There are 91 different families of ants, bees and wasps worldwide, consisting of more than 100 000 species. In Australia 71 of these families occur with close to 15 000 different species present. The Hymenoptera are divided into 2 suborders. Most species are classified into families in the larger Apocrita suborder and only the sawflies in the smaller suborder of Symphyta. Follow the links below to find out more about the different families of ants, bees and wasps. Those in bold represent those families present in Australia.

For ants, bees and wasp species visit the Australian Insect Common Names - Hymenoptera section found here.