Insects, the most abundant and diverse animals on Earth, are facing a crisis of epic proportions, according to a growing body of research and a rash of alarmist media reports that have followed. If left unchecked, some scientists say, recent population declines could one day lead to a world without insects.
“The Insect Apocalypse Is Here,” New York Times Magazine avowed in an in-depth story examining the trend, while other outlets have warned of animpending “ecological Armageddon” for life on Earth if insects keep vanishing. The resulting void, they say, would ripple out to affect every level of the food chain — even the nitrogen cycle for plants.
Most alarmingly, a review published in Biological Conservation highlighted “dreadful” circumstances for insects, with about 50 percent experiencing a decrease in numbers and a third threatened with extinction. The scientists analyzed 73 studies of insect declines and concluded that if nothing changes, all insects will be wiped out by the end of the century.
The frightening claim rests largely on three of the longest studies. Most notable was a 2017 German survey of flying insects by amateur entomologists, which saw a 76 percent decline in biomass in less than three decades. According to another study, from 1970 to 1999 three-fourths of British butterflies saw their populations drop while an analysis of ground-dwelling arthropods in the Puerto Rican rainforest found populations have fallen 10 to 60 times compared to levels seen in 1976, which was correlated with a decline in frogs, reptiles, and birds.
“We don’t think it’s alarmist to say that it’s a catastrophic event. It iscatastrophic,” review author Francisco Sánchez-Bayo says in a video call, explaining why his paper strikes a more alarmist tone than previous studies. “We are alerting people that we have here a serious problem and we have to solve it.”
