The Mymarommatidae, sometimes referred to as false fairy wasps, are a very small family of microscopic

parasitic wasps Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps ( Orussoidea) being in the wasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids, they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, sooner or later ca ...

. Only about half of the known species are living taxa (the others are fossils), but they are found worldwide.Gibson, G.A.P.; Read, J.; Huber, J.T. (2007
Diversity, classification and higher relationships of Mymarommatoidea (Hymenoptera).
'Journal of Hymenoptera Research'' 16: 51–146 Little is known about the

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

of these insects, but because of their size, and simple

ovipositor The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typica ...

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

s assumed they were idiobiont

parasitoid In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host (biology), host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionarily stable str ...

s on the eggs of insects, similar to other extremely small parasitic wasps such as fairyflies. Psocoptera, long suspected as their hosts based on circumstantial evidence, was confirmed to be the hosts of at least some mymarommatids in 2022, after specimens of ''Mymaromma menehune'' were observed emerging from the eggs of a member of the pscopteran family Lepidopsocidae.Honsberger DN, Huber JT, Wright MG (2022) A new ''Mymaromma'' sp. (Mymarommatoidea, Mymarommatidae) in Hawai‘i and first host record for the superfamily. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 89: 73-87. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.89.77931 They are placed in the superfamily Mymarommatoidea, with a number of extinct families known from

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

amber. Mymarommatids are distinguished by the presence of a pleated (folded) membrane connecting the front and back halves of the head extending from the mandible to the top of the head, which is presumably expanded by muscle or hydrostatic pressure, likely to aid in breaking open the walls of the egg capsule. Specimens are often found in

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall, or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that has fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituen ...

and are usually rare, but occasionally appear in significant numbers.

Classification

As taxonomists have examined this group more closely, they have become less certain about which other group of wasps represents the nearest living relatives of the Mymarommatidae. In recent years, it has been proposed that the nearest relatives of Mymarommatoidea are the extinct Serphitoidea, including the family Serphitidae, and therefore claim the Mymarommatidae are essentially "

living fossil A living fossil is a Deprecation, deprecated term for an extant taxon that phenotypically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of or ...

s". †'' Palaeomymar'' is known from a single species (''P. succini'' Meunier) from

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

aged

Baltic amber Baltic amber or succinite is amber from the Baltic region, home of its largest known deposits. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that this forested region provided the re ...

. †'' Archaeromma'' is known from 10 species spread across

Laurasia Laurasia () was the more northern of two large landmasses that formed part of the Pangaea supercontinent from around ( Mya), the other being Gondwana. It separated from Gondwana (beginning in the late Triassic period) during the breakup of Pa ...

during the

dating from the

Albian The Albian is both an age (geology), age of the geologic timescale and a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early/Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch/s ...

to the

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campa ...

. ''Mymaromma'' has 11 described extant species. ''Mymaromella'' has 6 described extant species. Another species of ''Mymaromella, M. duerrenfeldi'', is known from

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

amber in Sicily.T. Schlüter and R. Kohring. 1990. Die zwergwespengattung ''Palaeomymar'' (Hymenoptera: Proctotrupoidea: Serphitidae) aus dem mio/pliozänen Simetit Siziliens. ''Berliner Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, Reihe A'' 124:115-121 ''Zealaromma'' has two extant species: ''Z. insulare'' and ''Z. valentinei.'' Both species are known from New Zealand.

References

External links

Family MYMAROMMATIDAE of the MymarommatoideaUniversal Chalcidoidea Database
{{Taxonbar, from=Q140675 Parasitica Apocrita families Extant Cretaceous first appearances