From microbes to giant squid, staff in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology study and archive all of the mostly “little things” that run the world, which are the living non-vertebrate animals. There are approximately 24 million specimens in the division, comprising one-half million species, most of which are terrestrial arthropods. Strengths of the collections reflect current and past research and curators: Arachnids (especially spiders and scorpions), aculeate (sting-bearing) Hymenoptera (including bees, wasps and ants), gall wasps (Cynipoidea), certain Diptera (especially Drosophilidae, Syrphidae, and Tachinidae), Hemiptera, Isoptera (termites) and their symbiotic protists, Macrolepidoptera (particularly of the New World), rove beetles (Staphylinidae), the primitively wingless insects (bristletails and silverfish), marine Mollusca, and fossils in amber. Research centers around field exploration, the collections, and laboratory study using sequences and morphology to examine evolutionary relationships of a spectrum of groups from species to phyla.