FNZ 17 - Mymaridae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) - Diagnostic Characters
Noyes, JS; Valentine, EW 1989. Mymaridae (Insecta: Hymenoptera). Fauna of New Zealand 17, 100 pages.
(
ISSN 0111-5383 (print),
;
no.
17.
ISBN 0-477-02542-0 (print),
).
Published 28 Apr 1989
ZooBank: http://zoobank.org/References/1D0A405D-6643-42DB-B911-80664BC6F853
Diagnostic Characters
The family Mymaridae is the most easily recognised of all those included in the superfamily Chalcidoidea. Mymarids are generally small to minute, usually less than 1.5 mm long, although some species over 4 mm long are known. Without exception the head has a transverse membranous line across the frontovertex, between the anterior ocellus and antennal toruli, connecting further membranous areas along the inner margins of the eyes. These possibly permit the sclerites to hinge apart, allowing expansion of the membranous areas to facilitate emergence from the host egg (cf. the ptilinum of Diptera). This sort of structure is also to be found in other chalcid parasitoids of eggs, e.g., Trichogrammatidae and some Encyrtidae. In addition the scutellum of mymarids is almost always divided into an anterior sensory part and a posterior non-sensory part usually marked by differences in sculpture. The hindwings are, with few exceptions (Anagroidea spp.), petiolate proximad of the apex of the venation; this character is not found in any other chalcid family, all of which have relatively broad wings at this point. Both forewings and hindwings of mymarids are generally long and relatively narrow, and usually have a long marginal fringe. The antennae rarely have fewer than nine segments and often as many as thirteen, and are generally long and filamentous. The tarsi may be either four- or five-segmented.