Hymathon 2025 was held online 4–5 December.
In 2025, Hymathon ran for 24 hours and 6 minutes, and featured:
- 199 registered participants from 38 countries
- 51 presentations (including 4 keynotes)
- 23 entries in the Art Competition
- 6 Hymenoptera Showdown entries
- 2 Socials
- 1 business meeting
- 0 hours sleep…
Prizes and award winners
15 minutes student presentations:
- Session 1: Anna Behringer – Do parasitoids prefer urban living?-Asking for a leafminer
- Session 2: Hsuan-Pu Chen – The underestimated species diversity of nocturnal Darwin wasp subgenus Bessobates, genus Netelia (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) from Taiwan
- Session 3: No student 15 minute competition talks
- Session 4: Iona Cunningham-Eurich – What can 5 months of intensive sampling by citizen scientists tell us about nocturnal ichneumonids?
5 minutes student presentations:
Kittipum Chansri: Sugar feeding by adult ichneumonoid and stephanoid wasps (Hymenoptera) in dry evergreen forest, Thailand
Chalcidoidea presentations:
Emma Kärrnäs: Phylogenomics of Tetrastichinae (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) demonstrate a need for a revision of genera
Showdown Winner:
Mutilidae! Represented by Juanita Rodriguez
Art Competition Winners:
- Photography – Live Hymenoptera:
Congregation
The males of Torymus vesiculi gathered around a hackberry leaf gall, all focused on its center. They were waiting for a female to emerge, waving their antennae in anticipation. Photograph was taken in Ontario, with Olympus OM-1 Mark II and Lawoa 50mm.
Jeong Jae Yoo
- Photography – Hymenopterists in action
A sunny day after typhoon passed
Christophe Barthélémy on a field day in Sha Lo Tung village, Hong Kong, 27.07.2025. Camera OM-System OM1
Alexey Reshchikov
- Illustration – Scientific illustrations
Abejas Nativas de Norte América
Digital drawing, to be distributed and used in educational settings
Kiko Kómiks
- Illustration – Fun & Artsy Hymenoptera
Pointless
Maura Haas-Renninger
| Session 1 | 04/12/2025 started at 17:00 UTC | Hosted by Jess Awad |
| Session 2 | 05/12/2025 started at 00:00 UTC | Hosted by Luke Kresslein and Miles Zhang |
| Session 3 | 05/12/2025 started at 06:50 UTC | Hosted by Alana McClelland |
| Session 4 | 05/12/2025 started at 13:00 UTC | Hosted by Zoltán László and Emma Kärrnäs |
The 2025 ISH Business Meeting was held during Hymathon on 5 December at 08:25 UTC. Members can find the link to the business meeting here.
Program
Download the pdf program here:
We have also provided the Hymathon Google calendar, which should convert session times to your local timezone (but it is a good idea to always double check the conversion is correct from UTC, which is provided on the pdf program)
Scientific talks
All ISH members are invited to present during #Hymathon2025, and we particularly encourage students, early career members and researchers from a diverse range of countries to present.
We welcome presentations on all aspects of Hymenoptera: behaviour, biology, systematics,
biological control, evolution and more! We invite both regular talks (15 minutes including questions) and short talks (5 minutes): the latter could cover any topic of interest to hymenopterists including field trip stories, amazing specimens, new methods for field, lab or collection work etc.
Presenters are limited to one talk (either 5 or 15 minutes) per person, plus are welcome to also participate in The Hymenoptera Showdown and art competition.
Note that while Hymathon is a live event we can accommodate a few pre-recorded talks if needed (e.g. due to internet bandwidth issues) – please get in touch to discuss this if you are not able to give a live presentation.
To register a talk, complete the form below (note you will need to be logged into the website and a financial member to register a talk)
Scientific talk registration is now closed.
Keynote talks
Session 1: Amelia Lindsey
Session 2: Andrew Forbes
Session 3: Seirian Sumner
Session 4: Jean-Yves Rasplus
Hymenoptera Showdown
Refereed in 2025 by Erinn Fagan-Jeffries
Back for the third year running, the Hymenoptera Showdown is back in 2025! The showdown is an opportunity to tell all ISH members why your group is the best (or at least the best loved…) – in three minutes and three slides.
