Discover the world's smallest fly

Dr. Brian Brown from Los Angeles National Museum of History (USA) and scientists from the Thailand Institute of Insect Research have discovered a new fly, named Euryplatea nanaknihali, at the National Park. Kaeng Krachan, Thailand.

Flies of Euryplatea nanaknihali live parasites on an ant species.

'The new fly is very small and you can only see it with the naked eye through a microscope. It is even smaller than ground chili powder. Normal flies will look like giant flies if compared to Euryplatea nanaknihali , the tiny fly , said Dr. Brian Brown, a member of the research team.

The Euryplatea nanaknihali species has a body length of only 0.4mm - less than a fifth of the fruit fly and less than 1 grain of salt. At this size, Euryplatea nanaknihali is considered the smallest fly in the world today. However, they have not broken the record of the world's smallest insects, belonging to a tiny bee with a body length of only 0.14mm.

'This is an incredibly unexpected finding. Because you can hardly imagine a tiny creature that can still have all the parts of the body. This finding is a challenge for others in finding a new, smaller fly , "said Dr. Brian Brown.

Euryplatea nanaknihali is a living fly parasitic on the body of a small ant that is about the size of this fly. First, flies lay eggs in the ant's body. After that, the egg will develop into fly larvae and move to the top of the ant and eat off the 'giant' muscle used to open the mouth of the ant.

Eventually, they will eat up the brain of ants before these fly larvae get out of the sheath and make the ant head separate from the body. Newly born flies will remain in ant heads for 2 weeks, before becoming fully mature flies.