Department of Invertebrate Zoology

A drawing by Giesbrecht (1892) of the Copepoda, Sapphirina auronitens Claus, 1863

image of the global diversity of the National Invertebrate Collections

Global diversity of the National Invertebrate Collections
(red dots indicate localities of IZ collections)

The Department of Invertebrate Zoology (IZ) is one of the oldest scientific units in the Smithsonian Institution. It was established in 1856 to house invertebrates collected from the U.S. North Pacific Exploring Expedition. Current holdings are approximately 35 million specimens in over 15 linear miles of storage. More than 40% of these specimens have computer records that can be queried at the IZ collections database. Brachiopoda and Foraminifera are managed by the Department of Paleobiology; the Insecta, Myriapoda, and non-marine Chelicerata are managed by the Department of Entomology; and parasitic worms (Acanthocephala, Cestoda, Monogenea, parasitic Nematoda, and Trematoda) are managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Queries about accessing our collection should be made through izcollections@si.edu.