Order: Lepidoptera. Section: Diurna. Family: Heliconiidæ.
Genus. Acræa, Fabr. Latr. God. Papilio (Heliconii), Fabr. olim.
Acræa Circeis. Alis oblongis integerrimis; anticis hyalinis, nervis margineque fuscis, posticis fuscis fasciâ flavescenti, transversâ mediâ, his subtus basi cinereis nigroque punctatis. (Expans. Alar. 2 unc.)
Syn. Papilio Circeis, Drury, App. vol. 3. Herbst. Pap. tab. 81. fig. 6. 7.
Papilio (Parnass.) Mandane, Fabr. Syst. Ent. III. 1. p. 183. No. 565. Encycl. Méth. ix. p. 239. 29. (Acræa M.)
Habitat: "Sierra Leone, Mr. Smeathman, 1775" (Drury's MSS.).
Upper Side. Antennæ black. Thorax and abdomen black, the latter spotted with white. Anterior wings diaphanous, the edges bordered with brown. Posterior wings russet brown, having a broad yellow bar crossing them about the middle of the abdomen, and reaching almost from one upper corner to the other; above the bar, next the body, are a number of black spots.
Under Side. Palpi, legs, and abdomen yellowish. Breast brown. Anterior wings coloured as on the upper side. Posterior wings grey in those parts where they are brown on the upper side; the yellow bar being fainter, but the black spots stronger, and amounting to ten in number. Margins of the wings entire.
Here, as in many places elsewhere, I have reverted to Drury's name, which Fabricius unwarrantably changed in the subsequently published Entomologia Systematica, and which in most cases the authors of the Encyclopédie Méthodique have adopted.