In 1943, Iranian entomologist JaIaI Afshar established a small entomology laboratory in the then Ministry of Agriculture in Tehran.

In 1945, a small group of fresh graduate students, including Hayk Mirzayans, joined the lab.

Beside his regular duties in the lab and involvement in Corn Bug and locust eradication programs, Mirzayans began collecting and identifying Iranian insects, and with the help of his Russian colleagues laid the foundation of what later became the largest insect museum in the country.

After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and with the retirement of a large group of researchers, the ITRD staff was reduced to only a few people, and the international collaborations were minimized.

ITRD acts as the National Identification Service for governmental or non-governmental organizations, publishes various articles, reports, books, data banks and checklists of its holdings, and provides these information free of charge to all visitors.