In defence of the world’s most reviled invertebrate ‘bugs’

ABSTRACT

Species of invertebrate animals, notably insects, are undergoing an alarmingly high rate of extinction, coupled with minimal support for their protection, even from the world’s leading conservation organisations. This is intolerable, as invertebrates constitute over 95% of the world’s species, have indispensable economic values and provide ecological services without which life on earth would virtually cease. Much of the lack of public and governmental support for invertebrate conservation is due to the abhorrent tiny pests that have persuaded most people that ‘bugs’ are bad and consequently the only species worthy of support are the charismatic superstar mammals like pandas and tigers that currently are the mainstays of biodiversity fundraising. Just as these respected, highly attractive icons are effective ambassadors of biodiversity conservation, so certain detested pests have poisoned the public image of invertebrates, and indeed have made it seem to many that most wildlife is hostile. The ‘dirty dozen’ bugs that particularly are a hindrance to improving public investment in biodiversity are: bedbugs, clothes moths, cockroaches, fleas, houseflies, leeches, lice, locusts, mosquitoes, spiders, termites and ticks. Except for spiders, these species, admittedly, are responsible for enormous damage to health and economic welfare. Nevertheless, this paper shows that most have at least some compensating values, their harm has often been exaggerated and all have related species that are good citizens. Six of the dozen ‘least wanted’ invertebrates highlighted are blood parasites of humans, and these ‘bad apples’ are very hard to defend since parasitism seems abhorrent. Remarkably, however, at least half of the world’s tens of millions of species are also parasites, and without them most ecosystems would be in danger of collapse. To improve invertebrate conservation, it is advisable that efforts be made to educate the public regarding their importance. Since prejudices against ‘bugs’ are primarily acquired during childhood, special attention is needed to persuade the young that most invertebrates are harmless, valuable and entertaining. Recent advances in genetic engineering (‘synthetic biology’, ‘genetic drives’) have led to very serious consideration of deliberately eliminating the world’s worst pests of humans. While these extermination technologies could greatly increase support for invertebrate conservation by annihilating their most despised representatives, the dangers of unforeseen damage to ecosystems and hence to biodiversity are substantial.

KEYWORDS:

• Conservation
• invertebrates
• insects
• bugs
• extinction

Acknowledgements

Brenda Brookes skillfully assembled and enhanced the illustrations for publication. Bruce Gill provided constructive criticism of the manuscript. Creative Commons Licenses employed in this article: CC BY 2.0 (Attribution 2.0 Generic): http://creative commons.org/licenses/by/2.0/; CC BY 2.5 (Attribution 2.5 Generic): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/; CC BY 3.0 (Attribution 3.0 Unported): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/; CC BY 3.0 AU (Attribution 3.0 Australia): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/legalcode; CC BY 4.0 (Attribution 4.0 International): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en; CC BY SA 2.0 (Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/; CC BY SA 2.5 (Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 Generic): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/; CC BY SA 3.0 (Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/; CC BY SA 4.0 (Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International license): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Ernest Small

Dr. Ernest Small is a principal scientist with Agriculture Canada, the country’s national department of agriculture, and has held adjunct professorships at several universities. He specialises on the evolution and classification of economically important plants, dealing particularly with food, forage, biodiversity, and medicinal species. Dr. Small has authored 15 books and over 400 journal publications. He has received several professional honours, including appointment to the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest recognition of achievements.