The other day, something landed on my arm. It was so small that without magnification the only identification I could make was “micro insect.” As this photo shows, it is a somewhat interesting little fly, with a white band around its abdomen. The i-Naturalist app tells me it could be a leaf-miner fly (in which the larvae live in between, and eat, the inner layers of leaves), a vinegar fly, or something called a freeloader fly. It’s obvious there is a titanic array of teeny insects.
The incident reminded me of some other pictures in my library that show mini insects on my arm. Above is one of my favorites. Looks like an ant, right? Nope, it’s an ant-mimic beetle! The beetles in the Anthicidae family are mostly minute and found throughout the world, and adults can be found on flowers and foliage.
It really is worth taking a closer look at things that land on you. All of these insects appear dark and small, but above is the third order of insects I’ve shown you so far (Diptera, Coleoptera and Hymenoptera), and there will be a fourth below. This is probably a Pteromalid wasp in the Chalcid family. There are ~3,500 species in this family so, again, a super-duper number of itsy-bitsy species.
Here’s another recent visitor from this fall. This is also a wasp, but as you can see in comparing it to the one above, it’s in quite a different classification. I’m fairly sure it’s in the Trichopria genus of parasitoid wasps. These wasps are parasitoids of flies, and as BugGuide says, “only a fragment of actual size of the genus is known.” Impressive antennae, aren’t they?!
I could go on. In looking through photos I have several more pictures of wee flies, beetles, and others. But I promised an insect from a fourth order of insects, so here’s a bug (Hemiptera order). I think it’s in the plant bug or Miridae family, which is the largest family in the true bug order, with over 10,000 species worldwide. As with most minuscule insects, there are scores of unknown family members.
Bottom line: If you want to learn more about the diversity of the insect world, don’t just swipe away everything that lands on you!
Cheers.
Ticklehead 