Acropyga is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of small formicine

Formicinae

Formicinae is a subfamily within the Formicidae containing ants of moderate evolutionary development.Formicines retain some primitive features such as the presence of cocoons around pupae, the presence of ocelli in workers, and little tendency toward reduction of palp or antennal segmentation in...

 ant

Ant

Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...

s.

Some species can be indirect pests. A. acutiventris, which is found from India to Australia, tends subterranean, root-feeding mealybug

Mealybug

Mealybugs are insects in the family Pseudococcidae, unarmored scale insects found in moist, warm climates. They are considered pests as they feed on plant juices of greenhouse plants, house plants and subtropical trees and also acts as a vector for several plant diseases.-Distribution:Mealybugs...

s of the species Xenococcus annandalei

Xenococcus annandalei

Xenococcus annandalei is a species of mealybug in the family Pseudococcidae that infests the roots of certain species of trees.-Description:...

. Living, gravid females are carried in the jaws of A. acutiventris queens during their nuptial flight, to establish the symbiotic association in founding colonies. Other Acropyga species have relationships with different species of mealybugs, and it could be a trait common to the whole genus.

Description

Acropyga are smaller than 3.5 mm, with a compact, stocky body. They have antennae with 10 or 11 segments (including the scape), short palps and reduced eyes with four to 30 individual ommatidia

Ommatidium

The compound eyes of insects, mantis shrimp and millipedes are composed of units called ommatidia . An ommatidium contains a cluster of photoreceptor cells surrounded by support cells and pigment cells. The outer part of the ommatidium is overlaid with a transparent cornea...

. In some species the eyes are completely absent.

Distribution

Acropyga is found in the Americas

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

, southern Africa

Southern Africa

Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...

, India to Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

 and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. A. palearctica is known only from Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. Fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

 specimens of Acropyga have been recovered from the Burdigalian

Burdigalian

The Burdigalian is, in the geologic timescale, an age or stage in the early Miocene. It spans the time between 20.43 ± 0.05 Ma and 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma...

 stage Dominican amber

Dominican amber

Dominican amber is amber from the Dominican Republic. Resin from the extinct species Hymenaea protera is the source of Dominican amber and probably of most amber found in the tropics....

 deposits and several individuals are preserved carrying Electromyrmococcus

Electromyrmococcus

Electromyrmococcus is an extinct genus of mealybug in the Pseudococcidae subfamily Rhizoecinae. The genus currently contains three species, all from the early Miocene, Burdigalian stage, Dominican amber deposits on the island of Hispaniola....

mealybug

Mealybug

Mealybugs are insects in the family Pseudococcidae, unarmored scale insects found in moist, warm climates. They are considered pests as they feed on plant juices of greenhouse plants, house plants and subtropical trees and also acts as a vector for several plant diseases.-Distribution:Mealybugs...

s. These fossils represent the oldest recorded record of the symbiosis between mealybugs and Acropyga species ants.

Species

Acropyga acutiventris Acropyga acutiventris Acropyga acutiventris is an ant in the Formicinae subfamily. It lives underground in tropical regions and forms a mutualistic association with the mealybug, Xenococcus annandalei.-Description:... Roger, 1862 Acropyga ambigua Emery, 1922 Acropyga amblyops Forel, 1915 Acropyga arnoldi Santschi, 1926 Acropyga bakwele LaPolla & Fisher, 2005 Acropyga baodaoensis Terayama, 1985 Acropyga berwicki Wheeler, 1935 Acropyga borgmeieri Donisthorpe, 1939 Acropyga bruchi Santschi, 1929 Acropyga butteli Forel, 1912 Acropyga crassicornis Emery, 1900 Acropyga decedens (Mayr, 1887) Acropyga distinguenda Karavaiev, 1935 Acropyga dodo (Donisthorpe, 1946) Acropyga donisthorpei Weber, 1944 Acropyga dubia Karavaiev, 1933 Acropyga dubitata (Wheeler & Mann, 1914) Acropyga emeryi (Forel, 1915) Acropyga epedana Snelling, 1973 Acropyga exsanguis (Wheeler, 1909) Acropyga fuhrmanni (Forel, 1914) Acropyga goeldii Forel, 1893 Acropyga guianensis Weber, 1944 Acropyga indistincta Crawley, 1923 Acropyga indosinensis Wheeler, 1935 Acropyga inezae Forel, 1912 Acropyga jiangxiensis Wang & Wu, 1992 Acropyga kathrynae Weber, 1944 Acropyga lauta Mann, 1919

Acropyga major Donisthorpe, 1949 Acropyga marshalli (Crawley, 1921) Acropyga meermohri (Staercke, 1930) Acropyga mesonotalis Weber, 1944 Acropyga moluccana Mayr, 1879 Acropyga myops Forel, 1910 Acropyga nipponensis Terayama, 1985 Acropyga oceanica Emery, 1900 Acropyga oko Weber, 1944 Acropyga pachycera (Emery, 1906) Acropyga paleartica Menozzi, 1936 Acropyga pallida (Donisthorpe, 1938) Acropyga paludis Weber, 1944 Acropyga panamensis Weber, 1944 Acropyga paramaribensis Borgmeier, 1933 Acropyga parvidens (Wheeler & Mann, 1914) Acropyga pickeli Borgmeier, 1927 Acropyga quadriceps Weber, 1944 Acropyga robae Donisthorpe, 1936 Acropyga rutgersi Buenzli, 1935 Acropyga sauteri Forel, 1912 Acropyga silvestrii Emery, 1915 Acropyga smithii Forel, 1893 Acropyga termitobia Forel, 1912 Acropyga trinitatis Weber, 1944 Acropyga undecema (Donisthorpe, 1949) Acropyga urichi Weber, 1944 Acropyga wheeleri Mann, 1922

Further reading

(1935): Ants of the genus Acropyga Roger, with description of a new species. Journal of the New York Entomological Society 43: 321-329. PDF (2005)): A Remarkable New Species of Acropyga (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Gabon, with a Key to the Afrotropical Species. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 56(30): 601-605. PDF

External links

• myrmecos.net: A. acutiventris carrying a mealybug