Mymarommatoidea

The Mymarommatoidea are a very small superfamily of microscopic fairyfly-like parasitic wasps. It contains only a single living family, Mymarommatidae, and three other extinct families known from Cretaceous aged amber. Less than half of all described species are living taxa (the others are fossils), but they are known from all parts of the world.[1][2] 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).

Mymarommatoidea
Temporal range:
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Infraorder: Proctotrupomorpha
Superfamily: Mymarommatoidea
Debauche, 1948
Families

†Alavarommatidae
†Dipterommatidae
†Gallorommatidae
Mymarommatidae

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.[1] They are generally placed in the Proctotrupomorpha, amongst the group that includes all members of Proctotrupomorpha other than Cynipoidea.[3] Their closest relatives seem to be the extinct superfamily Serphitoidea (including Serphitidae and Archaeoserphitidae), with both groups being united in the clade Bipetiolarida.[4][5] There is no consensus on how the four families of Mymarommatoidea relate to each other.[5]

  • †Alavarommatidae Ortega-Blanco et al., 2011
    • †Alavaromma Ortega-Blanco Penalver Delclòs & Engel 2011 (1 species) Spanish amber, Early Cretaceous (Albian)
  • †Dipterommatidae Rasnitsyn et al. 2019
  • †Gallorommatidae Gibson et al. 2007
  • Mymarommatidae Debauche, 1948

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: Lepidopsocidae) living on Ficus microcarpa trees.[6]

References
  1. 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.
  2. Engel, M.S.; Grimaldi, D.A. (2007) New false fairy wasps in Cretaceous amber from New Jersey and Myanmar (Hymenoptera: Mymarommatoidea). Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 110: 159–168.
  3. Rasnitsyn, Alexandr P.; Öhm-Kühnle, Christoph (2020-06-30). "Taxonomic revision of the infraorder Proctotrupomorpha (Hymenoptera)". Palaeoentomology. 3 (3): 223–234–223–234. doi:10.11646/palaeoentomology.3.3.2. ISSN 2624-2834. S2CID 225772476.
  4. Engel, Michael S. (2015-12-30). "A new family of primitive serphitoid wasps in Lebanese amber (Hymenoptera: Serphitoidea)". Novitates Paleoentomologicae (13): 1. doi:10.17161/np.v0i13.5064. ISSN 2329-5880.
  5. Rasnitsyn, Alexandr P.; Sidorchuk, Ekaterina A.; Zhang, Haichun; Zhang, Qi (December 2019). "Dipterommatidae, a new family of parasitic wasps (Hymenoptera: Mymarommatoidea) in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber: The first case of morphological diptery in flying Hymenoptera". Cretaceous Research. 104: 104193. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2019.104193. S2CID 201321947.
  6. 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
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