Tinkerbella Nana: New Species of Fairyflies is Only 250 Micrometers Long
Posted on April 25, 2013
Scientists have discovered a new species of Mymaridae (fairyflies) that is just one quarter of a millimeter long. The new species, Tinkerbella nana, is under 250 micrometers in length. The Mymaridae family of chalcid wasps includes the smallest known insect, Dicopomorpha echmepterygis, which are only 130 micrometres long.
Tinkerbella nana were collected at the La Selva Biological Station, a lowland rainforest research and education facility owned and managed by the Organization for Tropical Studies. It is located in the province of Heredia, Costa Rica. The study of the new species was published here in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research.
John Huber from Natural Resources Canada, lead author of the study, said in a statement, "If something is physically possible in living things, some individuals of at least one species, extinct or extant, will likely have achieved it. So the lower size limit, by whatever measure of size is chosen, was almost certainly already evolved - somewhere, sometime. If we have not already found them, we must surely be close to discovering the smallest insects and other arthropods."
