It seems to be highly paraphyletic and has long been used as a "wastebin taxon" to unite about 220 species of anatomically conservative Acraeini.

Some phylogenetic studies show that the genus Acraea is monophyletic if Bematistes and Neotropical Actinote are included (see Pierre & Bernaud, 2009).

Most species assembled here are restricted to the Afrotropical realm, but some are found in India, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

[2] The eggs are laid in masses; the larvae are rather short, of almost equal thickness throughout, and possessing branched spines on each segment, young larvae group together on a protecting mass of silk; the pupa is slender, with a long abdomen, rather wide and angulated about the insertion of the wings, and suspended by the tail only.

Their preferred species contain cyanogenic glycosides, which make the larvae and adults poisonous to predators.

In 1807, Johan Christian Fabricius established the genus for the garden acraea, described as Papilio horta by Carl Linnaeus in 1764, and its relatives.

[3] With increasing availability of DNA sequence data, it is confirmed that Acraea as loosely defined does not constitute a monophyletic group.

This name has been applied to a generally African group whose members usually feed on Urticaceae, and they had already been noted to bear some uncanny resemblances to the American Actinote in anatomical details.

[3] But while several informal species groups have been established, it is not clear which of these are monophyletic and how to split the apparently still paraphyletic genus further.

The placement of the garden acraea—the type species—and hence which of the any further subdivisions will get to bear the name Acraea, remains unresolved.

[4] Another instance of the confusion rife in this genus is exemplified by Boisduval's Acraea manjaca.