About eighty percent of all multicellular animals are arthropods and the vast majority of these organisms are insects. In terms of their abundance and diversity, they dominate terrestrial ecosystems. There are about 200,000 species of insect in the Australian fauna and these organisms play a critical role in maintaining the function of our ecosystems. Understanding the identity of these organisms, their interrelationships, what they do and how they do it are critical questions for our studies in biodiversity.
Most insects are innocuous and even beneficial.
Others are pests of humans and their activities. These include the use of classical biological control methods for arthropod pests and weeds, the development of novel biopesticides, the management of resistance to transgenic plants and pesticides, the use of physical control methods, the development of insect resistant plants and the use of attractants and repellents. In chemical control, still the mainstay in many commercial and domestic situations, the emphasis is on very targeted application in reduced quantities. In addition, research in the Division aims to document the fauna and to understand its role in major processes in Australian ecosystems. Other research focuses on the use of invertebrates as sensitive indicators of environmental degradation, the use of terrestrial arthropods as sources of novel compounds with pharmaceutical activity, the development of informatic tools and the development of technologies to remediate contaminants in the environment.