GET READY TO RUMBLE!!
Do you think that your study group is the best in the entire Hymenoptera order? Is there one taxon so amazing you want to tell everyone about it? Then it is your time to shine and embrace some friendly showdown!
Here are the rules:
Participants will have 3 minutes to demonstrate why their group is the best in the entire Hymenoptera, backing up that assertion with a mix of fun, cool and scientific facts. Anything can be used: beautiful images of specimens, amazing biological traits, astonishing species diversity, a unique distribution, body size, fossil record, cool names, importance, society recognition… the sky is the limit to brag about your group!
Taxa can be chosen at any level (from suborder to species); depending on the number of participants some categories may be established, for example, entries at family level or higher versus entries at genus level or lower, to guarantee fair comparisons and competition.
The winners will be selected by popular vote and will win glory to boast about their group to the entire Hymenoptera society!
The history of the showdown, an animation made by Natalie Dale-Skey:
*Includes elements generated with AI
Art competition
All ISH members are invited to take part!
In this year’s hymathon we bring the Art Competition back with five exciting categories for Photography & Illustrations. This competition welcomes both photographs and illustrations that reflect the beauty and complexity of Hymenoptera (and Hymenopterists!). Submit your work and share your unique vision as we celebrate the role these creatures play in the ecosystem.
The competition is open to current ISH members only and is judged by Hymathon attendants through online voting. The winning entries will be featured in the next issue of Hamuli. Submissions are now closed.
For questions and additional info, do not hesitate to contact me at cristina.vasilita@smns-bw.de.
Images can be entered in the following categories:
• Photography – Specimen :Specimen images of Hymenoptera.
• Photography – Live Hymenoptera :Live Hymenoptera images photographed in the field or in the indoor studio.
• Photography – Hymenopterists in action :Field work pictures, humorous or intriguing pictures of hymenopterists at work.
• Illustration – Scientific illustrations: Detailed and accurate drawings that represent the morphology and anatomy of Hymenoptera. These illustrations should be designed to provide a clear understanding of the species, highlighting specific features that may be of scientific interest, and can be used in research papers, taxonomic keys, or educational materials.
• Illustration – Fun & Artsy Hymenoptera/Hymenopterists: Creative and imaginative artworks that showcase Hymenoptera or Hymenopterists in a playful, artistic, or unconventional manner. These can be abstract interpretations, cartoons, or any other artistic renditions that bring out the fun and whimsical side of Hymenoptera and their researchers.
Student presentation prizes
There are student prizes for best standard-length talk in each session, and a prize for the best speed talk throughout all of Hymathon. Students are judged on scientific content and presentation. See here for the scorecard used for the 15 minute talks and here for the scorecard used for 5 minute talks.
We also have some exciting news for students of chalcidology: Drs. John Heraty and James Woolley have generously donated a free physical copy of the new Chalcidoidea of the World book to be awarded to the best student presentation on Chalcidoidea at Hymathon this year! It’s an excellent (and rather expensive) book—so why not give it your best shot to win one?
For those not working on chalcidoids, you have two options:
- Switch gears immediately, dive into chalcidoid research, and prepare a last-minute talk
- Simply purchase the book here
Hymathon Social Events
Join us for the Hymathon social events! Any relevant instructions or links will be posted here during Hymathon.
Session 1:
Join us for part one of the Hymathon quiz! Held over Kahoot, the quiz will span two social time slots – who will rein champion at the end of Hymathon?
We’ll also play a round of zoom Pictionary using the zoom whiteboard tool – do you think you could draw a Megastigmatidae in 30 seconds and have hymenopterists recognise what family it is? What about a sweep net? Two teams, four rounds – who will be victorious?
Session 2:
How well do you know other members of ISH? In this social we’ll use quick zoom polls to allow people to find connections with others working in similar fields, geographic areas, or perhaps with the same coloured shirt!
We’ll also do another round of the Hymathon quiz!
Session 3:
There will be no social in Session 3 – instead attend the ISH business meeting!
Session 4:
There will be no structured social in Session 4, as having been awake for 24 hours, it’s now time for a rest! Feel free to stay and chat in the zoom meeting with colleagues.
#Hymathon2025 Organising Committee