Description
See also: Insect morphologyFairyflies are very small insects. They have body lengths from 0.13 to 5.4 mm (0.0051 to 0.21 in), averaging at 0.5 to 1.0 mm (0.020 to 0.039 in). Their bodies are usually nonmetallic and colored black, brown, or yellow.
They can be distinguished from other chalcid wasps by having an H-shaped pattern of sutures, known as trabeculae or carinae, below the frontmost ocelli and the inner eye margins. Rarely, the sutures can also extend behind the ocelli.
Fairyflies have long antennae, at least as long as the head and the mesosoma (middle part of the body). The antennal toruli (sockets of the antennae) are set high on the head and near the eye margins. They are separated by a distance of three to five times their own diameter. In contrast, the antennae of other chalcid wasps are separated only by one diameter. In females, the antennae are tipped with club-like segments known as clava. In males, the antennae are filiform (thread-like).
Though some fairyflies are wingless or possess only short wings, most fairyflies possess wings with long bristles (marginal setae) on the fringes. The forewings usually have hypochaeta. These are small bristles (setae) which point distinctly backwards on the ventral surface of the wing membrane. The hind wings are stalked (petiolate) and very narrow.
Because of their small sizes, fairyflies may sometimes be mistaken for members of the families Aphelinidae and Trichogrammatidae, but members of these other families can readily be distinguished by having much shorter antennae.
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