rekordy: Wasp

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

Dicopomorpha echmepterygis is the smallest known insect and a species of parasitoid wasp of the family Mymaridae, which exhibits strong sexual dimorphism. The males are blind, apterous, and their body length is only 40% that of females. With a body length averaging 186 μm (for 8 specimens measured, which ranged from 139 to 240 μm), males of D. echmepterygis have the shortest body length of all known insects (smaller than certain species of Paramecium, amoeba, and shorter than certain bacteria, Thiomargarita magnifica, all of which are single-celled organisms). The measured body length of a female was 550 μm. Dicopomorpha echmepterygis males have relatively long legs and are dull grayish bro…

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

The Mymaridae, commonly known as fairyflies or fairy bees, are a family of chalcid wasps found in temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions throughout the world. The family contains around 100 genera with 1,400 species. Fairyflies are very tiny insects, like most chalcid wasps, mostly ranging from 0.5 to 1.0 mm (0.020 to 0.039 in) long. They include the world's smallest known insect, with a body length of only 0.139 mm (0.0055 in), and the smallest known flying insect, only 0.15 mm (0.0059 in) long. They usually have nonmetallic black, brown, or yellow bodies. The antennae of the females are distinctively tipped by club-like segments, while male antennae are thread-like. They can be dist…

Evidence: 43 • authority: 92

Large-Scale Integrative Taxonomy of the Smallest Insects Reveals Astonishing Temperate Diversity (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Mymaridae).. Fairyflies (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Mymaridae) are a diverse but taxonomically understudied group of parasitoid wasps that attack the eggs of other insects. Being among the very smallest of all insects, they are often ignored in biodiversity surveys despite being one of the most abundant microhymenoptera in many habitats. The traditional approach of morphological species delimitation can be challenging due to their minute size and meticulous slide-mounting technique. Ways to accelerate their discovery are needed. We conducted the first large-scale stud…

Evidence: 43 • authority: 92

Large-scale integrative taxonomy of the smallest insects reveals astonishing temperate diversity. Fairyflies (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Mymaridae) are a diverse but taxonomically neglected group of parasitoid wasps that attack eggs of other insects. Being among the very smallest of all insects, they are often overlooked in biodiversity surveys despite being one of the most abundant microhymenoptera in many habitats. The traditional approach of morphological sorting for species delimitation can be challenging due to their minute size and meticulous slide-mounting technique. Ways to accelerate their discovery are needed. We conducted the first large-scale study of Mymaridae in temperate fore…

Evidence: 36 • authority: 88

The Genome of Rice Planthopper Egg Parasitoid Wasps Anagrus Nilaparvatae (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) Casts Light on the Chemo- and Mechano-Sensing in Parasitism. Abstract Background Mymaridae is an ancient insect group, which is a basal lineage in the Chalcidoidea phylogeny. The species of Mymaridae have great potential for biological control. Anagrus nilaparvatae , a representative specie of Mymaridae, is ideal for controlling rice planthopper due to its high rate of parasitism by finding hosts efficiently from paddy ridges to fields. Results Using both single-molecule real-time and Illumina sequencing, we sequenced and assembled the whole genome of A. nilaparvatae , which is the first genome…

Evidence: 36 • authority: 72

A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. The wasps do not constitute a clade, a complete natural group with a single ancestor, as bees and ants are deeply nested within the wasps, having evolved from wasp ancestors. Wasps that are members of the clade Aculeata can sting their prey. The most commonly known wasps, such as yellowjackets and hornets, are in the family Vespidae and are eusocial, living together in a nest with an egg-laying queen and non-reproducing workers. Eusociality is favoured by t…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 72

Kikiki is a genus of fairyfly wasps containing a single species, Kikiki huna, known from Hawaii, Costa Rica, Nagarcoil, and Trinidad. At 0.15 mm (0.0059 in) (150 μm), it is the smallest flying insect known as of 2019. It is a close relative of wasps in the genus Tinkerbella. It was discovered in the Hawaiian Islands by John T. Huber and John W. Beardsley, and published in 2000. The name Kikiki huna consists of two Hawaiian words that both carry the meaning 'tiny bit'. Female Kikiki huna have wings with feathery hair-like appendages attached to a stem. The males of this species do not fly, and do not have any wings. The viscous effects of air on a wing increase at smaller sizes, so an insect…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 72

The smallest organisms found on Earth can be determined according to various aspects of organism size, including volume, mass, height, length, or genome size. Given the incomplete nature of scientific knowledge, it is likely that the smallest organism is undiscovered. Furthermore, there is some debate over the definition of life, and what entities qualify as organisms; consequently the smallest known organisms (microrganisms) may be archaea that can be 200 nanometers long.

Evidence: 21 • authority: 92

Family-Level Diversity of Hymenopteran Parasitoid Communities in Agricultural Drainage Ditches and Implications for Biological Control.. Agricultural drainage ditches contain a variety of non-crop vegetation, including potential sources of alternate hosts and food for hymenopteran parasitoids that provide conservation biological control on adjacent farm fields. To assess the patterns of family-level diversity of hymenopteran parasitoids, we surveyed ditch and adjacent crop habitats during June, July, and August 2021-2023, using yellow sticky traps over one week. We sampled two agricultural drainage ditches on each of five farms on the Delmarva Peninsula, eastern USA. We collected 36,725 spe…

Evidence: — • authority: 88

Polynema (Polynema) dikobraz sp. nov., a remarkable fairyfly (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) from Madagascar. A new Afrotropical species of Polynema Haliday, 1833 (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae), Polynema (Polynema) dikobraz Triapitsyn sp. nov., is described and illustrated based on the type series from Madagascar. It is quite remarkable in having unique enlarged spine-like setae on the fore wing disc, not only among the congeneric taxa but also among all the known fairyflies in the world. Together with another, undescribed, similar species of Polynema also from Madagascar, this new taxon is placed in the informal dikobraz species group of its nominate subgenus.

Evidence: — • authority: 92

Extremely small wasps independently lost the nuclei in the brain neurons of at least two lineages.. Anucleate animal cells are a peculiar evolutionary phenomenon and a useful model for studying cellular mechanisms. Anucleate neurons were recently found in one genus of miniature parasitic wasps of the family Trichogrammatidae, but it remained unclear how widespread this phenomenon is among other insects or even among different tissues of the same insect species. We studied the anatomy of miniature representatives of another parasitic wasp family (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) using array tomography and found two more species with nearly anucleate brains at the adult stage. Thus, the lysis of the c…

Evidence: — • authority: 80

Comparison of oviposition behavior of a solitary and a gregarious parasitoid (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae)