ACRiEINiE. 
tlaey, in common with the Banainw, owe this immunity to their mal- 
odorous and uneatable nature, which leads insectivorous animals to pass 
them by."^ Like the Danaince also, many of them are the objects of 
mimicry" by butterflies belonging to other groups — Ni/mphalince, 
Fapilionince, and even a few Lycceninoe — which do not possess the 
advantage of unpalatableness. Two South-African cases are noted in 
the table given above, and ten or twelve others have been recorded 
from Western Tropical Africa ; while one in Tropical South America 
— that of Actinote Thalia — has been tabulated by Mr. H. W. Bates 
(Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., xxiii. p. 503). 
The spiny larvae of the Amwinm are very gregarious, feeding in 
companies and fully exposed. They emit a rather offensive odour, 
of the same character, but not so strong, as that of the perfect insects. 
The various species known consume plants of several different orders, 
and some {A. Horta, A. Acara) are very destructive to passion-flowers 
in gardens. 
The sub-angulated elongate pupge are remarkably handsome, and 
usually very conspicuous from their white or yellowish ground-colour, 
veined and streaked with black, and marked abdominally with orange 
and black spots, orange tubercles, or pink filaments. Unlike the 
immense majority of chrysalides, in which concealment is secured by 
form and colouring, they seem to court observation ; and their showy 
appearance, like that of the perfect insects, doubtless serves to indicate 
to the hungry insectivore a distasteful morsel. 
Though ranging throughout the tropical regions, the Acrminw find 
their main development in Africa and its islands, some ninety species, 
or about two-thirds of the number known, being Ethiopian. From 
South America thirty-eight are recorded ; while the Indian region pro- 
duces but three, and the Australian only two species. Some highly- 
interesting and peculiar forms of Acrma inhabit Madagascar. Planema 
seems specially characteristic of West Africa, only two representatives 
occurring south of the Tropic ; while of Acrma twenty South- African 
species are on record. 
Oenus ACE^A. 
Acrsea, Fab., " lUiger's Mag., vi. p. 284 (1807);" Latreille, Enc. Meth., 
ix. p. 10 (1819) ; Doubl. (Sections Hyalites, Gnesia, Telcliinia, 
Pareha), Gen. Diurn. Lep., i. p. 137-142 (1848). 
Imago. — Head rather broad ; p-alpi with the second joint long and 
swollen, thinly clothed with hairs (which are much longer and bristly 
beneath), and with the terminal joint minute. 
^ The peculiar odour of these butterflies seems to reside chiefly in a bright-yellow liquid 
secretion, which, on pressure of the thorax, exudes somewhat copiously. 
^he Acrceinm are extremely tenacious of life, and their structure is so elastic that no 
pressure of the thorax, short of absolute crushing of the tissues, suffices to kill, or even 
paralyse them. 
