Beetle go KTKTKTKTKTKTK

Fine-backed Red Paper Wasp (Polistes carolina), male, taken November 8, 2025, in Georgia, US

Fursona February Day 7

Bordered Mantis Facts:

• The Bordered Mantis is one of the largest mantids native to North America, often inhabiting open semi-arid areas in tall forbs, shrubs, or trees, but more abundant in lusher, often riparian and wooded areas of streamsides, roadsides, canyons, in towns, etc.

• The most defining feature is the thin, pale white or light-blue border along the outer edge of the female's forewings.

• They are attracted to lights, with males often flying to lights in numbers, but females are flightless.

• Bordered Mantises, as with other large mantis species, are regarded as beneficial to gardeners because they prey on other insects which damage garden plants. Our natural pest control!

• Unlike most insects, the Bordered Mantis has a highly flexible neck and can turn its head 180 degrees to watch you—or a potential meal—without moving the rest of its body!

Personal Notes:

As my favorite insect, I just had to take a stab at a mantis fursona. Once I get the hang of drawing bugs with all those segments, it's actually really fun! These guys are just so cool. I love playing with them whenever I find one, and they're always super docile and friendly. I have had a lot of memorable mantis moments^o^ One day I will own one as a pet! Love you, mantids. Our real-world fairies💚

BUG

Broad-nosed weevil, Exophthalmus sp., Curculionidae

Beetle Fly (Celyphus sp.), family Celyphidae, Malaysia

Yes, this is actually a true fly! (order Diptera)

Gyas Jewelmark or Gyas Sarota Metalmark (Sarota gyas), family Riodonidae, Peru

(Image links because as much as it pains me I've never seen one of these beauties irl: 1 2 3)

Mymaridae is a diverse family of wasps that contains more than 1,400 known species, and they're often described as fairy wasps (or "fairy flies") because they are so incredibly tiny. In fact, these are some of the smallest multicellular animals ever described, with most fairy wasps measuring less than 1mm long.

Above: a species of fairy wasp, Lymaenon aureus, depicted on a lime

One species of fairy wasp, Dicopomorpha echmepterygis, is regarded as the world's smallest known insect, measuring as little as 0.139mm (139 microns) long, which is roughly the size of a single human egg.

Above: Anagrus fairy wasp

As this article explains:

Fairyflies are not actual flies at all, but chalcid wasps; they get their name because of their fairy-like wings, and for being tiny and "invisible" like the mythical fairies. Fairyflies have the smallest known adult form of any insect: wingless and blind males of the species Dicopomorpha echmepterygis have a body length of just 0.139 mm, about the average width of a human hair. The fairyfly family Mymaridae consists of many species, including Tinkerbella nana and Kikiki huna, the smallest known flying insect species with a body length of 0.16 mm.

Above: the photo at the top shows a fairy wasp of the genus Anagrus, while the photo on the bottom shows another species from genus Polynema

Most fairy wasps have fully-functional wings that are lined with long, feathery bristles:

Fairyfly wings are not only small, but their structure is comb-like and made of several bristles instead of a planar sheet. Their very small size means that the air around them is more viscous than it would be for larger insects. At such small scale, the ratio of inertia to viscosity, the Reynolds number, is so low that any movement provided to an air packet quickly dampens out. It also means that a single wing bristle drags along with it a boundary layer of a comparable size. Thus, if the bristles are sufficiently close, the comb-like wing can act as a paddle to generate the requisite aerodynamic forces, while reducing the overall mass of the wing.

Above: a fairy wasp depicted beneath a push-pin

All of the wasps in this family are parasitoids, and they lay their own eggs within the eggs of other insects. They often parasitize the eggs of booklice, aphids, scale insects, thrips, water beetles, and other tiny arthropods. The female fairy wasp inserts her ovipositor into the host egg, depositing her own offspring within, and the process is then repeated many more times as she parasitizes as many eggs as possible.

Above: this composite image shows male and female fairy wasps of the genus Polynema standing on a pinhead

This seems like a good time to point out that fairy wasps do not parasitize mammalian ova, nor do they parasitize the eggs of any other vertebrates, and they are completely harmless to humans. In fact, they're actually beneficial, since they often parasitize agricultural pests.

Above: a fairy wasp trapped in a tiny guttation drop produced by a fungus

I posted some information about fairy bees a few weeks ago, so I figured that I should share these little fairy wasps, too.

Above: a Mymar fairy wasp with an aphid standing nearby

Sources & More Info:

Current Biology: Fairyflies

Annual Review of Entomology: Small is Beautiful: Features of the Smallest Insects and Limits to Miniaturization (PDF)

Journal of Hymenoptera Research: A New Genus and Species of Fairyfly, Tinkerbella nana, with Comments on its Sister Genus Kikiki, and Discussion on Small Size Limits in Arthropods (PDF)