Invertebrates in U.S. zoos

Invertebrates are the single best indicator of whether a zoo takes taxonomic breadth seriously. They are cheap to house relative to a mammal and enormously rewarding when exhibited well — a leafcutter ant colony with a visible foraging trail holds a crowd longer than most big cats. The failure mode is treating them as a corridor: a row of small tanks with no interpretation, tucked between the real exhibits. When a collection gives inverts a proper building, proper lighting and proper signage, it usually reflects a wider institutional seriousness that shows up everywhere else too.