The World’s Smallest Pest: The Fairyfly

Tinkerbelle is no longer just Peter Pan’s fairy sidekick. Recently, scientists discovered a new fairyfly that they aptly named Tinkerbella nana in Costa Rica.

Tinkerbella nana

According to Science Daily, fairyflies are just one of 18 families of insects called chalcid wasps. Fairyflies are found all over the world except in Antarctica and feature the tiniest insect in the world called the Kikiki huna.

Kikiki huna

You probably have never noticed a fairly, not only because of their literally microscopic size, but also because of their life cycle .Most of the insects actually begin as parasitoids of the eggs of other, larger insects, usually found plants. This said a specific host of fairyflies remains on known. In order to find the new Tinkerbella nana, researchers had to sweep through rain forest litter.

If you would like to learn more, read the Science Daily article here.

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130424103050.htm

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