The Orthoptera collection and staff are located in Room 028, Building 005, BARC-West, Beltsville, MD. The associated library includes 550 volumes and 60 linear feet of reprints. The collection is stored in 2,500 drawers and 6 quarter cases of alcohol material and has nearly 700 primary types. The SEL staff member that curates the collection is David A. Nickle. The collections of mantids, cockroaches, and walkingsticks are located at the Museum Support Center in Suitland, Maryland.

Three USDA orthopterists have concentrated their research and identification efforts on this group of insects. A. N. Caudell was employed in 1898, A. B. Gurney in 1936, and D. A. Nickle in 1979. The collection is strongest in U.S. Melanoplus grasshoppers, Neotropical cockroaches and katydids, and grylloblattids. Major collections incorporated into the USNM holdings are those of C. F. Baker, Daguerre, and Riley.