Fruiting body a sessile or stalked sporangium or sometimes plasmodiocarpous. Sporotheca subcylindrical to ovoid or globose. Stalk usually relatively short and sometimes absent, often filled with smooth, spore-like cells. Hypothallus membranous, discoid or contiguous for a group of sporangia but often inconspicuous. Peridium thin, fugacious above, the lower portion typically persisting as calyculus; the latter cup-like, saucer-like or funnel-shaped, sometimes pleated, smooth or with warts or papillae on the inner surface. Capillitium netted, elastic, frequently expanding to more than twice the original height of the sporotheca after dehiscence, either attached to both the base and sides of calyculus and tending to remain in place or merely to the center of the calyculus at the junction of the stalk and then breaking away freely, variously ornamented with half-rings, cogs, warts, spines, rings, reticulations or inconspicuous or sometimes well-developed spiral bands. Spores some shade of red or yellow to pale grey in mass.
The family contains two genera, but one of these (Cornuvia) is rather rare and has not been recorded from New Zealand.