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THE STATUS OF RESEARCH ON HYMENOPTERA IN MALAYSIA<br />
Overseas funding agencies are also open avenues for collaboration between local taxonomists<br />
and foreign researchers.<br />
DEPOSITORIES OF COLLECTIONS<br />
Many collections of Hymenoptera are housed in various institutes of higher learning and<br />
museums overseas. The largest collections, with many type specimens, are in the Natural<br />
History Museum (United Kingdom), Oxford University Museum (United Kingdom), National<br />
Museum of Natural History (Leiden, Netherlands), American Institute of Entomology Insect<br />
Collection (Florida, USA) and other museums in Europe, Japan and the USA. The American<br />
Institute of Entomology Insect Collection in Florida has c. 800,000 of ichneumonid specimens.<br />
Museums and insect collection centers that have Malaysian specimens include:<br />
• Bishop Museum, 1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu, HI 69817-0916 USA.<br />
• Deutsches Entomologisches Institut Schicklerstrasse 5D-16225 Eberswalde, Germany.<br />
• Hope Entomological Collections, The University Museum, Parks Road, Oxford OX1<br />
3PW United Kingdom.<br />
• Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Département d’Entomologie, Rue<br />
Vautier 29, B-1000 Bruxelles, Belgique.<br />
• Muséum National d’Histoire, Laboratoire d’Entomologie, 45 rue de Buffon, F-75005<br />
Paris, France.<br />
• Museum Victoria Science Program, GPO BOX 666E, Melbourne, Victoria 3001 Australia.<br />
• National Museum of Natural History, Naturalis, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, The<br />
Netherlands.<br />
• Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Burgring 7, A-1014 Wien, Austria.<br />
• Systematic Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, 060-8589, Japan.<br />
• The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, United Kingdom.<br />
• Universiteit van Amsterdam, Zoölogisch Museum Amsterdam, Afdeling Entomologie,<br />
Plantage Middenlaan 64, 1018 DH Amsterdam, the Netherland.<br />
• Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15 DK-2100<br />
Copenhagen, Denmark.<br />
• Zoologisches Museum an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10115 Berlin,<br />
Invalidenstrae 43, Germany.<br />
• American Institute of Entomology Insect Collection, University of Florida, USA.<br />
CONCLUSION<br />
Hymenopterans are an important component of our national biodiversity heritage, and play a<br />
significant role in maintaining ecological balance in many natural and man-made ecosystems.<br />
Only two Malaysian researchers are currently working on the taxonomic diversity and species<br />
abundance of Hymenoptera in relation to habitat change. The difficulties in getting grants and<br />
reference materials and the lack of job vacancies for students trained in taxonomic research<br />
contribute to the dearth of researchers. Only few institutes have specimen holdings i.e., the<br />
Center for Insect Systematics of UKM, Borneansis Collection (University Malaysia Sabah),<br />
Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) and Sabah Forest Research Center (FRC). It would<br />
be very difficult to develop checklists, revisions or catalogues on Hymenoptera if the basic<br />
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