Overview
All mymarids, like
trichogrammatids, are egg parasitoids.
The most common hosts are Hemiptera (bugs), but coleopteran (beetle), psocopteran (booklice), dipteran (fly), and orthopteran (grasshopper and cricket) eggs are also attacked. A few species of mymarids attack eggs of aquatic beetles (e.g. Dytiscidae), for which they must enter the water. Some species have been used successfully in classical
biological control,
for example
Anaphes nitens
against
Gonipterus scutellatus
(Coleoptera: Curculionidae), a pest of
Eucalyptus
in various areas of the world. A number of other species are also important natural enemies of pests.
Description
Mymarids (fairy flies) are common, but are often overlooked because of their small size (typically 0.2 1.8 mm; some up to 4mm); indeed, some species approach the smallest of all insects. They are characterised by the antennal toruli (sockets) closer to the eye margin than to each other (separated from the eyes by less than their own diameter); the head with a transverse suture above the antennal toruli which connects with two lateral sutures to form an 'H'; the venation of the fore wing reduced; and the hind wing usually with a basal stalk.
Distribution
There are no keys to Australian genera of Mymaridae even though there are more than 260 described species. However, Noyes and Valentine (1989) provide a key to New Zealand genera accommodating 30 described species.
Further information about the Mymaridae can be found in Gibson 1993, Naumann 1991, Noyes & Valentine 1989 and Noyes 2001.