The Mymarommatoidea are a very small superfamily of microscopic

fairyfly The Mymaridae, commonly known as fairyflies or fairy wasps, are a family of chalcidoid wasps found in temperate and tropical regions throughout the world. The family contains around 100 genera with 1400 species. Fairyflies are very tiny insects ...

-like

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 cau ...

. It contains only a single living family,

Mymarommatidae The Mymarommatidae, sometimes referred to as false fairy wasps. are a very small family of microscopic parasitic wasps. Only about half of the known species are living taxa (the others are fossils), but they are found worldwide.Gibson, G.A.P.; R ...

, and three other extinct families known from

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

aged

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In ...

. Less than half of all described species are living taxa (the others are fossils), but they are known from all parts of the world.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. Undoubtedly, many more await discovery, as they are easily overlooked and difficult to study due to their extremely small size (most have an overall length of around 0.3 mm).

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 Mymarommatoidea. They are generally placed in the Proctotrupomorpha, amongst the group that includes all members of Proctotrupomorpha other than

Cynipoidea The Cynipoidea are a moderate-sized hymenopteran superfamily that presently includes five modern families and three extinct families, though others have been recognized in the past. The most familiar members of the group are phytophagous, especia ...

. Their closest relatives seem to be the extinct superfamily Serphitoidea (including Serphitidae and Archaeoserphitidae), with both groups being united in the clade Bipetiolarida. There is no consensus on how the four families of Mymarommatoidea relate to each other. * † Alavarommatidae Ortega-Blanco et al., 2011 ** †'' Alavaromma'' Ortega-Blanco Penalver Delclòs & Engel 2011 (1 species) Spanish amber, Early Cretaceous (

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/ Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0 ...

) * † Dipterommatidae Rasnitsyn et al. 2019 ** †'' Dipteromma'' Rasnitsyn et al. 2019 (1 species)

Burmese amber Burmese amber, also known as Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. The ...

, Myanmar, Late Cretaceous ( Cenomanian) * †

Gallorommatidae The Gallorommatidae is an extinct family of microscopic parasitoid wasps, belonging to the Mymarommatoidea. It is known from several species found in Cretaceous aged amber.Engel, M.S.; Grimaldi, D.A. (2007) New false fairy wasps in Cretaceous amb ...

Gibson et al. 2007 ** Six species, (

Barremian The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma). It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous Epoch (or Lower Cretaceous Series). It is precede ...

- Cenomanian) *

Debauche, 1948 ** 5 Genera,

-Recent

Biology

There is only one confirmed host for any member of the superfamily; the species '' Mymaromma menehune'' from the Hawaiian Islands is a solitary endoparasitoid of eggs of a '' Lepidopsocus'' sp. (

Psocodea Psocodea is a taxonomic group of insects comprising the bark lice, book lice and parasitic lice. It was formerly considered a superorder, but is now generally considered by entomologists as an order. Despite the greatly differing appearance of ...

: Lepidopsocidae) living on ''

Ficus microcarpa ''Ficus microcarpa'', also known as Chinese banyan, Malayan banyan, Indian laurel, curtain fig, or , is a tree in the fig family Moraceae. It is native in a range from China through tropical Asia and the Caroline Islands to Australia. It is wide ...

'' trees.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

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3331422 Parasitica Apocrita superfamilies