The Hymenoptera are one of the largest and strongest parts of the collection. Some of the past and present members of the department involved with Hymenoptera collections are J.C. Bradley, V.S.L. Pate, C.R. Crosby, A.D. MacGillivray, C.F.W. Muesebeck, H.K. Townes, H.E. Evans, W.L. Brown, Jr., G.C. Eickwort, R.A. Morse, W.W. Middlekauff, K.V. Krombein, and others. Hymenoptera represent about 17% of total drawers in the collection, and include 1350 drawers
(12.5% of total). The collection has over 2000 species represented by types (Search Types). The families with greatest strength are Tenthredinidae (39 drawers), Braconidae (36 dr.), Ichneumonidae (106 dr.), Cynipidae (37 dr.), Mutillidae (31 dr.), Scoliidae (80 dr.), Vespidae (92 dr.), Pompilidae (87 dr.), Sphecidae (114 dr.), Halictidae (51 dr.), Andrenidae (37 dr.), Megachilidae (20 dr.), Anthophoridae (39 dr.), and Apidae (52 dr.).

An early and extensivecollection of Cynipid galls (stored in large paper folders and envelopes with biological data and notes) was compiled by S.H. Burnham and is now incorporated into the Cornell collection; we alsohave many types of Cynipidae from work by J.J. Kieffer. African Scoliidae (especially Campsomerinae) are very strong, due principally to work by J.C. Bradley and J.G. Betrem. We have strong collections of wasp and bee larvae, and a collection of wasp prey (of Pompilidae and Sphecidae) made by Prof. H.E. Evans and F. Kurzcewski. Thanks to the efforts of George Eickwort and Roger Morse, the Apoidea collection contains the largest collection of bees from northeastern North America in the world, and overall ranks about third in the U.S. university bee collections.