SDEI Kustodiat Hymenoptera Sammlung Entomologie Müncheberg
Dr. Andreas Teager looking at an insect box with Sawflies (Hymenoptera: Symphyta) in the insect collection of SDEI Müncheberg.

Senckenberg German Entomological Institute

Hymenoptera Collection

Hymenoptera are one of the four megadiverse insect orders. They are divided into the paraphyletic “Symphyta” with 25 families (11 of which are only fossilised) and the Apocrita 103 (25 of which are fossilised). According to a recent survey (Rassmussen et al., in press), 8358 (and 683 ) genera 152734 (and 2426 ) species are currently known. Many of these forms are represented in the type-rich collection of the Senckenberg German Entomological Institute (SDEI).

Due to the high diversity and limited personnel capacities, research here at the institute is focussed on the suborder of plant wasps (Symphyta). In addition to cataloguing the world fauna of the suborder (Electronic World Catalog of Symphyta: ECatSym), the hymenopterists at the SDEI work on various groups of plant wasps that play an important role in the natural environment and for which there are very few or no other specialists on a global scale. In addition to working on the leaf wasp subfamily Nematinae, which is being funded by the Swedish Taxonomy Initiative (STI) (“The Swedish Nematinae” project), research is focussing on the protoleaf wasps (Xyelidae), the spider wasp family Megalodontesidae and the large leaf wasp genus Tenthredo Linné. Great attention is also paid to the parasitoid Orussidae and invasive species.

The publications of the staff appear in internationally recognised journals or in anthologies dealing with the cataloguing, description, inventory and classification of forms and their phylogenetic reconstruction.

 

Available Material

A biological collection consists of 125 insect drawers.

Groups of HymenoperaInsect DrawersSpeciesSpecimen
Apidae2753.17547.500
Braconidae501.00015.000
Chalcidoidea201.1005.000
Chrysididae202005.500
Cleptidae
Crabronidae
Cynipidae82002.500
Evanoidea und andere 63001.000
Formicidae3880013.500
Ichneumonidae1504.00030.000
Pompilidae223004.000
Proctotrupoidea52001.500
Scolioidea273503.000
Sphecidae707007.000
Symphyta2002.05030.000
Thynnidae4100500
Tiphiidae430500
Vespidae254005.000
indet. (genadelt) 50?20.000
Summe (app.) 90015.000200.000

Catalogues of type specimen