Book contents
- The Living Planet
- The Living Planet
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- One Introduction and the Evolution of Life on Earth
- Two Flowering Plants
- Three Bryophytes and Pteridophytes: Spore-Bearing Land Plants
- Four Terrestrial Mammals
- Five Marine Mammals: Exploited for Millennia, But Still Holding On
- Six How Birds Reveal the Scale of the Biodiversity Crisis
- Seven Reptiles
- Eight Amphibians
- Nine Freshwater Fishes: Threatened Species and Threatened Waters on a Global Scale
- Ten The Amazing Yet Threatened World of Marine Fishes
- Eleven Insects
- Twelve Marine Invertebrates
- Thirteen Non-Insect Terrestrial Arthropods
- Fourteen Terrestrial Invertebrates Other Than Arthropods and Molluscs
- Fifteen Non-Marine Molluscs
- Sixteen An Account of the Diversity and Conservation of Fungi and Their Close Relatives
- Seventeen Simple Life Forms
- Eighteen Assessing Species Conservation Status: The IUCN Red List and Green Status of Species
- Nineteen Problems with the World’s Ecosystems: The Future and Attempts to Mitigate Decline
- Twenty Conservation Methods and Successes
- Twenty One What Does the Future Hold for Our Planet and its Wildlife?
- Species Index
- Subject Index
- References
Eleven - Insects
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2023
Edited by
Book contents
- The Living Planet
- The Living Planet
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- One Introduction and the Evolution of Life on Earth
- Two Flowering Plants
- Three Bryophytes and Pteridophytes: Spore-Bearing Land Plants
- Four Terrestrial Mammals
- Five Marine Mammals: Exploited for Millennia, But Still Holding On
- Six How Birds Reveal the Scale of the Biodiversity Crisis
- Seven Reptiles
- Eight Amphibians
- Nine Freshwater Fishes: Threatened Species and Threatened Waters on a Global Scale
- Ten The Amazing Yet Threatened World of Marine Fishes
- Eleven Insects
- Twelve Marine Invertebrates
- Thirteen Non-Insect Terrestrial Arthropods
- Fourteen Terrestrial Invertebrates Other Than Arthropods and Molluscs
- Fifteen Non-Marine Molluscs
- Sixteen An Account of the Diversity and Conservation of Fungi and Their Close Relatives
- Seventeen Simple Life Forms
- Eighteen Assessing Species Conservation Status: The IUCN Red List and Green Status of Species
- Nineteen Problems with the World’s Ecosystems: The Future and Attempts to Mitigate Decline
- Twenty Conservation Methods and Successes
- Twenty One What Does the Future Hold for Our Planet and its Wildlife?
- Species Index
- Subject Index
- References
Summary
Insects are the most abundant and diverse group of animals on Earth. They are critical to ecosystem function in terrestrial and aquatic systems, yet they are one of the most understudied groups of organisms. Only a small proportion of the more than five million insect species have been assessed by the IUCN Red List. For most of these species, there is not enough evidence to know what is happening to their populations. In fact, for most insect species globally, there is very little data available on where they live, how they live and what environmental conditions they need to persist in the long term. A number of threats affect insect biology and life cycles generally, including climate change, habitat clearing, invasive species, use of broad-spectrum pesticides, and pollution of soil and waterways. These threats should be addressed immediately to prevent further declines in insect populations. To understand insects better, greater investment in research and documentation of the world’s insect diversity is urgently needed.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Living PlanetThe State of the World's Wildlife, pp. 227 - 248Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
References
Cardoso, P., Erwin, T.L., Borges, P.A.V and New, T.R. (2011) The seven impediments in invertebrate conservation and how to overcome them. Biol Conserv 144: 2647–2655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cardoso, P., Borges, P.A.V., Triantis, K.A., Ferrández, M.A., Martín, J.L. (2012) The underrepresentation and misrepresentation of invertebrates in the IUCN Red List. Biol Conserv 149: 147–148.Google Scholar
Clark, J.A. and May, R.M. (2002) Taxonomic bias in conservation research. Science 297: 191–192.Google Scholar
Colla, S.R. and MacIvor, J.S. (2017) Questioning public perception, conservation policy, and recovery actions for honeybees in North America. Conserv Biol 31: 1202–1204.Google Scholar
Collier, K.J., Probert, P.K. and Jeffries, M. (2016) Conservation of aquatic invertebrates: concerns, challenges and conundrums. Aquat Conserv 26: 817–837.Google Scholar
Deutsch, C.A., Tewksbury, J.J., Huey, R.B., et al. (2008) Impacts of climate warming on terrestrial ectotherms across latitude. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105: 6668–6672.Google Scholar
Dunn, R.R. (2005) Modern insect extinctions, the neglected majority. Conserv Biol 19: 1030–1036.Google Scholar
