We thank the following people for the loan and/or gift of specimens that we included in the key: David Court (Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research), G.B. Edwards (Florida State Collection of Arthropods), Mike Fitzgerald (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa), Niclas Fritzen (Finland), Grace Hall (New Zealand Arthropod Collection), Wendy Hebron (Queensland Museum), Peter Jaeger (Senckenberg Naturmuseum Frankfurt), John Marris (Lincoln University Entomology Research Museum), Graham Milledge (Australian Museum), Maurice O'Donnell (New Zealand), Robert Raven (Queensland Museum), Matt Shaw (Canterbury Museum), Phil Sirvid (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa), Helen Smith (Australian Museum), Akio Tanikawa (University of Tokyo), Barbara Thaler-Knoflach (University of Innsbruck), Darrell Ubick (California Academy of Sciences), Johan and Koen van Keer (Belgium) and Rick Vetter (University of California, Riverside).

We are especially grateful to Phil Sirvid for his thorough review of the key and his very valuable suggested improvements.

Svetla Marinova and Borris Marinov kindly tested the key as novices. Shaun Bennett, James Haw, Carol Muir and Dave Voice at the Ministry of Primary Industries provided valuable feedback.

Acknowledgements

Introduction
The Hymenoptera, commonly known as ants, bees, wasps and sawflies, comprise a significant proportion of the insect diversity in most terrestrial habitats. This guide contains an interactive key to identify the hymenopteran families present in Australasia and provides information on their morphology, biology, classification and collection.

Morphology
Descriptions and annotated drawings of the morphological terms used throughout the guide and key.

Biology & ecology
Information on the diverse biology and ecology of the group, including parasitism, eusociality, herbivory, beneficial and invasive species and environmental monitoring and conservation.

Families
The families of Hymenoptera that occur in Australasia including images, biologies and defining characters.

Systematics
Current classification, phylogeny and number of described species of Australian and New Zealand Hymenoptera, including introduced taxa.

Collecting
A range of techniques useful for collecting Hymenoptera for taxonomic purposes and ecological studies.

Bibliography
A comprehensive source of published information referenced in the guide.

Acknowledgments
The funding bodies and people that made this project possible.

Thanks to the following people at the Ministry of Primary Industries for their help and encouragement: Shaun Bennett, Qing Hai Fan, Alan Flynn, Sherly George, Olwyn Green, Disna Gunawardana, James Haw, Bede McCarthy, Carol Muir, Therese Oliver, Maurice O'Donnell, Juliet Richmond, Rudi Schnitzler and Dave Voice.

Nadine Duperre (Fundacion Otonga, Ecuador) kindly gave permission to use her illustration of the unplugged genitalia of Theridion melanostictum.

We are grateful to Matthew Walters (University of Canterbury) for his technical advice on Nikon camera software and html files, to Justin Smith (MPI Christchurch) for his advice on Photoshop and to Rudi Schnitzler (MPI Auckland) for his expert tutorials on the use of the Nikon focus stacking stereomicroscope.

We are also grateful to the following people that helped us track down specimens: Ingi Agnarsson, Julia Altmann, Jason Bond, Maria Chatzaki, Wimolwan Chotwong, Li Daiqin, Cody Fraser, Yoshiko Honda, Yuri Marusik, Jeremy Miller, Mustakiza Muslimin, Darcy Oishi, Hirotsugu Ono, Stefan Otto, Booppa Petcharad, I-Min Tso, Mary Whitehouse and Hajime Yoshida.

Acknowledgements

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