Mymarommatoidea

Mymarommatoidea Temporal range: Albian–Present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Infraorder:	Proctotrupomorpha
Superfamily:	Mymarommatoidea Debauche, 1948
Families
† † †Gallorommatidae Mymarommatidae

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).

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 ), 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]

• † Ortega-Blanco et al., 2011
  • † Ortega-Blanco Penalver Delclòs & Engel 2011 (1 species) , Early Cretaceous (Albian)
• † Rasnitsyn et al. 2019
  • † Rasnitsyn et al. 2019 (1 species) Burmese amber, Myanmar, Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian)
• †Gallorommatidae Gibson et al. 2007
  • †Galloromma Schlüter (1978) (5 species) Spanish amber, Early Cretaceous (Albian) , Russia, Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) , France, Cenomanian Burmese amber, Myanmar, Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian)
• Mymarommatidae Debauche, 1948
  • 5 Genera, Albian-Recent

Biology[]

There is only one confirmed host for any member of the superfamily; the species from the Hawaiian Islands is a solitary endoparasitoid of eggs of a sp. (Psocodea: Lepidopsocidae) living on Ficus microcarpa trees.^[6]

References[]