ACR/EIN/E. 
129 
very short) ; internal nervure well-developedj ending considerably 
beyond middle. Fore-legs of J 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 tibia3 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 more or less rounded, sometimes bluntly bifid ; 
back of abdomen usually smooth (but in Planema bearing several pairs 
of tubercles or of long filaments)/ 
The Acrcehwe are well characterised by their long abdomen and 
fore-wings, abruptly clavate antennae, 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. NeobvJe^ DoubL, and A. Anemosa, Hewits. ; and it 
is certainly remarkable that no similar structure is to be found among 
butterflies except in Parnassins^ a genus of Pajpilioninm, which at the 
same time presents two other characteristic features of the Acrceince, 
viz., semi-transparent wings and simple tarsal claws lobed at the base.^ 
While in several ways resembling the Heliconina?, especially in the 
lengthened abdomen and wings, and in the closed cell of the hind- 
wings, the Acrminm seem on the v^hole to be most closely related to 
the group of Nymphalinm represented by the genera Argynnis^ Melitcea^ 
and Phyciodes, possessing in common with the latter abruptly-clavate 
short antennae, swollen and divergent palpi, short stout legs, scaly and 
I finely spinose, and elongated fore-wings and abdomen. The larvce of 
■[ the two groups also exhibit great similarity, and the pupce are much 
I alike, except that Acrcea is more elongate. 
The Acrmnm present considerable diversity of pattern and colouring, 
^ Stoll {Suppl. Cramer, Pap. Exot. pi. i), and more recently Fritz Mliller (Kosmos, Dec, 
I ^^77) cipud R. Meldola), have described and figui-ed the pupa of the Brazilian Actinote 
I 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, Lep., i. p. 139. 
VOL. I. I 
