#insect declines

[rcannon992]

Knapweed bonanza: insect biodiversity in a fallow field

[lilybug-02]

It is strange to think something so intrinsic to humans may be so detrimental to another.

Bug Fact: The glow of artificial light does not actually attract bugs, it interferes with their natural sense of direction.

“Unable to secure food, easily spotted by predators and prone to exhaustion... Many die before the morning comes.” - The Conversation

Keep your lights off at night when you can.

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Masterpost

[typhlonectes]

How Non-Native Plants Are Contributing to a Global Insect Decline

The impact of introduced plants on native biodiversity has emerged as a hot-button issue in ecology. But recent research provides new evidence that the displacement of native plant communities is a key cause of a collapse in insect populations and is affecting birds as well...

[strangedisciple]

some the decline of british sea power userboxes because i'm normal about this album

[xtruss]

Experts Say a "Concerning" Number of Fireflies are Threatened with Extinction. Above, Fireflies Light-up the Sky in Upstate New York. Composite Photograph By Peter Mayney

Will We Still See Fireflies This Summer?

Scientists Suspect Many Species are in Decline—But There are Still Unanswered Questions and a Lot of Hope. Here's When and Where You Can Still Spot Them.

— By Gennaro Tomma | April 15, 2025

Raphaël De Cock was 9 years old the day he caught his first firefly, the glowing insect he’d read about with great interest in his grandfather’s nature books. While exploring the Belgian countryside, he lifted a stone and found a treasure: the larvae of a common glow-worm, a firefly species widespread in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

While running back to his grandparents’ house with the critter, he tripped and lost it in the grass. The insect was gone. But days later, while taking a walk on a humid summer night, De Cock and his grandmother returned to the spot where he lost the firefly and were greeted by a breathtaking sight: Hundreds of little lights were re-creating a starry sky on earth.

Thousands of fireflies take flight on a moonlit night. Some firefly populations are declining globally, but scientists still lack the most basic information about many species. Composite Photograph By Peter Mayney

Yet if De Cock returns to this childhood spot in the countryside, something is missing. “There are no [fireflies] anymore,” he says. “They constructed houses and industries, and so they are gone.”

De Cock, now a firefly researcher who wrote his PhD thesis on larvae like the one he found as a child, knows that many people have nostalgic childhood memories of catching fireflies. Anecdotally, many of those people also report seeing fewer fireflies—or lightning bugs, as they’re called in some places—every summer. Experts say there’s scientific merit to that observation, as firefly species around the world are declining.

Left: Fireflies swarm a forest in upstate New York. Right: Scientists have identified key factors contributing to declining firefly populations, including light pollution and climate change. Composite Photographs By Peter Mayney

Most Fireflies are a Mystery to Scientists

There are more than 2,600 firefly species across all continents, except for Antarctica, yet scientists have assessed the conservation status of only 150 species (or fewer than 7 percent). Of those 150 firefly species, 20 percent are already threatened with extinction, which is a concerning number, says firefly scientist Wan Faridah Akmal Jusoh, co-chair at the IUCN Firefly Specialist Group.

Yet, while a few species are well-studied—and scientists know that some of them are declining globally—researchers still lack the most basic information about most fireflies, and new ones are still being discovered today. “We only know up to species name [for most fireflies],” says Jusoh. Oftentimes it’s only due to specimens that were collected in a museum. What most species eat, where and how they live, and, in some cases, whether they are extinct, remains a mystery.

This knowledge gap is a huge problem for conservation. “In order to be able to protect the fireflies, we need to build a 'profile' of the species to better inform policymakers,” says Jusoh. “We lack people actually studying their behavior, studying their ecology: What do they eat? Where can they be found?”

To fill this gap, scientists in the Firefly Specialist Group began studying just that. Their work officially began in 2018, and they’re monitoring fireflies globally, says Jusoh. “Currently, we're slowly building a species list and, at the same time, assessing their conservation status.”

Left: Fireflies crowd a field in upstate New York. They're particularly fond of places near streams or rivers. Composite Photographs By Peter Mayney Right: Fireflies illuminate the sky in rural Iowa. Photograph By Radim Schreiber, FireFlyExperience

What’s Threatening Fireflies?

