| Acropyga Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| |
| A. berwicki worker | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Formicinae |
| Tribe: | Plagiolepidini |
| Genus: | Acropyga Roger, 1862 [1] |
| Type species | |
| Acropyga acutiventris Roger, 186
| |
| Diversity[2] | |
| 42 species | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Atopodon Forel, 1912 | |
Acropyga is a genus of small formicine ants. Some species can be indirect pests. A. acutiventris, which is found from India to Australia, tends subterranean, root-feeding mealybugs of the species Xenococcus annandalei. 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.[3]
- ^ "Acropyga Roger, 1862". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
- ^ Bolton, B. (2014). "Acropyga". AntCat. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
- ^ Robert W. Taylor (1992). "Nomenclature and distribution of some Australian and New Guinean ants of the subfamily Formicinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)". Journal of the Australian Entomological Society. 31 (1): 57–69. doi:10.1111/j.1440-6055.1992.tb00458.x.