Indian Genera of Mymaridae

Fairyflies (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Mymaridae) are economically important as egg parasitoids, mainly of Hemiptera and also other insects. This site features an interactive key and fact sheets to the known Indian genera of Mymaridae. The LucID Phoenix interactive key is dichotomous and illustrated to facilitate easy identification. For all the genera, fact sheets with information on nomenclatural details, diagnostic characters, hosts / biology, known distribution in India, list of Indian species, and distribution maps are given along with illustrations of habitus and other diagnostic characters.

The key is meant for identification of females though characters of males in some cases are given in the accompanying fact sheets. Due to the very small to minute size of most of the mymarids and similarities between some genera, even if you come up with a positive identification for your specimen using this key, it is always advisable to match it further with the complete fact sheet given and also an authentically identified reference specimen for confirmation. Kindly ensure Java Virtual Machine is installed in your computer for viewing the key.