Fox, R., Harrower, C.A., Bell, J.R., et al. (2018) Insect population trends and the IUCN Red List process. J Insect Conserv 23: 269–278.Google Scholar
Hortal, J., de Bello, F., Diniz-Filho, J.A.F., et al. (2015) Seven shortfalls that beset large-scale knowledge of biodiversity. Ann Rev Ecol Evol Syst 46: 523–549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jonsson, M., Buckley, H.L., Case, B.S., et al. (2012) Agricultural intensification drives landscape-context effects on host-parasitoid interactions in agroecosystems. J Appl Ecol 49: 706–714.Google Scholar
Landis, D.A. (2017) Designing agricultural landscapes for biodiversity-based ecosystem services. Basic Appl Ecol 18: 1–12.Google Scholar
Leather, S. (2009) Taxonomic chauvinism threatens the future of entomology. Biologist 56: 10–13.Google Scholar
Lockwood, J.A. (2010) The fate of the Rocky Mountain locust, Melanoplus spretus Walsh: implications for conservation biology. Terr Arthropod Rev 3: 129–160.Google Scholar
Lowe, E.C., Latty, T., Webb, C.E., Whitehouse, M.E.A. and Saunders, M.E. (2019) Engaging urban stakeholders in the sustainable management of arthropod pests. J Pest Sci 92: 987–1002.Google Scholar
Macadam, C.R. and Stockan, J.A. (2015) More than just fish food: ecosystem services provided by freshwater insects. Ecol Entomol 40(S1): 113–123.Google Scholar
Martin‐Vega, D., Baz, A. and Michelsen, V. (2010) Back from the dead: Thyreophora cynophila (Panzer, 1798) (Diptera: Piophilidae) ‘globally extinct’ fugitive in Spain. Syst Entomol 35: 607–613.Google Scholar
New, T.R. (2008) Legislative inconsistencies and species conservation status: understanding or confusion? The case of Riekoperla darlingtoni (Plecoptera) in Australia. J Insect Conserv 12: 1–2.Google Scholar
Nicholls, C.I. and Altieri, M.A. (2013) Plant biodiversity enhances bees and other insect pollinators in agroecosystems: a review. Agron Sustain Devel 33: 257–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ollerton, J. (2017) Pollinator diversity: distribution, ecological function and conservation. Ann Rev Ecol Evol Syst 48: 353–376.Google Scholar
Paukkunen, J., Pöyry, J. and Kuussaari, M. (2018) Species traits explain long-term population trends of Finnish cuckoo wasps (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae). Insect Conserv Divers 11: 58–71.Google Scholar
Priddel, D., Carlile, N., Humphrey, M., Fellenberg, S. and Hiscox, D. (2003) Rediscovery of the ‘extinct’ Lord Howe Island stick-insect (Dryococelus australis (Montrouzier)) (Phasmatodea) and recommendations for its conservation. Biodivers Conserv 12: 1391–1403.Google Scholar
Rentz, D.C.F. (1977) A new and apparently extinct katydid from Antioch sand dunes (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae). Entomol News 88: 241–245.Google Scholar
Samways, M.J. (2007) Insect conservation: a synthetic management approach. Annual Review of Entomology 52: 465–487.Google Scholar
Samways, M.J., Pryke, J.S. and Simaika, J.P. (2011) Threats to dragonflies on land islands can be as great as those on oceanic islands. Biol Conserv 144: 1145–1151.Google Scholar
Sands, D.P.A. (2018) Important issues facing insect conservation in Australia: now and into the future. Austral Entomol 57: 150–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Senapathi, D., Goddard, M.A., Kunin, W.E. and Baldock, K.C.R. (2017) Landscape impacts on pollinator communities in temperate systems: evidence and knowledge gaps. Funct Ecol 21: 26–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, T.J. and Saunders, M.E. (2016) Honey bees: the queens of mass media, despite minority rule among insect pollinators. Insect Conserv Divers 9: 384–390.Google Scholar
Stork, N.E. (2018) How many species of insects and other terrestrial arthropods are there on Earth? Ann Rev Entomol 63: 31–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vanbergen, A.J.; Insect Pollinators Initiative (2013) Threats to an ecosystem service: pressures on pollinators. Front Ecol Environ 11: 251–259.Google Scholar
Vaughan, I.P. and Ormerod, S.J. (2012) Large-scale, long-term trends in British macroinvertebrates. Glob Change Biol 18: 2184–2194.Google Scholar
Wagner, D.L. and Van Driesche, R.G. (2010) Threats posed to rare or endangered insects by invasions of non-native species. Ann Rev Entomol 55: 547–568.Google Scholar
Winfree, R., Bartomeus, I. and Cariveau, D.P. (2010) Native pollinators in anthropogenic habitats. Ann Rev Ecol Evol Syst 42: 1–22.Google Scholar
Yang, L.H. and Gratton, C. (2014) Insects as drivers of ecosystem processes. Curr Opin Insect Sci 2: 26–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yeates, D.K., Zwick, A. and Mikheyev, A.S. (2016) Museums are biobanks: unlocking the genetic potential of the three billion specimens in the world’s biological collections. Curr Opin Insect Sci 18: 83–88.Google Scholar
Accessibility standard: Unknown
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.Accessibility Information
Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this chapter is currently unknown
and may be updated in the future.
- 1
- Cited by