Insects provide vertebrates with life support beyond food

A multinational review published September 30 in Nature Reviews Biodiversity synthesizes hundreds of studies and finds that vertebrate dependence on insects reaches far beyond predation. Chimpanzees apply insects to wounds, herons use them as bait, sloths rely on moths to sustain algae in their fur, birds and reptiles nest in temperature-controlled termite mounds, and some desert frogs use ant nests for humidity. More than two hundred bird species also groom with crushed ants. The authors argue that vertebrate conservation must preserve these insect relationships too. The review cites estimates that some insect populations decline roughly 1%-2% a year, but this is not one uniform global rate for every insect; regions, taxa and monitoring methods vary widely.