The Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle holds one of the world’s major collections of Hymenoptera, the insect order that includes bees, wasps, ants, and sawflies, among the most diverse groups of animals on Earth, with more than 120,000 described species. As curator, I oversee its day-to-day management, growth, and use by the research community.
The collection comprises close to a million specimens, including around 6,000 type specimens, some dating back to the founding work of Fabricius and Latreille. Most are pinned and dry-preserved, with a smaller portion kept in alcohol (mainly ants) or mounted on microscope slides. Coverage spans bees and sphecid wasps, vespid wasps, ants, cuckoo wasps, parasitoid wasps (Ichneumonoidea and Chalcidoidea), sawflies, and around thirty historic named collections assembled by past entomologists. The Palearctic and Afrotropical regions, notably Madagascar, are especially well represented.
Among its historical holdings, the collection also includes Houard’s gall collection, an extensive assemblage documenting plant galls induced by insects, alongside more than 2,000 insect nests, most built by social wasps.
Each year, around a thousand specimens are loaned to researchers worldwide, and several thousand new specimens are added, largely through European and tropical fieldwork and biodiversity inventories.
Learn more on the MNHN website.
Browse digitized and databased specimens through the Muséum’s online collections portal: Search the Hymenoptera catalogue
Request a loan, specimen sampling, photograph, or visit through the Muséum’s MUSE platform: Submit a request via MUSE
The collection regularly welcomes volunteers to help with curation, digitization, and collection management. If you’re interested, please get in touch.