While some species are more stable than others, scientists have identified key factors that are fueling fireflies’ decline, a trend that probably began a few decades ago. However, researchers admit that it’s hard to say when the decline actually started, due to the lack of historical data, though Southeast Asia and Europe have larger data sets than North America due to a decade or more of monitoring, says Candace Fallon, the firefly program lead at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

Still, scientists are aware that these insects experience different levels of threats, depending on location, according to Jusoh. Common problems include light pollution, habitat loss, pesticide overuse, and unsustainable tourism.

“Our night skies are just getting brighter every year,” says Fallon. She calls light pollution “a growing threat,” explaining that most fireflies “need dark nights in order to communicate.” Artificial light can impact courtship as well, and pesticides can harm fireflies at all life stages and decrease their food sources.

Climate change also plays a key role, as extended droughts make some areas inhabitable for fireflies, while rising sea levels and more severe storms may affect species inhabiting coastal areas, by flooding and submerging their habitat.

In fact, habitat decline is a key strategy in determining which species of fireflies are threatened, says Fallon. If a wild area where researchers know a firefly population used to live now has been urbanized, they can now assume that population is declining or gone.

Fireflies hover in the mountains over Yamagata, Japan. Light pollution from cities is one of the greatest threats to the insects' survival. Composite Photograph By Kazuaki Koseki

The Glimmers of Hope For Firefly Conservation

Even though threats against fireflies are growing, many experts are hopeful that we will continue to see them lighting up the night skies.

“There is always in the darkness a flash of hope,” says De Cock. “But I think we have to be quite fast.”

In the United States, firefly season tends to be from late spring to early summer, though researchers say it can vary due to species and location. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee is a particularly well-known viewing spot that’s so popular you must win a lottery to attend a viewing session in early June. However, fireflies are found across the U.S. and in Canada, particularly near ponds, streams, rivers, marshes, and lakes—but it may be as easy as looking in your backyard.

Synchronous fireflies (Photinus Carolinus) illuminate the forests of Watoga State Park, West Virginia, which were discovered in 2019 after efforts to achieve International Dark Sky status. Photograph By Haoxiang Yang, Getty Images

Speaking for European populations, De Cock says many appear beginning in June or early July, but that it wholly varies on region and species, as well as global warming.

To ensure that we keep seeing them, scientists around the world continue to plan efforts aimed at helping conservation. The Firefly Atlas, for instance, launched in 2022, studies species across the U.S. and Canada. The IUCN is working on global assessments in the U.S., Europe, and Southeast Asia.

But anyone can play a role in saving fireflies by giving them a comfortable habitat. You can re-create conditions in your backyard by leaving out woody debris, for example, or simply reducing light pollution.

“Compared to 30 years ago, we are on the right track,” says Jusoh. “I'm very hopeful about the future.”

[remotewatch]

if I don’t see a firefly in the next month I’m driving my car through a wall

[asgardian--angels]

Planet's Fucked: What Can You Do To Help? (Long Post)

Since nobody is talking about the existential threat to the climate and the environment a second Trump term/Republican government control will cause, which to me supersedes literally every other issue, I wanted to just say my two cents, and some things you can do to help. I am a conservation biologist, whose field was hit substantially by the first Trump presidency. I study wild bees, birds, and plants.

In case anyone forgot what he did last time, he gagged scientists' ability to talk about climate change, he tried zeroing budgets for agencies like the NOAA, he attempted to gut protections in the Endangered Species Act (mainly by redefining 'take' in a way that would allow corporations to destroy habitat of imperiled species with no ramifications), he tried to do the same for the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (the law that offers official protection for native non-game birds), he sought to expand oil and coal extraction from federal protected lands, he shrunk the size of multiple national preserves, HE PULLED US OUT OF THE PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT, and more.

