Insects, Arachnids and Myriapods

The Division of Insects covers insects, arachnids (spiders and their relatives), and myriapods (millipedes, centipedes and their relatives). Our curators and collection management staff work together closely to maintain a world-class collection of more than 12 million  specimens, over half the Museum's holdings.

The curators have active research programs, working with specimens from around the world, and actively build and curate collections, train graduate and undergraduate students, develop exhibits and other public programs, and serve the diverse needs of the public and scientific communities. Members of the professional staff build, maintain, and improve the collections and associated collection database and participate actively in exhibit development, public programs, and other outreach activities. Volunteers in Insects help with many aspects of collection management and research, including sorting new samples and identifying specimens; entering specimen or loan data into our database; organizing and caring for parts of the collection, and photographing specimens.

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