When it comes to maintaining the balance, insects are a pretty big deal.

Consider this – if you combine the weight of all the insects here on earth, they would outweigh humans by a factor of 17.

They also play a crucial role in maintaining virtually every ecosystem on the planet, with an estimated 30 million species, just to further qualify their importance.

Now for the sucker punch: according to the authors of an alarming new scientific review, “the pace of modern insect extinctions surpasses that of vertebrates by a large margin”.

Maybe this below, via Vox, will help you appreciate the scale of the problem:

The state of insect biodiversity, they write, is “dreadful.” And their biomass — the estimated weight of all insects on Earth combined — is dropping by an estimated 2.5 percent every year.

In all, the researchers conclude that as much as 40 percent of all insect species may be endangered over the next several decades…

“We estimate the current proportion of insect species in decline … to be twice as high as that of vertebrates, and the pace of local species extinction … eight times higher,” the authors write. “It is evident that we are witnessing the largest [insect] extinction event on Earth since the late Permian and Cretaceous periods.”

…Butterflies and moths, known as the Lepidoptera order, are some of the hardest hit: 53 percent of Lepidoptera have seen declining population numbers. This is especially concerning as butterflies, which are very sensitive to changes in landscape and food sources, are often a bellwether of environmental health.

Take the mosquitoes and flies, but for the love of all that is good in the world, leave the butterflies.

As many as 40% of bee species are listed as vulnerable to extinction (incidents like this don’t help), and even dung beetles are taking a battering:

Whilst the authors of the new study admit that the methodology is imperfect, it does give us a much deeper understanding of how widespread the problem is, with causes of insect declines not tied to particular habitats.

Fancy a guess at who and what is to blame for the state of insect biodiversity? The researchers outline four broad, global problems:

• Habitat loss as a result of human development, deforestation, and the expansion of agriculture
• Pollution, particularly via pesticides, fertilizers, and industrial wastes
• Parasites and pathogens — like the viruses that attack honeybees — and invasive species
• Climate change

Yeah, it’s us humans again.

The researchers concluded that “unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades”, with the repercussions “catastrophic to say the least”.

We sure have made a mess of looking after this planet, haven’t we?

Hug an insect today, or at least open the window and let it fly free.

[source:vox]