We are at a crucial tipping point in being able to slow the pace of climate change, where we decide what emissions scenario we will operate at, with existential consequences for both the environment and people. We are also in the middle of the Sixth Mass Extinction, with the rate of species extinctions far surpassing background rates due completely to human actions. What we do now will determine the fate of the environment for hundreds or thousands of years - from our ability to grow key food crops (goodbye corn belt! I hated you anyway but), to the pressure on coastal communities that will face the brunt of sea level rise and intensifying extreme weather events, to desertification, ocean acidification, wildfires, melting permafrost (yay, outbreaks of deadly frozen viruses!), and a breaking down of ecosystems and ecosystem services due to continued habitat loss and species declines, especially insect declines. The fact that the environment is clearly a low priority issue despite the very real existential threat to so many people, is beyond my ability to understand. I do partly blame the public education system for offering no mandatory environmental science curriculum or any at all in most places. What it means is that it will take the support of everyone who does care to make any amount of difference in this steeply uphill battle.

There are not enough environmental scientists to solve these issues, not if public support is not on our side and the majority of the general public is either uninformed or actively hostile towards climate science (or any conservation science).

So what can you, my fellow Americans, do to help mitigate and minimize the inevitable damage that lay ahead?

I'm not going to tell you to recycle more or take shorter showers. I'll be honest, that stuff is a drop in the bucket. What does matter on the individual level is restoring and protecting habitat, reducing threats to at-risk species, reducing pesticide use, improving agricultural practices, and pushing for policy changes. Restoring CONNECTIVITY to our landscape - corridors of contiguous habitat - will make all the difference for wildlife to be able to survive a changing climate and continued human population expansion.

**Caveat that I work in the northeast with pollinators and birds so I cannot provide specific organizations for some topics, including climate change focused NGOs. Scientists on tumblr who specialize in other fields, please add your own recommended resources. **

We need two things: FUNDING and MANPOWER.

You may surprised to find that an insane amount of conservation work is carried out by volunteers. We don't ever have the funds to pay most of the people who want to help. If you really really care, consider going into a conservation-related field as a career. It's rewarding, passionate work.

At the national level, please support:

The Nature Conservancy

Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Cornell Lab of Ornithology (including eBird)

National Audubon Society

Federal Duck Stamps (you don't need to be a hunter to buy one!)

These first four work to acquire and restore critical habitat, change environmental policy, and educate the public. There is almost certainly a Nature Conservancy-owned property within driving distance of you. Xerces plays a very large role in pollinator conservation, including sustainable agriculture, native bee monitoring programs, and the Bee City/Bee Campus USA programs. The Lab of O is one of the world's leaders in bird research and conservation. Audubon focuses on bird conservation. You can get annual memberships to these organizations and receive cool swag and/or a subscription to their publications which are well worth it. You can also volunteer your time; we need thousands of volunteers to do everything from conducting wildlife surveys, invasive species removal, providing outreach programming, managing habitat/clearing trails, planting trees, you name it. Federal Duck Stamps are the major revenue for wetland conservation; hunters need to buy them to hunt waterfowl but anyone can get them to collect!

THERE ARE DEFINITELY MORE, but these are a start.

Additionally, any federal or local organizations that seek to provide support and relief to those affected by hurricanes, sea level rise, any form of coastal climate change...

At the regional level:

These are a list of topics that affect major regions of the United States. Since I do not work in most of these areas I don't feel confident recommending specific organizations, but please seek resources relating to these as they are likely major conservation issues near you.

PRAIRIE CONSERVATION & PRAIRIE POTHOLE WETLANDS

DRYING OF THE COLORADO RIVER (good overview video linked)

PROTECTION OF ESTUARIES AND SALTMARSH, ESPECIALLY IN THE DELAWARE BAY AND LONG ISLAND (and mangroves further south, everglades etc; this includes restoring LIVING SHORELINES instead of concrete storm walls; also check out the likely-soon extinction of saltmarsh sparrows)

UNDAMMING MAJOR RIVERS (not just the Colorado; restoring salmon runs, restoring historic floodplains)

NATIVE POLLINATOR DECLINES (NOT honeybees. for fuck's sake. honeybees are non-native domesticated animals. don't you DARE get honeybee hives to 'save the bees')

WILDLIFE ALONG THE SOUTHERN BORDER (support the Mission Butterfly Center!)

