Insects are among Earth’s most abundant life forms, representing a staggering 80 percent of all animal species. But in recent years, reports of dwindling bug populations have led some experts to warn of an impending “insect apocalypse.”
The Smithsonian Handbook of Interesting Insects, released earlier this spring by Smithsonian Books, aptly demonstrates why such an “apocalypse” represents a devastating blow to biodiversity. Compiled by entomologists Gavin Broad, Blanca Huertas, Ashley Kirk-Spriggs and Dmitry Telnov, the work spotlights more than 100 insect species drawn from the London Natural History Museum’s collection of some 34 million specimens.
Presented in stunning full-color photographs, the book showcases a range of insects, including the stalk-eyed fly, which has eyes at the ends of its long, protruding, antler-like stalks, the bright yellow-and-black ichneumonid wasp and the metallic golden-green weevil. Images are accompanied by short descriptions of the bugs, as well as information on their geographic distribution and size.
Preview thumbnail for 'The Smithsonian Handbook of Interesting Insects
The Smithsonian Handbook of Interesting Insects
Featuring striking photographic profiles of insects
BUY
“We humans see insects like small creatures,” says co-author Blanca Huertas, the museum’s senior curator of Lepidoptera. “However, the size of insects transcend[s] to their incredible power to adapt to most habitats, including the most challenging ones, ensuring their ... success living on the planet even before humans.”
Interesting Insects’ publication coincides with the release of a study suggesting the aforementioned “apocalypse” is more nuanced than previously thought.
For the paper, newly published in the journal Science, researchers reviewed 166 surveys of 1,676 sites around the world. The analysis showed that Earth’s land-based bug populations shrank by 27 percent over the past 30 years—a rate of just under 1 percent per year.
Earth’s dwindling insect numbers can’t be attributed to a single driving factor. Instead, studies show bugs face an array of threats, including habitat destruction and fragmentation, climate change, pesticides, urbanization, and light pollution.
“The decline of [i]nsect populations is real, but it has been measured only in few areas of the world,” says Huertas. “Ironically, the less studied areas in the world [hold] the biggest diversity of insects (and many other organisms), so the problem is bigger [than] we think (and know).”
Gavin Broad, principal curator in charge of insects at the museum, adds, “Our hope is that by drawing attention to some of the amazing variety of insect life, people will appreciate a bit more the explosion of color and form at the tiny scale. And that acting to conserve the natural world will help ensure this diversity of life continues to thrive forever, rather than only being known from old museum specimens.”
To mark the release of Interesting Insects, Smithsonian magazine has revived a handful of the featured insect species in the form of short GIF animations. Up first: an artistically inclined butterfly named after one of the giants of modern art.
There are many types of insects living in our houses that are not visible. Most insects only come out at nighttime when it is quiet around the house. Most people think that insects live outside in gardens and backyards but that is not true because insects are constantly around us, even though some cant really be seen for instance like lice, fleas and other small little insects. The thing to remember is that even though you do not see the insects, it doesn't mean that they are not there. Insects hide in many places like underneath the floor and in between the walls.
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Insects are among Earth’s most abundant life forms, representing a staggering 80 percent of all animal species. But in recent years, reports of dwindling bug populations have led some experts to warn of an impending “insect apocalypse.”
The Smithsonian Handbook of Interesting Insects, released earlier this spring by Smithsonian Books, aptly demonstrates why such an “apocalypse” represents a devastating blow to biodiversity. Compiled by entomologists Gavin Broad, Blanca Huertas, Ashley Kirk-Spriggs and Dmitry Telnov, the work spotlights more than 100 insect species drawn from the London Natural History Museum’s collection of some 34 million specimens.
Presented in stunning full-color photographs, the book showcases a range of insects, including the stalk-eyed fly, which has eyes at the ends of its long, protruding, antler-like stalks, the bright yellow-and-black ichneumonid wasp and the metallic golden-green weevil. Images are accompanied by short descriptions of the bugs, as well as information on their geographic distribution and size.
Preview thumbnail for 'The Smithsonian Handbook of Interesting Insects
The Smithsonian Handbook of Interesting Insects
Featuring striking photographic profiles of insects
BUY
“We humans see insects like small creatures,” says co-author Blanca Huertas, the museum’s senior curator of Lepidoptera. “However, the size of insects transcend[s] to their incredible power to adapt to most habitats, including the most challenging ones, ensuring their ... success living on the planet even before humans.”
Interesting Insects’ publication coincides with the release of a study suggesting the aforementioned “apocalypse” is more nuanced than previously thought.
For the paper, newly published in the journal Science, researchers reviewed 166 surveys of 1,676 sites around the world. The analysis showed that Earth’s land-based bug populations shrank by 27 percent over the past 30 years—a rate of just under 1 percent per year.
Earth’s dwindling insect numbers can’t be attributed to a single driving factor. Instead, studies show bugs face an array of threats, including habitat destruction and fragmentation, climate change, pesticides, urbanization, and light pollution.
“The decline of [i]nsect populations is real, but it has been measured only in few areas of the world,” says Huertas. “Ironically, the less studied areas in the world [hold] the biggest diversity of insects (and many other organisms), so the problem is bigger [than] we think (and know).”
Gavin Broad, principal curator in charge of insects at the museum, adds, “Our hope is that by drawing attention to some of the amazing variety of insect life, people will appreciate a bit more the explosion of color and form at the tiny scale. And that acting to conserve the natural world will help ensure this diversity of life continues to thrive forever, rather than only being known from old museum specimens.”
To mark the release of Interesting Insects, Smithsonian magazine has revived a handful of the featured insect species in the form of short GIF animations. Up first: an artistically inclined butterfly named after one of the giants of modern art.
Answer:
There are many types of insects living in our houses that are not visible. Most insects only come out at nighttime when it is quiet around the house. Most people think that insects live outside in gardens and backyards but that is not true because insects are constantly around us, even though some cant really be seen for instance like lice, fleas and other small little insects. The thing to remember is that even though you do not see the insects, it doesn't mean that they are not there. Insects hide in many places like underneath the floor and in between the walls.