Summary

Insects are crucial for ecosystem balance, food production, and environmental sustainability, but they face threats from human activities, prompting a call to action for their conservation.

Abstract

The website content emphasizes the vital role of insects within Earth's ecosystems, highlighting their importance as a food source for other species, their contribution to pollination, and their essential functions in soil aeration and nutrient recycling. It underscores the alarming decline in insect populations, attributed to human-induced factors such as habitat destruction, climate change, and agricultural intensification. The article draws attention to the potential collapse of ecosystems if insect decline continues unchecked. It also celebrates the diversity and benefits of insects, featuring beetles, bees, ladybirds, hoverflies, lacewings, and black soldier flies as examples of species that provide significant ecological services. The content advocates for a greater appreciation and protection of insects, echoing the sentiments of renowned figures like David Attenborough and Charles Darwin, who recognized the intrinsic value of these often-overlooked creatures.

Opinions

The author expresses a personal affinity for insects, acknowledging that while not all insects are liked, they are all respected for their ecological roles.
There is a shared sentiment with David Attenborough regarding the interconnectedness of life and the importance of studying biology to understand this web.
The National Geographic Society's concern about the decline in insect species is echoed, with a warning that this trend could lead to the collapse of ecosystems.
The author agrees with the perspective that insects, particularly beetles, are the most important organisms on the planet due to their sheer numbers and diversity of roles.
The article highlights the opinion that despite the damage some insects cause to crops and property, the majority are beneficial, if not essential, to human existence.
There is an endorsement of the efforts by bug breeders in the U.S.A. who are using black soldier flies to address environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and food waste.
The author aligns with the view that insects should be given a chance to thrive, reflecting Charles Darwin's observation of the divine appreciation for beetles as an indication of their significance.

Animal Advocacy

Don’t Overlook The Importance of Insects

No insects equals no food, and that means no people.

My painted stones (not painted by me). Photo provided by Celine

Insects are a fundamental part of our ecosystem

Uggh, yeww, how awful. This may be your first reaction to many of our tiny living companions on Earth. Well, I like all the critters in this photo (except maybe not the scorpion, no wait, I respect all living things). Did you know that Spiders, Centipedes and Scorpions are NOT insects??

In 1984 I met “the Bro” or David Attenborough, as I call him, and I have some things in common with this amazing person! As David is, I too am interested in “the web of Life” and that is why I studied Biology at University. In an interview the Bro said that he respects all animals, but he doesn’t like them all. The same for me, Bro.

The National Geographic Society says:

There are 1.4 billion insects per person on this planet and we need (almost) every one of them

In 2019 the Society declared that a new study suggests that 40 percent of insect species are in decline, a sobering finding that has jarred researchers worldwide.

“There is reason to worry,” says lead author Francisco Sánchez-Bayo, a researcher at the University of Sydney in Australia. “If we don’t stop it, entire ecosystems will collapse due to starvation.”

The paper singles out a few groups of critters that are particularly threatened: moths and butterflies; pollinators like bees; and dung beetles, along with other insects that help decompose faeces and detritus.

Factors behind the decline include, perhaps foremost among them, habitat changes wrought by humans, such as deforestation, and conversion of natural habitats for agriculture.

Climate change undoubtedly plays a big role as well, especially extremes of weather such as droughts, which are likely to increase in intensity, duration, and frequency in the future.

The impact of the decline

Insects serve as the base of the food web, eaten by everything from birds to small mammals to fish.

About three-fourths of all flowering plants are pollinated by insects, as well as the crops that produce more than one-third of the world’s food supply.

“No insects equals no food, [which] equals no people,” says Dino Martins, an entomologist at Kenya’s Mpala Research Centre and a National Geographic Explorer

Why insect populations are plummeting-and why it matters

Rocky Mountain locusts once gathered in such large numbers that they blotted out the sun over the Great Plains…

www.nationalgeographic.com

The most prolific Order of insects are the Coleoptera. This is the massive group of beetles and also weevils, containing around 500,000 species. With hard exoskeletons, thick wings and chewing mouthparts, these insects are tough and versatile.

Beetles aerate the soil, pollinate blossoms, and control insect and plant pests. Many insects, especially beetles, are scavengers, feeding on dead animals and fallen trees, thereby recycling nutrients back into the soil. As decomposers, insects help create top soil, the nutrient-rich layer of soil that helps plants grow.

I like ladybugs or ladybirds, which not only look bright and gorgeous, but eat pesky aphids, white-flies and other insects that destroy plants. In fact, a ladybug can eat up to 5,000 aphids in its lifetime.

Why beetles are the most important organisms on the planet | Richard Jones

The smallest known free-living insect, Scydosella musawasensis. Photograph: Dr. Alexey Polilov/Science The phrase "they…

www.theguardian.com

According to some, the five top beneficial insects are:

Bees

Ladybirds

Hoverflies

Lacewings and

Beetles

Source: http://www.ecofriendlykids.co.uk/five-top-beneficial-insects.html

As a group, insects do a staggering amount of damage to crops and property around the world, but they’re not all bad. On the contrary, there are many which are not only beneficial to human beings, but are essential.

The Medium Publication, FutureHuman even talks about bug breeders in the U.S.A. rearing black soldier flies to help simultaneously tackle three of the biggest environmental issues in the United States: greenhouse gas emissions, irresponsible land use, and food waste.

Bug Breeders Are Cultivating Waste-Guzzling Flies to Gobble Up America’s Trash

The tiny insects could simultaneously tackle three of the biggest environmental issues in the United States

futurehuman.medium.com

The Animal Diversity Web states that with around one million named species and perhaps several times that number unnamed, insects account for a great majority of the species of animals on earth.

Insects have a complete and complex digestive tract. Their mouthparts are especially variable, often complexly related to their feeding habits. Insects “breathe” through a tracheal system, with external openings called spiracles and increasingly finely branched tubules that carry gases right to the metabolizing tissues.

The manner in which growth in insects is accomplished is an especially important characteristic of insects. In some, hatching eggs produce miniature adults, which to grow must shed their exoskeleton in a process called ecdyisis. In almost 90% of insect species, however, newly hatched young are completely different in appearance from adults.

( Source: The Animal Diversity Web )

Insects or Insecta are hexapod invertebrates and the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Hexapods are a sub-phylum of Arthropods. Arthropods are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods include-

insects;
myriapods (including centipedes and millipedes);
arachnids (including spiders, mites and scorpions);
crustaceans (including slaters, prawn and crabs).

All entomologists (those who study insects) are saying is: “Give some insects a chance.”

The famous biologist, Charles Darwin, once remarked that one of the greatest things that his study of the natural world had taught him, was that God was really very fond of beetles.