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Calendar
BugGuide Gathering
Smoky Mountains
University of Tennessee Biological Field Station
August 8-10, 2008
Details...
 
Photos from the last gathering (Minnesota 2007)

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Family Mymaridae

Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon (parasitic Apocrita)
Superfamily Chalcidoidea (Chalcid Wasps)
Family Mymaridae
Other Common Names
Fairyflies
Size
0.2-1 mm
Identification
"Mymarids are fairly characteristic in habitus and do not closely resemble any other chalcidoids. The most easily observable characters are the stalked, narrowly elongate hindwing, the long clubbed female antennae (filiform in the male), and the greatly reduced venation which terminates within the first third of the wing (except in Arescon and Krokella) and lacks a discernible stigmal or postmarginal vein. Additional characters are the tarsi which may be 4 or 5 segmented, the widely separated antennal toruli and the vertex surrounded by thickened bands of cuticle and separated from the face by a suture." USDA
Life Cycle
Parasitoids of the eggs of other insects (ie the host does not survive).
Internet References
USDA Systematic Entomology Laboratory