This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: There are at least 14 million insect species on Earth, and they play highly diverse roles in sustaining the natural world. Insects provide many well-known benefits—what scientists often call "ecosystem services." For example, you can thank a bee or a hoverfly for pollinating wildflowers and agricultural crops, or credit dung beetles for decomposing manure and other waste materials.
Reports of rapid declines in insect abundance and biomass over the past decade have raised concerns about potential reductions in pollination, decomposition and other insect-provided services. Researchers have also noted that declines in insects could mean a change in the food supply for insectivores such as birds and bats. In response to these concerns, a working group emerged as part of a Research Coordination Network on the Status of Insects.
This international group of 21 researchers, including us, met via Zoom for a year and a half to discuss what declines in insects might mean for vertebrates—from birds to bats to bilbies. What emerged from those discussions was a clear picture—insects are so much more than just food, and vertebrates rely on insects for everything from habitats to protection to health. Insects can be ecosystem engineers, meaning they create and maintain habitats for other species.
Termites and ants build massive structures below and above ground that are used by many other species. Termite nests, for example, serve as climate-controlled spots for reptiles to lay eggs and for parrots to nest. In dry regions, some frogs live inside ant nests to take advantage of the humid conditions, masking themselves in pheromones to evade detection by their ant hosts.
The soil surrounding termite mounds also provides good conditions for species such as naked mole rats and aardvarks to make their burrows. Ant nests concentrate nutrients that enhance plant growth, thereby creating good grazing habitat for species like gazelles. You probably don't usually think of something as small as a beetle as a protector, or of a wasp as a bodyguard.
But vertebrates rely on insects for defense, even against other vertebrates. For example, horned lizards turn chemicals from ants into a toxic, blood-spurting defense to ward off predators such as big cats. Poisonous frogs similarly get their toxicity from the chemical compounds found in insects they eat, as do some birds and snakes, which store toxins from ants and beetles as part of their defensive strategy.
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