Phaioecia Dyar, 1911, Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, 13: 69. REVISED SYNONYMY
Type species: Cirrhophanus duplicatus Smith, 1891. Original designation.

Phaioecia is a monotypic genus from the midwestern region of the United States. The species Phaioecia duplicatus had been previously placed in the genus Nocloa.

1) The most distinctive external feature of the genus is the shape of the frontal process. The outer ring is smaller than usual, triangular (with the point of the triangle pointing upward), and the central region filled in so that no central protuberance is present except for a vague bump.

2) The forewing coloration of the single included species is dull orange.

3) The male of the male genitalia is relatively longer and thinner than in other genera of the Nocloini and the uncus is short and stubby.

4) The vesica is short, globular and the spine-like cornuti and contained in a single, diffuse group, although two or three of the cornuti stand somewhat apart from the main group and may represent the smaller, secondary group found in many other genera of the tribe.

5) The appendix bursae and its ductus seminalis arise from the caudal end of the bursae and is broadly fused with the cephalad end of the ductus bursae.

Although most characters suggest a relationship with Nocloini New Genus 2, character (5) of the female genitalia argues instead for a position closer to Euamiana and Ruacodes.

6) The ovipositor lobes are unmodified and the apophyses anteriores and posteriores are short, not elongate. The corpus bursae is elongate with the cephalad end terminating is a bulb-like structure.

The biogeography of Phaioecia duplicatus is unique in the tribe, occurring in the short grass prairie regions of the U.S. Midwest.