INVASIVE PLANT AND ANIMAL SPECIES (this is everywhere but the specifics will differ regionally, dear lord please help Hawaii)

LOSS OF WETLANDS NATIONWIDE (some states have lost over 90% of their wetlands, I'm looking at you California, Ohio, Illinois)

INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE, esp in the CORN BELT and CALIFORNIA - this is an issue much bigger than each of us, but we can work incrementally to promote sustainable practices and create habitat in farmland-dominated areas. Support small, local farms, especially those that use soil regenerative practices, no-till agriculture, no pesticides/Integrated Pest Management/no neonicotinoids/at least non-persistent pesticides. We need more farmers enrolling in NRCS programs to put farmland in temporary or permanent wetland easements, or to rent the land for a 30-year solar farm cycle. We've lost over 99% of our prairies to corn and soybeans. Let's not make it 100%.

INDIGENOUS LAND-BACK EFFORTS/INDIGENOUS LAND MANAGEMENT/TEK (adding this because there have been increasing efforts not just for reparations but to also allow indigenous communities to steward and manage lands either fully independently or alongside western science, and it would have great benefits for both people and the land; I know others on here could speak much more on this. Please platform indigenous voices)

HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS (get your neighbors to stop dumping fertilizers on their lawn next to lakes, reduce agricultural runoff)

OCEAN PLASTIC (it's not straws, it's mostly commercial fishing line/trawling equipment and microplastics)

A lot of these are interconnected. And of course not a complete list.

At the state and local level:

You probably have the most power to make change at the local level!

Support or volunteer at your local nature centers, local/state land conservancy non-profits (find out who owns&manages the preserves you like to hike at!), state fish & game dept/non-game program, local Audubon chapters (they do a LOT). Participate in a Christmas Bird Count!

Join local garden clubs, which install and maintain town plantings - encourage them to use NATIVE plants. Join a community garden!

Get your college campus or city/town certified in the Bee Campus USA/Bee City USA programs from the Xerces Society

Check out your state's official plant nursery, forest society, natural heritage program, anything that you could become a member of, get plants from, or volunteer at.

Volunteer to be part of your town's conservation commission, which makes decisions about land management and funding

Attend classes or volunteer with your land grant university's cooperative extension (including master gardener programs)

Literally any volunteer effort aimed at improving the local environment, whether that's picking up litter, pulling invasive plants, installing a local garden, planting trees in a city park, ANYTHING. make a positive change in your own sphere. learn the local issues affecting your nearby ecosystems. I guarantee some lake or river nearby is polluted

MAKE HABITAT IN YOUR COMMUNITY. Biggest thing you can do. Use plants native to your area in your yard or garden. Ditch your lawn. Don't use pesticides (including mosquito spraying, tick spraying, Roundup, etc). Don't use fertilizers that will run off into drinking water. Leave the leaves in your yard. Get your school/college to plant native gardens. Plant native trees (most trees planted in yards are not native). Remove invasive plants in your yard.

On this last point, HERE ARE EASY ONLINE RESOURCES TO FIND NATIVE PLANTS and LEARN ABOUT NATIVE GARDENING:

Xerces Society Pollinator Conservation Resource Center

Pollinator Pathway

Audubon Native Plant Finder

Homegrown National Park (and Doug Tallamy's other books)

National Wildlife Federation Native Plant Finder (clunky but somewhat helpful)

Heather Holm (for prairie/midwest/northeast)

MonarchGard w/ Benjamin Vogt (for prairie/midwest)

Native Plant Trust (northeast & mid-atlantic)

Grow Native Massachusetts (northeast)

Habitat Gardening in Central New York (northeast)

There are many more - I'm not familiar with resources for western states. Print books are your biggest friend. Happy to provide a list of those.

Lastly, you can help scientists monitor species using citizen science. Contribute to iNaturalist, eBird, Bumblebee Watch, or any number of more geographically or taxonomically targeted programs (for instance, our state has a butterfly census carried out by citizen volunteers).

In short? Get curious, get educated, get involved. Notice your local nature, find out how it's threatened, and find out who's working to protect it that you can help with. The health of the planet, including our resilience to climate change, is determined by small local efforts to maintain and restore habitat. That is how we survive this. When government funding won't come, when we're beat back at every turn trying to get policy changed, it comes down to each individual person creating a safe refuge for nature.

