Introduction to insect conservation, an emerging discipline

Abstract

Conserving insects is still a strange concept to many people, accustomed - and, even, conditioned - to treat all 'bugs' as pests and targets for suppression or eradication, and who think of 'conservation' primarily in terms of the wellbeing of large charismatic vertebrates. Those animals, together with flowering plants, have indeed dominated conservation agendas and wider awareness of conservation need with - if they have been noted at all - tacit or expressed belief that all other organisms can be conserved under the 'umbrella' of these more popular organisms. Conservation of invertebrates continues to be somewhat secondary, but the magnitude of the threats they face, and that they do indeed need and merit more specific attention, is gradually becoming more widely apparent and accepted. 'Image problems' persist. Many insects are indeed inimicable to human interests, for example as our major competitors for crops and as vectors of disease. Many, though, are decidedly beneficial, and many of those same crops depend on pollination by insects, and the impacts of insect predators and parasitoids to help suppress the 'pests'. However, the less tangible values of insects as cultural objects, resources and vital components of sustaining ecological processes and communities in almost all terrestrial and freshwater environments are gradually being accepted more widely. Geographical and cultural gaps in perceptions of insects are important to acknowledge in considering wider conservation needs and threats - thus, the levels of wild harvesting of insects and other invertebrates) for food in south east Asia is a dimension of 'overcollecting' almost wholly alien to western cultural perceptions (Durst et al. 2010). Likewise, in parts of China, the intensive use of some caterpillar food plants for traditional medicine is associated with declines of a number of butterfly species (Li et al. 2011).