ABOVE: A snapshot of insect diversity
MICHAEL THOMAS (PNAS, 118:e2023989118, 2020).
When a handful of long-term studies reported dramatic insect declines in Germany and Puerto Rico in 2017 and 2018, global headlines proclaimed “The Insect Apocalypse” or “Insectageddon” was imminent. Like the media, researchers were alarmed by the findings, but some wondered if these trends extended globally.
“There were a lot of questions,” says David Wagner, an entomologist and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut. “We decided to get a symposium together with some of the best insect experts in the world to find out what we knew, get a handle on what we didn’t know, try to figure out what we could do going forward, what were the data gaps, and if we knew enough to actually start recommending actions of individuals, communities, and national and international policy.”
This week, a special issue of PNAS ...
