← back to grid

Fairyfly

legendary

Fairyfly

Dicopomorpha echmepterygis

Habitat: Wherever its host (bark louse eggs) lives, mostly tropical
Body length: 0.139 mm
Order: Hymenoptera · Mymaridae

Weird but real

Smallest insect ever discovered. Males are wingless, blind, and live their entire lives inside another insect's egg.

Why it's cool

Smaller than a single-celled amoeba. Smaller than a grain of salt. A whole functioning insect in there. Nervous system, muscles, the works.

Photographs

Dicopomorpha echmepterygis male, paratype, ventral. 52 habitus 53 head + prothorax + procoxa 54 apex of gaster 55 mesosoma + base of most legs and metasoma. Scale line = 20 μm, except Fig. 52 = 50 μm. — John T. Huber, John S. Noyes, J. Read · CC BY 3.0 · source