Australia was historically considered a poor prospect for subterranean fauna but, in reality, the continent holds a great variety of subterranean habitats, with associated faunas, found both in karst and non-karst environments. This paper critically examines the diversity of subterranean fauna in several key regions for the mostly arid western half of Australia. We aimed to document levels of species richness for major taxon groups and examine the degree of uniqueness of the fauna. We also wanted to compare the composition of these ecosystems, and their origins, with other regions of subterranean diversity world-wide. Using information on the number of ‘described’ and ‘known’ invertebrate species (recognised based on morphological and/or molecular data), we predict that the total subterranean fauna for the western half of the continent is 4140 species, of which ~10% is described and 9% is ‘known’ but not yet described. The stygofauna, water beetles, ostracods and copepods have the largest number of described species, while arachnids dominate the described troglofauna. Conversely, copepods, water beetles and isopods are the poorest known groups with less than 20% described species, while hexapods (comprising mostly Collembola, Coleoptera, Blattodea and Hemiptera) are the least known of the troglofauna. Compared with other regions of the world, we consider the Australian subterranean fauna to be unique in its diversity compared with the northern hemisphere for three key reasons: the range and diversity of subterranean habitats is both extensive and novel; direct faunal links to ancient Pangaea and Gondwana are evident, emphasising their early biogeographic history; and Miocene aridification, rather than Pleistocene post-ice age driven diversification events (as is predicted in the northern hemisphere), are likely to have dominated Australia’s subterranean speciation explosion. Finally, we predict that the geologically younger, although more poorly studied, eastern half of the Australian continent is unlikely to be as diverse as the western half, except for stygofauna in porous media. Furthermore, based on similar geology, palaeogeography and tectonic history to that seen in the western parts of Australia, southern Africa, parts of South America and India may also yield similar subterranean biodiversity to that described here.

Microgastrinae is a megadiverse subfamily of wasps in the family Braconidae. As parasitoids of caterpillars, members of the subfamily play important roles in regulating native caterpillar populations, and several species are used commercially as biological control agents. The genus Apanteles comprises a large portion of total microgastrine diversity, however it has not been studied in Australia for more than 30 years, with only nine described species previously known from the continent. We explore the diversity and systematics of Apanteles in Australia, using cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and Wingless (wg) DNA barcodes from more than 400 Australian Apanteles specimens. Using molecular species delimitation in combination with reduced morphological diagnoses, at least 48 distinct molecular lineages of Apanteles are confirmed in Australia, and 34 new species are formally described, all authored by Slater-Baker, Fagan-Jeffries, Fernández-Triana, Portmann & Oestmann: A. adustus, A. aeternus, A. alatomicans, A. allapsus, A. amicalis, A. apollo, A. apricus, A. artemis, A. aurantius, A. auroralis, A. banrock, A. breviflagellarius, A. brockhedgesi, A. cuprum, A. darthvaderi, A. doreenwatlerae, A. ethanbeaveri, A. fenestrinus, A. ferripulvis, A. focusalis, A. hades, A. insulanus, A. kelpiellus, A. lamingtonensis, A. ligdus, A. magicus, A. margaritarius, A. pellucidus, A. phantasmatus, A. pharusalis, A. ramsaris, A. rufiterra, A. sinusulus, and A. translucentis.