The Society for Insect Studies is a non-profit organisation which meets at the Australian Museum, Sydney Australia, and consists of members dedicated to the promotion of the study of insects and related forms.

Membership is open to all people interested in insects and closely related subjects. Society members have a wide range of interests - some are involved professionally in diverse fields of entomology, are keen naturalists, photographers, educators, collectors, ecologists and environmentalists.

Membership of the Society for Insect Studies is by application and nomination by a member.

Michael Batley will speak on Australian Bee Families.

The World's bees are traditionally divided into seven families, five of which are represented in the Australian fauna. The differences in the characteristics and behaviour of each of the Australian families will be illustrated. While many species forage from a range of flowers, other species are more specialised. Specialists, however, are not distributed uniformly between the families and hints at possible reasons are emerging from recent studies.

Michael Batley is a research associate in Entomology at the Australian Museum where he helps curate the bee collection, dabbles in bee taxonomy and likes to spread the word about our fascinating native bee fauna.