ACTINOTE. By Dr. K. Jorpay. 359 
$3 of nearly all the American and the majority of the Old World species the outer claw reduced and mostly 
almost rectangularly bent. 
Wings always entire-margined, the apex and hinder angle of both wings rounded, especially the anal 
angle of the hindwing. Scaling very variously developed ; in non-transparent wings the scales are toothed at 
most in the distal part of the wing and on the veins, but in Planema the underside of the hindwing with 
the exception of the base bears toothed scales; in transparent species the scales are reduced in number and size 
and are either rounded and upright, or narrow, forked or hair-like. The veins bear on the under surface long, 
stiff bristles, at least in the abdominal region of the hindwing. The upper radial vein (with the exception of 
A. mirifica) in both wings arising near the anterior angle of the cell or stalked with the subcostals, 2nd dis- 
cocellular curved, cell of the hindwing closed. 
In this description no notice is taken of the African Pardopsis punctatissima, which is not a true Acraeid. 
Cf. vol. XIII, p. 288, pl. 53 a. 
The larvae bear 6 rows of spines, which are adorned with stiff simple bristles. The head is hairy, but has 
neither spines nor horns. They are mostly gregarious until shortly before pupation and many Actinote species 
feed on lower plants and shrub-like herbs, especially Eupatorium and allied Composites, as well as Mikania, 
Eyalus, Veronia, Boehmeria, etc. The pupa is likewise very characteristic; it is straight, almost cylindrical 
or dorsally convex, between thorax and abdomen only quite slightly constricted, and as a rule chalk-white ; 
on the wing-cases black stripes corresponding to the neuration of the wings and on the dorsum two rows of 
spines, which commonly vary according to the species. 
The butterflies are found especially on clearings and at the edges of woods and some species allied to 
A. thalia sometimes occur in such abundance that they hang on the bushes in countless numbers. Such forms 
are often so sluggish that when placed on the hand they remain there or if shaken out of the bushes slowly 
crawl up into them again (Srrrz). Other species on the contrary fly singly and many so high above the ground 
in the tops of the trees that they are difficult to catch. 
The distribution of the Acraeids in America is peculiar. They occur from Mexico to Buenos Aires and 
South Brazil, but the species are by no means uniformly distributed. The mostly dense-scaled blue forms 
with red-yellow, yellow or white markings, are all confined to the Andes; not one of the numerous species 
of the abana, hylonome, neleus and ozomene groups descends to the lowlands east of the Andes or occurs in the 
mountains east of the Orinoco or in South-East Brazil. On the other hand the thalia group has its centre of 
distribution in South-Eastern Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, and the large Amazon region, from Para to 
Iquitos, otherwise so rich, produces only one or two species of Actinote and these are forms of the thalia group. 
1. Genus: Actinote Abn. 
The American Acraeids differ from the Old World forms in the structure of the wings. In all the spe- 
cies the veins on the underside of the hindwing are covered with stiff bristles and the upper submedian is 
developed proximally as a fold and distally as a vein and bristled like the other veins; the Ist subcostal 
of the forewing always arises proximally to the end of the cell, whilst the common stalk of the other 4 arises 
from the angle of the cell; the Ist radial is placed quite near to the subcostal stalk or branches off from it. 
In the only Old World Acraeid in which the upper submedian of the hindwing is developed distally as a vein, 
A. mirifica, the 2nd palpal joint is inflated and the subcostal of the hindwing has a much more proximal 
position than in Actinote. The wings of Actinote have neither the punctiform markings nor the marginal curves 
which are found in the majority of the Old World species. 
According to the structure of the wings as well as the habitus Actinote splits up into two sections, 
one of which is composed of several natural, sharply differentiated groups of species. The differences between 
the species are commonly very slight and in many cases it is not yet possible, in the absence of sufficient 
material, to come to a satisfactory conclusion as to the specific right of the forms. The study of Actinote is 
rendered still more difficult on the one hand by the often very strong individual and geographical variability 
and on the other by the remarkable uniformity of the copulatory organs. The larvae and pupae, which, however, 
are unfortunately only known in a few cases, seem often to show more striking specific characters than the ima- 
gines. 
SectionI. Onthe under surface the space between the costal margin and costal vein in the distal half 
of the forewing is scaled, not adorned with numerous bristles; hindwing always with a central row of bristles 
in the cell; all the bristles on the veins of the forewing and at the distal margin forked. — Confined to the 
Andes south of Bolivia and the Sierra de Mérida of Venezuela; only one species in Central America, which is 
distributed northwards to Mexico. 
Subsection 1. Under surface of the hindwing with numerous long, scattered bristles between the veins. 
a) abana Group. 
Only three species show this peculiar clothing. 