Thanks for reading this far. Please feel free to add your own credible resources and organizations.

[fantasticwolfpenguin]

Yes the birds I wish for them a blessed year for their kind

Holy shit there are so many birds

[rastronomicals]

7:34 AM EST February 14, 2025:

British Sea Power - "Apologies to Insect Life" From the album The Decline of British Sea Power (June 2, 2003)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under: Postrock revival

--

[delicatelysublimeforester]

Discovering the Night's Wonders: National Moth Week Celebration

[great-and-small]

We are losing nearly ten percent of the planet’s insect population every decade due to human influence. If you have taken even an entry level biology course you understand how terrifying that figure is for not just humans but all life on Earth. As EO Wilson put it,

“If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos”

Even despite the urgency of this issue, there are few conservation initiatives focused solely on preserving invertebrates. The Xerces Society is one such organization! If you share my concern about insect population decline (and you are able to do so), please consider donating to their current fundraiser to help protect our most vulnerable neighbors. They are still short of their fundraising goal!

[wickedzeevyln]

Stay

“What a gnarly sight that would be.”“What?” asked Andrew.“Like back in the days,” Ben said. “Except Frederick will be slumped stiff and grayed out.”“Leave the poor guy alone.”“Do you think that he is still there somewhere?”“You mean like a ghost?”“No, like if he is still in his molecule.”“Nah, he’s gone for good. It’s inevitable, we all have to go some time.”“Not today though, and besides, I left…

[jim-fetter-illustrations]

Pollution is causing less pollination of food crops because insects can't pick up the plants scent!

Just when you think we've got a handle on things we are reminded by nature were still behind the eight ball, and in trouble awkwardly!!

This latest research on global warming and climate change is telling us Air pollution is making it hard for flowers and other growing things to get pollinated, according to a new study in the journal Science.

Now I don't need to tell educated people about what happens when flowers and crops can't be pollinated the natural way, with the help of insects, and when that doesn't happen we have to do it manually, and that effort raises the price of EVERYTHING by ten fold!!!

Ya see the thing is Pollution floating in the air may be invisible to see, but it's bastardizing the scent of everything that grows making it difficult for pollinators (the insects) to recognize the scent of the plant growing.

Insects use their sense of smell to find plants that give off pollen scents up to 5 miles away to attract the insects, but Pollutants called nitrate radicals eat away at the complex chemical signals that plants offer to bees and other insects, and these nitrates are found in urban air across the planet today.

And ya see,.... Without that ability to give off scents to attract insects, then the plant doesn't get pollinated, and the insects can't find sugar to keep on going, so the insect eventually dies out and the plants are manually pollinated raising the cost of food tenfold.

And were still voting to continue this process because people like Trump tell us it's total bullshit, but when you can no longer afford to buy food because the cost is to much, people like Trump will still be eating like kings, and YOU, well no one is gonna care about YOU at that point in the disaster.

Ya see,... Insects are primary consumers in many food chains, and their disappearance would affect animals that depend on them for food, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and small mammals. The loss of insectivorous species could cause imbalances and disruptions in entire ecosystems!!!!

You stupid dumbasses that you are.

Keep voting the two party corruption and you'll be the ones who get fucked, not your political leaders who are telling you to keep feeding their bank accounts..... Just a random thought about the stupidity of humanity to follow the crowd right over the cliff of disaster, all the while thinking they are making things better.....

[tenth-sentence]

According to David Pimentel, the late professor of insect ecology and agricultural sciences at Cornell University, total grain production per capita has been declining since 1984; arable (cropping) land per capita has been declining since 1948; fish production per capita has been declining since 1980; and loss of food to pests has not decreased below 52 per cent since 1990.

"Soil: The incredible story of what keeps the earth, and us, healthy" - Matthew Evans

[rjzimmerman]

Surprising New Research Links Infant Mortality to Crashing Bat Populations. (New York Times)

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

The connections are commonsense but the conclusion is shocking.

Bats eat insects. When a fatal disease hit bats, farmers used more pesticides to protect crops. And that, according to a new study, led to an increase in infant mortality.

