Author: John S. LAPOLLA Year: 2006 Title: Description of the male of Acropyga paleartica MENOZZI, 1936 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Journal: Myrmecologische Nachrichten Volume: 8 Pages: 171-173 Keywords: Ant taxonomy, mealybugs, Palaearctic, trophobiosis, trophophoresy Abstract: The male of the single known European Acropyga, A. paleartica MENOZZI, 1936, is described. With the discovery of the male of A. paleartica, a combination of worker and male morphological characters allows for the placement of the species within the A. arnoldi species group, which previously only contained a single species, A. arnoldi SANTSCHI, 1926. A number of similarities exist between workers of the two species among those being: a high maxillary palp number (up to 5 segments), a high number of mandibular teeth (6 - 8), and a similarly shaped pronotum. The following similarities exist between males of the two species: high number of mandibular teeth, similarly shaped parameres and penis valves, and similarly shaped 9th sternite (= subgenital plate). A sister taxa grouping of the species is interesting because the mealybugs utilized by both of them are also thought to be sister taxa. Publisher: Österreichische Gesellschaft für Entomofaunistik ISSN: 1994-4136