The featherwing beetles (Ptiliidae) is a family of very tiny beetles with a cosmopolitan distribution. This family contains the smallest of all beetles, with a length when fully grown of 0.34.0 millimetres. They are colloquially called featherwing beetles, because the hindwings are narrow and feathery. Around 600 species have been described worldwide, thereof 87 species in 87 genera in Europe. Both beetles and larvae live in rotten wood and decaying plant matter. They are mycetophagous and feed on spores, mainly of mould, but also of higher fungi.