According to the research, published Thursday in the journal Science, farmers in affected U.S. counties increased their use of insecticides by 31 percent when bat populations declined. In those places, infant mortality rose by an estimated 8 percent.

“It’s a seminal piece,” said Carmen Messerlian, a reproductive epidemiologist at Harvard who was not involved with the research. “I actually think it’s groundbreaking.”

The new study tested various alternatives to see if something else could have driven the increase: Unemployment or drug overdoses, for example. Nothing else was found to cause it.

Dr. Messerlian, who studies how the environment affects fertility, pregnancy and child health, said a growing body of research is showing health effects from toxic chemicals in our environment, even if scientists can’t put their fingers on the causal links.

“If we were to reduce the population-level exposure today, we would save lives,” she said. “It’s as easy as that.”

The new study is the latest to find dire consequences for humans when ecosystems are thrown out of balance. Recent research by the same author, Eyal Frank, an environmental economist at the University of Chicago, found that a die-off of vultures in India had led to half a million excess human deaths as rotting livestock carcasses polluted water and spurred an increase in feral dogs, spreading waterborne diseases and rabies.

“We often pay a lot of attention to global extinctions, where species completely disappear,” Dr. Frank said. “But we start experiencing loss and damages well before that.”

[cadaverousdecay]

🦇 the-birds-and-the-bats Follow

PLEASE keep your zoophagous familiars indoors or preferably, locked up in a sanitarium (it’s where they thrive, but if u can’t afford a sanitarium, a dank dungeon in your castle will work) but for the love of the devil your zoophagous familiar is not an outdoor familiar. no exceptions

🦇 the-birds-and-the-bats Follow

i am so tired of trying to explain to familiar owners in the notes that zoophagous familiars are not meant to roam free out of doors. they are a danger to themselves and their environment.

here is a link to a study done on the relationship between the rise of outdoor familiars in Essex and the decline of the sparrow population.

and no, your familiar is not the exception.

🧪 doctor-jekyllstein Follow

Lol OK op, anyway…

My zoophagous maniac only eats insects. She is doing absolutely no harm to the environment. Plus, she hates being cooped up in a cell, she always breaks out. She was meant to be outdoors, and she’s not a danger to birds! She’s a sweetheart! She would only hurt a fly. And the occasional spider haha

🦇 the-birds-and-the-bats Follow

where do i even start with this. first of all, i don’t know how to explain to you that insects are a part of the environment…

secondly, the nature of zoophagous familiars is that they will work their way up the food chain. you may only see her eating flies and spiders, but unchecked their eating habits go to birds and cats and sometimes even humans. if she is free roaming as you claim, she’s probably already consumed countless sparrows. KEEP HER INSIDE.

and finally, you mentioned she keeps breaking out of her cell. there could be a few reasons for this. either she’s not getting enough enrichment, or she’s being enthralled and called to her master. if it’s the latter, don’t worry about it <3 but if she keeps breaking out you need to make sure she’s getting the enrichment she needs. are you giving her sugar to lure her flies? a notebook to count the lives she’s consumed? space to ramble about her theories on blood being life?

keep her indoors. if she breaks out to monologue about rats she needs your attention. entertain her. but keep your zoophagous familiars indoors.

☠️ graveyard-smash Follow

of course it’s a mad scientist bitching about this post. mad scientists need to learn to keep their gloved hands out of the monster community

🦇 the-birds-and-the-bats Follow

hi op here, please don’t go leaving exclusionist comments on my post. mad scientists are known to toe the lines of monstrosity, often times themselves becoming monsters whether literally or socially, and very frequently are in contact with or creating monsters. this is a post about zoophagous familiars, which are notoriously looked after by some form of mad scientist/doctor. like it or not, there will always be mad scientists and doctors in the monster community.

🧛🏻 nose-fur-achoo Follow

my familiar isn’t zoophagous but they often leave my manor to lure me victims. is that okay?

🪦 undead-and-loving-it Follow

the reading comprehension on this site is bloody awful

🩸sleepalldaypartyallnight Follow

how dare you say blood is awful????!!!!