Apterostigma

Apterostigma is a genus of New World ants of the subfamily Myrmicinae. Two species have been described from fossils preserved in Dominican amber, while the others are extant. They are fungus-growing ants, though, unlike the majority of other species in Attini who grow Lepiotaceae, some species have begun cultivating Tricholomataceae.

== History == The genus Apterostigma was described by Gustav Mayr (1865), from winged male and female specimens collected in southern Brazil. It is a New World ant belonging to the Attina Subtribe (fungivorous ants), since they maintain the ant-fungus mutualism, where various species belonging to this subfamily use fungi from the Lepiotaceae family. The fungus decomposes the litter (vegetable material collected by the ants, used as a substrate), however, this is not the case of the genus Apterostigma, since it has been found that it cultivates a pterulaceous fungus of the Tricholomataceae family, which is given as a substrate. woody matter and insect excretions, along with some bits of leaf litter.