Our Mission

InvertNet is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections (ADBC) program to provide unprecedented access to specimen images and data from invertebrate collections.

What is InvertNet?

This website is designed as a platform for research and education on the biodiversity of invertebrate animals, initially focusing on terrestrial and freshwater aquatic arthropods (insects and related groups).  By allowing users to find and view detailed images of specimens of particular species and their associated data labels, InvertNet will provide universal access to collections previously restricted to researchers. This will facilitate and support many aspects of biological research and education, including species discovery and identification, pest management, ecology, biogeography, and conservation.  InvertNet will also serve as a model, applicable to other kinds of biological collections, for the use of efficient, computer-assisted procedures to increase the speed and accuracy of collection data capture.

Phase I of InvertNet (2011 – 2014) focuses on digitizing and providing universal access to the holdings of 22 collections in the midwestern USA (~ 55 million specimens).  Our infrastructure is designed so that it may eventually be scaled up to cover all invertebrate animal collections worldwide.

Join Us

Take a tour of our web site and see how you can use our infrastructure to further your own research and educational activities. Create your own account. It's free and will give you access to our online virtual museum and to data management and analytical tools as they become available. Become a contributor by uploading your own digital collection data, data management tools, and presentations. Join a group and participate in discussions on issues related to invertebrate collection management, biodiversity, conservation. Ask a question in our community forum, and let the community help you out.