ACRiEIN^. 129 



very short) ; internal nervure well-developed, ending considerably 

 beyond middle. Fore-legs of $ much reduced, slender, scaly, in some 

 cases very finely hairy ; femur and tibia about equal in length ; tarsus 

 less than half as long as tibia, cylindrical, without articulation ; those 

 of $ larger, smoother, with the femur proportionately longer, and 

 tarsus indistinctly four- or five-jointed, and finely spinulose beneath. 

 Middle and hind legs rather stout and short ; femora and tibias about 

 equal in length, the former smooth, the latter finely spinose and with 

 rather short terminal spurs ; tarsi very spinose, especially on the sides 

 and beneath, — the terminal claws long, curved, without paronychia or 

 pulvilli, but with an inferior basal lobe or expansion. 



Abdomen elongate, laterally compressed, thickened more or less at 

 extremity, usually much arched, sometimes extending as far as or beyond 

 anal angle of hind-wings ; penultimate segment in $ often bearing on 

 its under side a hollowed corneous appendage. 



Larva. — Cylindrical, of almost even thickness throughout, set with 

 rigid bristled spines ; head smooth, without spines. 



Pupa.- — Slender, elongated; sides of thorax angulated, its back 

 bluntly prominent ; head mox'e or less rounded, sometimes bluntly bifid ; 

 back of abdomen usually smooth (but in Plancma bearing several pairs 

 of tubercles or of long filaments).^ 



The Acrceinm are well characterised by their long abdomen and 

 fore-wings, abruptly clavate antennse, thick divergent palpi, unchannelled 

 inner-margin of hind-wings, and want of any appendages to the tarsal 

 claws. Their wings are never thickly covered with scales, but exhibit 

 every gradation from semiopacity to transparency. The abdominal 

 horny pouch or plate borne by the female seems to be most developed 

 in A. Horta (L.), A. Neohule, Doubl., and A. Atiemosa, Hewits. ; and it 

 is certainly remarkable that no similar structure is to be found among 

 butterflies except in Parnassius, a genus of Fapilionioim, which at the 

 . same time presents two other characteristic features of the Acrwiiice, 

 viz., semi-transparent wings and simple tarsal claws lobed at the base.^ 

 While in several ways resembling the Heliconinm, especially in the 

 lengthened abdomen and wings, and in the closed cell of the hind- 

 wings, the Acroeince seem on the whole to be most closely related to 

 the group of Nymphalinm represented by the genera Arggnnis, Ifelitcea, 

 and Phgciodes, possessing in common with the latter abruptly-clavate 

 short antennse, swollen and divergent palpi, short stout legs, scaly and 

 finely spinose, and elongated fore-wings and abdomen. The larvee of 

 the two groups also exhibit great similarity, and the pupa3 are much 

 alike, except that Acrcea is more elongate. 



The Acrceinm present considerable diversity of pattern and colouring, 



^ Stoll {Suppl. Cramer, Pap. Eocot. pi. i), and more recently Fritz Miiller {Kosnios, Dec. 

 1S77, apud R. Meldola), have described and figured the pupa of the Brazilian Actinote 

 Thalia ; it is white streaked with black, and bears five pairs of black spines on the abdominal 

 segments — not nearly so long as the filaments in Planema. 



' See Doubleday, Gen. Diurn. Lcp., i. p. 139, 



VOL. I. I 



