islands; six species (one endemic) in China.