Micro-discoveries with micro-wasp researcher Keith Martin-Smith

Keith Martin-Smith in the QVMAG Natural Sciences department. Photo: QVMAG.

In February 2026, QVMAG welcomed visiting researcher Keith Martin-Smith to the Natural Sciences department at the Art Gallery at Royal Park, where he spent time exploring our micro-wasp collection – uncovering the incredible diversity hidden within.

Keith's diverse career has seen him move from training as a marine biologist studying seahorses and sea dragons, to working for the Antarctic Division on deep marine conservation, and later as a high school teacher. His desire to upskill to better instruct his students led him to documenting Tasmania’s remarkably rich (and often overlooked) wasp fauna.

"Wasps have always been a bit neglected compared to some other groups, because they're quite difficult to identify," Keith explained.

"A lot of them are really small species – less than 5 mm in length. There's probably more wasps in the world than anything else, but everybody always thinks beetles are the most diverse group.

"However, there's quite a lot of evidence and modelling that suggests that actually there are more wasps than beetles. It's just that we haven't looked for them and discovered and named them all, because most of them are parasitic, or parasitoids.

"These ones are probably parasitising beetle larvae in dead wood. They use their antennae to feel for vibrations, and they've got these long, long, ovipositors that they can stick into a hole in the wood, and then they'll lay an egg onto the beetle larva.

"It's like one of those horrible alien things. They develop inside and burst out at some point. And with many species of wasp, they're only going to be parasitoids on one or two groups of insects, a fairly narrow range.

"And so when you multiply all of that up – for every beetle, cricket, bug, and every other insect that has them, there's probably at least one wasp as a parasitoid. There may be some overlap – but when you do the modelling, there's very few scenarios under which there'd be more beetles than wasps in the world."

Micro-wasp specimens from the QVMAG Collection. Photo: QVMAG.

Working closely with the collection, Keith has been identifying specimens, flagging potential new records for Tasmania, and helping build a clearer picture of these tiny but vital insects. By opening our collections to visiting researchers, QVMAG supports new discoveries, strengthens scientific collaboration, and ensures these specimens continue to contribute to global knowledge.

"There's an education side of things – where you're showing bugs to the public, and when I talk about wasps, a lot of the time people immediately think just about the two types of European wasps that are introduced – and are obviously a pest, and sting people and get into picnics and so on.

"But they don't realise that there's another 1,190 species that they never even interact with most of the time – a lot of which are important for the biological control of pests in eucalypt plantations, things like that."

Some may only be active for a few weeks each year – making museum collections like ours essential for understanding their existence over time. Specimens collected decades ago can reveal patterns of change, distribution, and biodiversity that would otherwise remain invisible.

"There was something I found yesterday. It's a family of wasps that only seem to fly for two or three weeks a year. That's a very short flying window, a bit like some butterflies that only fly through mating season.

"This particular family of wasps seems to only do it in January. There were one or two specimens of a genus that I've seen photographed in Hobart. This is a different species, and I'll have to check, but I think it's a new record for Tasmania."

Keith Martin-Smith inspects wasp specimens from the QVMAG collection. Photo: QVMAG.

Once identified, these specimens and their data can be shared through national and international platforms such as biodiversity databases – helping researchers track species distributions, monitor environmental change, and build a more complete picture of life in Tasmania and beyond.

Despite their size, micro-wasps play a big role in ecosystems, often acting as natural pest controllers and forming part of a much larger, complex web of biodiversity.

As Keith puts it, it’s often about curiosity: a chance to look closer, ask questions, and uncover what’s been there all along.

QVMAG is proud to support research such as Keith's – connecting collections, curiosity, and discovery to help deepen our understanding of the often-overlooked parts of the natural world.