Invertebrates include the vast majority of animal diversity - from bees, beetles and spiders to jellyfish, coral and giant squid - and are of almost unquantifiable ecological and economic importance. Many of them do our hard work, e.g. pollinating, decomposing, nutrient cycling, reef-building, and others undo our hard work, e.g. locust plagues and invasive species, but irrespective, they receive a small fraction of government and industry resourcing and media attention relative to vertebrates. Invertebrates Australia was founded in September 2021 by three scientists who identified a critical mismatch between the way invertebrates are seen, as one large group of cryptic creepy crawlies, and the way they truly are, hundreds of mega-diverse groups. This mismatch has far-reaching consequences and contributes to the lack of data and knowledge so by creating a group that can represent all invertebrates we hope to make a big positive impact on ecological and economic outcomes in biodiversity management.
