Fairies Are Real?!

Ok, so let me just start off by saying that I hate insects. I love the outdoors, but there is nothing that can creep me out more than a creepy-crawly little bug that gets into your hair and clothes and...well you get the point. Moreover, I HATE bugs that sting you. As if the creepy-crawly factor wasn't enough, now you have to add a pain factor? No. Can't deal with it.

Back to my original point though, apparently scientists have discovered this teensy, tiny little wasp that lives in Costa Rica. It's not even the size of a pencil point. It's only 250 micrometers. To put that in perspective for those of us who are scientifically illiterate, 100 micrometers is the average width of a human hair. It even has a cute name (Tinkerbella nana)--named after, you guessed it, Tinkerbell herself from the Peter Pan stories.

This is what a Tinkerbella fairyfly looks like!

While scientists know that fairyflies exist all over the world, they haven't figured out what exactly the Tinkerbella does. I'm looking forward to finding that out.

I'm sure to all you insect lovers out there, this is a pretty cool discovery. I'm even surprised that we are finding new species. I would have thought that we discovered most if not all of them by now. For me, this is just something else that I would have had to watch out for while enjoying outdoor activities. If it has to be there, I'd rather not be able to see it. 

Article/Photo cred: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/0425/Scientists-discover-ridiculously-small-insect?nav=127-csm_category-topStories