Over the last decades, technological advances have enabled the in-depth exploration and discovery into microbial communities in a variety of ecological niches across wide geological time scales, including the examination of microbial communities within organisms. Along with these discoveries came new and exciting endeavors to further dissect the complex interactions between micro- and macro-life forms. In this session, the speakers tackle this challenge inside invertebrate bodies and seek to integrate the role of microbial communities inside invertebrates within the broader ecological framework. What directions is this new knowledge taking the field of insect ecology? Does understanding microbial communities within a contained ecosystem, like inside an invertebrate, give us a better understanding of ecological processes, like nutrient limitation or competition? What are the possibilities for a better understanding of the function of microbes in ecosystems? How close are we to understanding the role of these microbial ecosystems within the larger ecosystem? What implications does the study of the microbiome have for conservation and management, or for public health? What ecosystem services do these communities provide? This session will use the microbiome research in non-model invertebrate systems to begin to answer some of these questions.