Ampulex compressa, cockroach-hunting wasps © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
The Museum houses one of the largest collections of Hymenoptera in the world.
The collection is of global cultural, scientific and historic significance and comprises of approximately 3.5 million specimens in 11,000 drawers of dry pinned specimens, 25,000 microscope slides, a substantial collection in spirit and more than 1,000 nests.
The collection is rich in type material and continues to develop through world-class research, global collaborations, acquisitions and curatorial projects.
Specimens
3,500,000
Type specimens
28,000
Kinds of specimen
- Dry pinned
- Slide-mounted
- Papered (dried insects in paper packets)
- Preserved in fluid, including larvae and galls
- Nests
Strengths
The geographical and chronological range coupled with the size of this collection makes it one of the most comprehensive research resources in the world.
The collection has particular strengths in the Apoidea, Chalcidoidea, Formicidae, Ichneumonidae and Symphyta thanks to many years of expertise by ex-staff members, I.H.H. Yarrow, G.R. Else, J.S. Noyes, B. Bolton, I. Gauld and R.E. Benson respectively.
Country of origin
The collection holds specimens from around the globe, with areas of particularly good representation from Australia, Brazil, Brunei, Costa Rica, Europe including the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Africa.
Looking for a specimen?
The hymenoptera collection is being digitised
The Hymenoptera Team
Senior Curator in Charge
Principle Curator (and in overall charge of insect collections)
Curator
Dr Joseph Monks
Associated Researchers
Scientific Associates
Dr John Noyes
Dr Christer Hansson
The collection
A drawer of specimens from the Hymenoptera collection.
Accessing the collections
Scientists and collections management specialists can visit the collections and borrow specimens for research.
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Major collections
Frederick Smith (1805-1879)
Francis Walker (1809-1874)
Edward Saunders (1848-1910)
Rowland Turner (1863-1945)
Charles N. Rothschild (1877-1923)
Friedrich (Fritz) Plaumann (1902-1994)
John F. Perkins (1910-1983)
Fred Bennett
Kenneth Mackinnon Guichard (1914-2002)
Marcus William Robert de Vere Graham (1915-1995)
Karl-Johan Hedqvist (1917-2009)
Zdenek Bouček (1924-2011)
Ian Gauld (1947-2009)
Antoni Ribes Escolà (1968-2014)
Martin Cooper
Read more
- Natural History Museum Data Portal
- Checklist of British & Irish Hymenoptera
- NHM Hymenoptera Flickr page
- NHM Bombus site with a global checklist
- Nocturnal Ichneumonoidea of the British Isles (still in development):
- Universal Chalcidoidea Database
- The Cooper collection
- Read more about the Cooper collection
Taxa represented in the Hymenoptera collection
Ichneumonid specimen © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
Current projects
Current digitisation projects include recently acquired collections, historic specimens and primary types:
- Taxonomic revision of the bumblebees of Asia.
- Bumblebees of North America.
- Interactive key to bee genera of the Middle East.
- Revision of Megaphragma species of the world, among the smallest known insects (with Universities of Naples, Moscow and Iasi (Bulgaria).
- Phylogeny of Coccophaginae (Hym.: Chalcidoidea: Aphelinidae) (with Univ. California, Riverside).
- Encyrtidae of Costa Rica.
The beautiful fairy fly, one of the smallest winged insects © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
Insect division
Our scientists are conserving the Museum's vast insect collection, collecting and identifying new species and utilizing the collections for cutting edge entomological research.
Collections management
Our duty is to provide a safe and secure environment for all of our collections.