VII News
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News from the Virginia Institute for Invertebrates, free, by email. Hear about our work monitoring, witnessing, and conserving Virginia’s invertebrates.
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VII wins big grant to create Spineless Cave Preserve
New preserve will protect rare and unique invertebrate animals, and keep their mountain home forested forever. Blacksburg, VA – March 21, 2026 Virginia Institute for Invertebrates (VII), a newly founded scientific organization dedicated to revealing and preserving the hidden biodiversity of animals that lack backbones, today announced that it would receive a $700,000 grant from… Read more
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The 2025 Shirt Sale Has Begun!
Sorry, the 2025 shirt sale is now closed. Thanks to all of our supporters for making it a success! It’s time for the Virginia Institute for Invertebrates Year-End Fundraiser, featuring fantastic new shirt designs based on a fresh new image by Richmond artist, Marisa Payne! You can help support our mission by claiming a custom… Read more
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Come see us at Hokie BugFest!
Stop by the VII table at BugFest to pick up some swag, play games, see soil invertebrates, and learn about our efforts in Virginia! Read more
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Conserving Virginia’s Invertebrate Heritage
Ben Jantzen had the opportunity to share some thoughts with the public about Virginia’s extraordinary invertebrate heritage in the Lunch and Learn series put on by Sustainable Blacksburg: Read more
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Habitat Connectivity for the Spineless
Our friends at Wild Virginia invited us to speak in their excellent speaker series. Be sure to check out other videos in the series after watching our presentation! Read more
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Representing VII at ESA
Research on the correct interpretation of insect decline data by a team of researchers from Virginia Tech, the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, and the Virginia Institute for Invertebrates was presented at the 2025 Ecological Society of America in Baltimore. You can find the abstract here. Read more
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Sharing research in Georgia
Research on insect decline by one of our board members was presented at the 2025 Joint Annual Meeting of the Georgia Entomological Society and the South Carolina Entomological Society in Young Harris, GA. You can find Dr. Jantzen’s presentation slides here: Aside from introducing the Institute to two regional entomology associates, Dr. Jantzen won a… Read more
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You made our fundraiser a success!
Our first fundraiser is over, and it was a great success! Thank you to all of our supporters. Your generosity allowed us to meet our first funding goal and then some. Keep an eye out this year’s shirt sale to get a brand new Virginia Institute for Invertebrates design! Read more
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Buy a shirt and help the invertebrates!
(Sorry, the 2024 fundraiser is now closed.) Our first fundraiser is taking place now! You can help support our mission by claiming a custom shirt emblazoned with one-of-a-kind artwork by Neda Jantzen. Just click the images or link below. https://www.customink.com/fundraising/virginiainvertebrates By purchasing a shirt, you’re helping our volunteers establish monitoring stations, acquire conservation land and… Read more
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New River Symposium 2024
We were grateful for the opportunity to introduce the Virginia Institute for Invertebrates to the New River Valley community of nonprofits, volunteers, and supporters at the 2024 New River Symposium. Here’s our poster from the event: Read more