How tiny can tiny insects be? Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science,
told us of the wasp
Megaphragma mymaripenne, which is actually
smaller than an amoeba!
Thrips are tiny insects, typically just a millimetre in length.
Some are barely half that size. If that’s how big the adults are,
imagine how small a thrips’ egg must be. Now, consider that there
are insects that lay their eggs inside the egg of a thrips.
That’s one of them in the image above – the wasp, Megaphragma
mymaripenne. It’s pictured next to a Paramecium and an amoeba
at the same scale. Even though both these creatures are made up of a
single cell, the wasp – complete with eyes, brain, wings, muscles,
guts and genitals – is actually smaller. At just 200 micrometres
(a fifth of a millimetre), this wasp is the third smallest insect alive*
and a miracle of miniaturisation.
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