Scientist Discovers The World's Smallest Free-Living Insect

A Russian scientist says hes discovered the worlds smallest free-living insect -- and the critter sure is tiny.Alexey Polilov, a professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University, gave the title toScydosella musawasensis, or the featherwing beetle, after studying the creature using specialized software and digital micrographs.Polilov determined that the minuscule bug measures just 0.325 millimeters (or approximately 0.013 inches) in length. To compare, that's about one-sixth the size of the very small Pharaoh ant.As Discovery.com notes, there are insects in the world that are even smaller than the featherwing beetle, but they are parasitic (in other words, they rely on its host to survive).The title of worlds smallest insect is currently held by Dicopomorpha echmepterygis, a kind of fairyfly measuring about 0.139 millimeters. Fairyflies are parasitoids of the eggs of other insects.The featherwing beetle, on the other hand, is a "free-living" insect, in that it lives independently. According to Nature World News, the beetle generally inhabits "areas with ample amounts of leaf-litter, decaying logs, compost heaps, tree holes, decaying fungi, animal dung or other organic matter."The teenyinsect is yellowish-brown and has an elongated oval body and a 10-segmented antennae. It was reportedly first found in Nicaragua in 1999, but scientists have been unable to get precise measurements of the creature till now.The findingwas published in thethe open access journal ZooKeyson October 8.'Also on HuffPost: (function(){var src_url="https://spshared.5min.com/Scripts/PlayerSeed.js'playList=519115980&height=&width=100&sid=577&origin=SOLR&videoGroupID=155847&relatedNumOfResults=100&responsive=true&ratio=wide&align=center&relatedMode=2&relatedBottomHeight=60&companionPos=&hasCompanion=false&autoStart=false&colorPallet=%23FFEB00&videoControlDisplayColor=%23191919&shuffle=0&isAP=1&pgType=cmsPlugin&pgTypeId=addToPost-top&onVideoDataLoaded=track5min.DL&onTimeUpdate=track5min.TC&onVideoDataLoaded=HPTrack.Vid.DL&onTimeUpdate=HPTrack.Vid.TC";if (typeof(commercial_video) == "object") {src_url += "&siteSection="+commercial_video.site_and_category;if (commercial_video.package) {src_url += "&sponsorship="+commercial_video.package;}}var script = document.createElement("script");script.src = src_url;script.async = true;var placeholder = document.querySelector(".js-fivemin-script");placeholder.parentElement.replaceChild(script, placeholder);})(); -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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