All specimens used for this study are deposited in the collections of the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, University of Guelph (BIO), or the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Ottawa (CNC). They represent dozens of collecting events and different research projects carried out by those institutions. Most of the specimens rendered partial or full DNA barcodes (information can be retrieved using the following public DOI: https://doi.org/10.5883/DS-NEAMICRO), and many have associated sequences, images and/or data from their labels in collections (Suppl. materials 1, 2, 3, 4).

We selected a sample of 630 specimens of parasitoid wasps, representing ten species and five genera of Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from the Nearctic region (Canada and the United States). The identity of the species was confirmed by JFT against authenticated material deposited in the CNC.

We downloaded the “Data Spreadsheet” associated with those records, including the worksheets “Collection Data” and “Specimens Details” (for a detailed explanation consult the “BOLD Print Handbook for BOLD v3”, freely available online at http://www.boldsystems.org/libhtml_v3/static/BOLD_Handbook_Oct2013.pdf).

The Excel file downloaded from BOLD (Suppl. material 1) was then adapted to the template provided by BDJ (a DarwinCore Compliant Excel file). Fields that were of interest for this study (e.g., locality data, collecting date, collectors, institution storing the specimens) were pasted to the corresponding columns in the BDJ template (Suppl. material 2), and from there directly imported into the Pensoft Writing Tool (the tool used to produce manuscripts for consequent submission to the BDJ). The information was uploaded as part of “Materials” for every individual species included in this study.

We compared the known distributions of the species (using mostly Fernandez-Triana 2010, Fernandez-Triana et al. 2014, Whitfield 2006, Yu et al. 2012, Fernández-Triana and Huber 2010) against the information stored in BOLD. In doing so, a significant number of new records (of locality, provinces, territories and states) were uncovered, which are detailed and discussed for every individual species under the section “Notes”. The distribution records of the specimens involved in this study (Suppl. material 5) were mapped using SimpleMappr (http://www.simplemappr.net).

The ten species analyzed here represented 13 Barcode Index Numbers (BINS), sensu Ratnasingham and Hebert (2013). In three cases, single names were found to contain multiple clusters of COI variation (Suppl. materials 4, 5). Since such variation has often been ascribed to cryptic or hidden species we examine each case under the section "Notes" for those particular species.

A few specimens discussed in this paper did not render any DNA and thus do not have any associated sequence in BOLD. However, their ancillary data (e.g., collecting date, locality, etc.) was still available and thus is presented below.

When discussing the distribution of species, states of the United States and provinces/territories of Canada are abbreviated with acronyms consisting of two capital letters, following Canada Post standards (http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGaddress-e.asp).