According to the available documents, European entomologists including Russians were among the first who explored the Iranian insect fauna and developed small collections of Iranian specimens, which are partly deposited in the museums of Saint Petersburg, Paris and London. In the middle of 20^th century, the first Iranian entomologist Jalal Afshar, who had finished his education in Russia, returned to Iran to start teaching and conducting research on Entomology and Zoology. In 1943 he established a small office (Local Pest Identification and Control Office) affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture in  Tehran. This office served as a foundation for the experts who were interested to carry out investigations on the insects of Iran. Soon after, the Russian entomologists such as Drs. Alexandrov, Chuvakhin and Kiriukhin began their cooperation to train the Iranian entomologists. In 1945, a small group of newly graduated students, including Ghodratollah Farahbakhsh and Hayk Mirzayans, joined the lab. They had actually been supervised by Dr. Afshar during their education at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tehran, in Karaj and became the very well-known scientists in different fields of plant protection. Mirzayans worked  alongside  the Russian experts and began collecting and identifying all kinds of Iranian insects, leading to the foundation of what later became the largest insect museum in the country. Despite logistic and budgetary restrictions at the time, Mirzayans conducted a number of collecting expeditions across Iran and significantly improved the collection by adding a considerable number of specimens of which the oldest dates back to 1945. During the following decades, Mirzayans restlessly continued his work on the taxonomy of Iranian insects. Many of his colleagues also played important role in the extension and improvement of the collection which is now the largest insect museum of the country. Hayk Mirzayans worked intensively on the taxonomy of the Order Orthoptera through his career.

After the foundation of Plant Pests and Diseases Research Institute (PPDRI), currently known as Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection (IRIPP), in 1962, the lab was renamed as the Laboratory of Entomology and Plant Protection, and its insect collection (ca. 50,000 specimens at the time) became part of the Insect Taxonomy Research Department (ITRD). At the time, the Institute consisted of six departments, one of which were under the direction of both Hayk Mirzayans and Mohammad Safavi who were serving as the head and deputy head of the Insect Taxonomy Research Department respectively.

Shortly after, a new generation of young entomologists and technicians arrived at the ITRD and enormously improved the status of the museum and elevated its standards leading to a significant increase of its specimens (about 2 Million) in a 15-year span.

The ITRD hired renowned entomologists such as Jean Barou (Lepidoptera, France), Eugenio Morales Agacino (Orthoptera, Spain), Gunther Ebert and Heinz Falkner (Lepidoptera), Arthur G. Lavallee (Diptera) and invited other scientists such as H. G. Amsel and Petrovich to contribute to the collection. As the result, several major expeditions were arranged across Iran together with international experts, including the Czechoslovakian entomologists (1972, 1975, 1977), to increase the knowledge of the Iranian Insect fauna. Due to this scientific cooperation, Hayk Mirzayans Insect Museum (HMIM) became internationally well known as Evin Institute or under its acronym, PPDRI.

The identification and documentation of the insect fauna of Iran is the main objective of the I TR D that remains the main authoritative source for insect identification in Iran. The ITRD launched the first faunistic project "Collection, Investigation and Identification of Insects of Iran" in 1968 that served later as the basis for other targeted projects on the agriculturally important insects.

In 1972, the ITRD and the collection were relocated at the second floor of the newly constructed building that also housed the Botany and Agricultural Zoology Research Departments. About 120 high quality insect cabinets (40 drawers each, based on a German model) were built by the Iran Industrial School and supplied to the museum.

After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Houshang Boroumand, Ali Pazuki, Abbas Hashemi and Hayk Mirzayans were the only staff members of the ITRDt. In early 1990s new scientists were employed to resume research at a wider scale.

In the spring of 1999, after the demise of Hayk Mirzayans, with the proposition of the then Minister of Agriculture, the collection was named the Hayk Mirzayans Insect Museum (HMIM) in recognition of all his efforts for the Iranian entomology. Currently, the Museum, that has been declared a national treasury, holds more than 4 million specimens, including many type specimens.

The ITRD with 11 faculty  members serves as one of the most important centres in the field of plant protection studies.

The ITRD houses specialized taxonomy research laboratories for Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Orthopteroidea, Heteroptera, Diptera, Hemiptera and Thysanoptera, Hymenoptera, Isoptera & primitive insects and Molecular systematics. The ITRD staff offer services to students, who are doing graduate studies in the taxonomy of insects, through workshops and training courses or supervising their theses.  It also acts as the Reference Insect Identification Centre, publishes various articles, reports, books, brochures, data banks and checklists of its holdings, and dispenses information free of charge to all visitors. The Entomological Society of Iran (ESI) and the Iranian Phytopathological Society (IPS) are also based at the ITRD building.

