History
The family Mymaridae was first established in 1833 by the Irish entomologist Alexander Henry Haliday. Haliday and two close friends and respected entomologists in their own right, John Curtis and Francis Walker, were influential in the early studies on Hymenoptera in the 19th century.
Haliday originally described fairyflies as the tribe "Mymares" of the family "Chalcides". He based his descriptions on the type genus Mymar, described by Curtis in 1829.
Earlier attempts of classification by Walker treated the group as a genus, and classified all other known fairyflies under it as subgenera. Walker (who was infamous for his shortcomings in systematic nomenclature) later conceded to Haliday's classification in a letter in 1839 and requested assistance from Haliday in classifying the chalcid wasps collected by Charles Darwin on his voyage on the HMS Beagle. "Mymares", as well as other "tribes" were elevated to the family rank (as Mymaridae) by Haliday in 1839.
Haliday described fairyflies as "the very atoms of the order Hymenoptera" and remarked on the beauty of their wings when viewed under the microscope. These characteristics of fairyflies also made them popular to entomologists and microscopists of the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The beautifully mounted fairyfly specimens of the early 20th century English microscopist Fred Enock is possibly the most famous of the collections.
Read more about this topic: Fairyfly
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