ALLOMYRMOCOCCINI Williams 1978

Hodgson, Chris, 2012, Comparison of the morphology of the adult males of the rhizoecine, phenacoccine and pseudococcine mealybugs (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Coccoidea), with the recognition of the family Rhizoecidae Williams 3291, Zootaxa 3291 (1), pp. 1-79 : 72

Tribe ALLOMYRMOCOCCINI Williams 1978 .

Introduction. This tribe was introduced by Williams (1978) to include a group of mealybugs which are morphologically very distinct and which form species-specific trophobiotic relationships with ants in the genus Dolichodorus Lund (1831) (Dolichoderinae: Formicidae ). These ants are often referred to as herdsman ants due to their habit of keeping their mealybug partners in bivouac nests and transporting them to freshly growing parts of various host plants. The ants and mealybugs appear to be restricted geographically to parts of tropical Asia ( Dill et al., 2002). This tribe currently includes four genera (see Williams, 2002) but adult males are currently only known for Promyrmococcus dilli (Williams) . This is redescribed below. As with the adult males in the Xenococcinae , the male of P. dilli is apterous and rather female-like and therefore lacks most of the sclerites typical of male Pseudococcidae . However, based on the morphology of the adult male, it is clearly a member of the Pseudococcidae and Williams (2002) and Hardy et al. (2008) placed Promyrmococcus within the subfamily Pseudococcinae , based mainly on adult female characters.