The genus Hypenopsis Dyar, 1913 (type species: Hypenodes macula Druce, 1891) is removed from synonymy with Schrankia Hübner, 1825 (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Hypenodinae) and reinstated as valid. Hypenopsis and its type species H. macula (Druce, 1891) are both redescribed based on the first morphological study of the genitalia of its two syntypes, and a lectotype is designated. Three new species are described based on morphology and supported by COI sequence data: H. calusa J.-F. Landry & B. Landry, sp. nov., H. sonora J.-F. Landry & B. Landry, sp. nov., two North American species long misidentified as ‘Schrankia’ macula, and H. galapagensis B. Landry & J.-F. Landry, sp. nov. from the Galápagos Islands. DNA barcodes support the separation of Hypenopsis from Schrankia in congruence with morphology. Two other species from Panama described in Hypenopsis (H. flualis Schaus, 1916 and H. musalis Schaus, 1916), and later included in Schrankia are illustrated for the first time: the genitalia of their holotypes show that they do not share diagnostic characters of either Schrankia or Hypenopsis, and their COI barcode sequences are distinct from either genus as well as other Hypenodinae genera; they are here regarded as Hypenodinae incertae sedis.