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   myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Sunday, 31-Dec-2023 19:46:15 JST myrmepropagandist

   Imagine being so teeny tiny that you are an endoparasite on *leafhoppers*

   Leafhoppers are already in the "so small they go unnoticed" category, and you're just a little pest on a minuscule thing.

   Of course the group that's most likely to choose this life? The wasps.

   Wasps are some of the smallest insects. There are "fairy flies" that are parasites of the eggs of certain insects.

   They are so small that air is "thick" to them and their wings have feathered edges are are oar shaped.

   • Embed this notice
     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Sunday, 31-Dec-2023 19:46:12 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     • Gurre Vildskägg

     @Gurre

     OMG it's smaller than an amoeba!

     I'm screaming!!

     They lay their eggs inside of the eggs of 1-2mm long crop pests.

     And... read the article to see what the males are like... they are even smaller somehow, but it's ... disturbing.

     https://blogs.dal.ca/openthink/a-tiny-wasps-big-brain-survival-strategy/

     Photo by Alexey Polilov, 2012

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     Gurre Vildskägg (gurre@mastodon.nu)'s status on Sunday, 31-Dec-2023 19:46:14 JST Gurre Vildskägg

     in reply to

     @futurebird
     I remember reading that there's an insect so small that their brain is fully mapped on the cell level. Barely into the dubble digit cell count?
     Could it be one of these?

     Aral Balkan repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Sunday, 31-Dec-2023 19:47:19 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Gurre Vildskägg

     @futurebird @Gurre I love that they essentially have a build process for their brains that strips out the source code :)