- Prentices and interns: Each year the scientific staff of the ITRD host several seniors and alumni trainees. In exchange for their continuing labour, for an agreed period after the apprentices become skilled, the training is mostly done on the job while working for the ITRD staff that helps the apprentices learn the basics of taxonomy within the insect order they are working. Theoretical education may also be involved via the workplace and/or by attending pre-career workshops run by the ITRD staff. The apprenticeship and internship programmes are usually not more than one year and the practitioners will be awarded formal scientific honor from the ITRD and the IRIPP.

- Research studentships (theses): In frame of joint projects, Ph. D. and M. Sc. students are supervised in the ITRD and conduct their research after their application getting approved.

- Expert visitors: The number of domestic and foreign expert visitors has been increasing year by year. As a result, more joint papers are published every year. Specialists from international museums and institutions are usually hosted by an entomologist from the ITRD with relative expertise.

- General visitors: They are usually high school and intermediate students with fascinating interest to discover the insect world. They are highly perceived to be given less scientifically complicated knowledge in a frame of cultural education. Several groups of general visitors are welcomed every day to the Permanent Exhibition of Iranian Plant Protection Research.

- Workshops and educational lectures: The ITRD scientific staffs share their knowledge and experience  with the university students and local scientists through scheduled workshops and educational lectures.

- Insect scientific names identification and confirmation: Precise identification of the scientific names of insects is a must for majority of the pest-related research projects. The process is not as costly as routine expenditures asked by other museums. The identifications are consistently carried out in the ITRD using morphological identification data and if necessary through modern molecular techniques.

Implementation of research projects on collecting, identifying, taxonomy, and phylogeny of Iran insect fauna, as follows:

- Faunal and biodiversity investigations (both intra and inter species) on the different groups of insects.

- Conducting modern taxonomic and systematic works such as cytogenetics, biochemistry, comparative morphology, molecular techniques, etc.

- Execution of cladistics, and biosystematics, emphasizing on inter and intra specific relationships, speciation, population study of major crop pests and zoogeographically significant species.

- Preserving specimens at the HMIM according to scientific standards.

- Supplying insect identification needs for research organizations and educational institutions. In addition, the HMIM involves in equipping and designing of insect museums for institutions and organizations.

- Holding workshops and symposiums on insect taxonomy using molecular and morphological techniques.

- Collaborating  with universities and higher educational centers on scientific exchanges and  supervising theses.

- Providing and managing on-line and offline databanks for Iranian insect fauna

- Preparation and implementation of rules and regulations to prevent illegal collection and outflow of genetic resources by smugglers and deportation of them out of the country.

1. Laboratory of Coleoptera

2. Laboratory of Lepidoptera

3. Laboratory of Orthopteroidea

4. Laboratory of Heteroptera

5. Laboratory of Hemiptera and Thysanoptera

6. Laboratory of Hymenoptera

7. Laboratory of Diptera

8. Laboratory of Isoptera and primitive insects

9. Molecular systematics laboratory

The Hayk Mirzayans Insect Museum (HMIM), with the world registration number  113481 and Iranian historical cultural heritage registration number  30500, situated in the north of Tehran at the building of Biodiversity and Genetic Resources of  the IRIPP. This museum was founded in 1943 at the Ministry of Agriculture in downtown Tehran with the effort of Dr. Jalal Afshar. Two years later, in 1945, it was transformed into the first Iranian insect collection by the known Iranian entomologist, Hayk Mirzayans. In 1962 shortly after the foundation of the Plant Pests and Diseases Research Institute, PPDRI (presently, Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection, IRIPP), the collection became officially affiliated with the PPDRI through the Insect Taxonomy Research Department (ITRD). Currently, the ITRD serves as an official scientific centre for the identification of insects in the country. In spring 1999, this museum was named after the late Hayk Mirzayans.

This museum is one of the oldest Iranian insect collection which houses more than 4.3 million specimens, an estimated 10000 identified species and about 1700 type specimens . The oldest specimen of the museum is a cricket whose collecting dates back to more than a century ago, 1899. The museum is divided into nine collection divisions  which are Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, Thysanoptera, Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, Diptera, Orthopteroidea, Coleoptera and Isoptera. In addition to the Iranian specimens, many foreign specimens  have been also been acquired through the years by means of donations or exchange with other museums abroad

1. Lepidoptera Collection – with more than 1.5 million specimens.

2. Coleoptera Collection – with more than 1.5 million specimens.

3. Orthopteroidea Collection – with about 500,000 specimens.

4. Hemiptera Collection – with about 330,000 specimens.

5. Hymenoptera Collection – with about 250,000 specimens.

6. Diptera Collection – with about 200,000 specimens.

7. Neuroptera Collection – with about 5000 specimens.

8. Thysanoptera Collection – with about 3000 specimens.

9. Isoptera Collection – with about 550 specimens.