The Heteroptera collection and staff are located on the fifth floor, East Wing, NMNH, Washington, D.C. The associated library includes 300 volumes and 70 linear feet of reprints. The Heteroptera collection occupies about 2,500 drawers and contains about 5,300 holotypes. The SEL staff member is Thomas J. Henry. The Smithsonian staff include Daniel A. Polhemus and Richard C. Froeschner (Retired).

In 1898, O. Heidemann was employed by the USDA to study the systematics of the Heteroptera. Since then the following USDA specialists have undertaken Heteroptera systematic research: P. D. Ashlock, H. G. Barber, J. L. Herring, R. C. Froeschner (subsequently USNM), E. H. Gibson, W. L. McAtee, and R. I. Sailer.

The collection is strongest in New World specimens but is also well represented in Oriental and Palearctic material. Especially strong areas are Aradidae, Cimicidae, Lygaeidae, Miridae, Ochteridae, Pentatomidae, Phymatidae, Reduviidae, and Tingidae. Important parts or all of the collections of C. F. Baker, H. G. Barber, J. C. M. Carvalho, C. J. Drake, H. H. Knight, N. Kormilev, W. L. McAtee, M. S. Pennington, E. C. Reed, and P. R. Uhler are housed at the NMNH.

Current and future major areas of research include phylogenetic analyses of the mirid subfamilies Deraeocorinae, Isometopinae, Orthotylinae and the New World tribe Ceratocapsini; monographs of the mirid subfamily Isometopinae of the Western Hemisphere and the Nabidae of North America; and a manual of the Miridae of eastern North America.