Insects are nutritious and many species contain relatively more protein than conventional meat sources. CK Bangkok Photography/Shutterstock
In February, scientists raised the alarm that insects which make up half of the 1 million known animal and plant species that inhabit Earth are facing extinction.
Conservation biologists laid out in a ‘warning to humanity’ the negative consequences humans face should our unsustainable ways continue to threaten insects, and the species that are codependent on them.
This follows an earlier entry, published in April 2019, in which authors Francisco Sánchez-Bayo and Kris Wyckhuys warned that over 40% of insect species are threatened with extinction over the next few decades.
The journal entries, which resulted in panicked media reports from around the world, explained that there are some services provided by insects that humans simply cannot replace, and that people are willingly and unknowingly destroying whole species to enhance their lives.
But there is a small problem with the alleged impending doom of insects – we do not know enough about them to know just how bad things really are, especially not in South Africa.
In 2018, it was thought that there could be up to 5.5 million species of insects, but only one-fifth of these are named. This was confirmed by entomology postgraduate student Agata Morelli, who presented a paper at the 2019 Oppenheimer Research Conference.
Morelli, who has studied insects as biodiversity indicators in urban environments at the University of Pretoria with Professor Catherine Sole, lamented that in Africa, notably southern Africa, there is no scientific data of serious declines in entomofauna (the insects inhabiting specific environments or regions), due to the lack of long-term studies to assess trends observed around the world.
“In South Africa, we can only rely on anecdotal evidence. However, I believe that we can still apply measures to reduce our impact on insects, preventatively in the least,” Morelli said.
It seems strange that the world is concerned about a possible insect apocalypse when in East Africa, desert locust infestations are threatening the food security and livelihoods of millions of people in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. The United Nations’ Locust Watch provided an update on 28 April, warning that a second generation of locust breeding will mean an increase in infestations in East Africa, eastern Yemen and southern Iran in the next few months.
The massive swarms of desert locusts entered Kenya in December. (AFP Photo/TONY KARUMBA)
But even seemingly biblical plagues and insect infestations are probably due to the fault of humans, with scientists speculating that long bouts of wetter weather, thanks to cyclones over the past year and a half which increased breeding patterns, are to blame for the desert locust takeover.
If climate change can result in locust infestations, Earth may be in a world of trouble.
Is it as bad as experts warn, however?
Entomologists and biologists around the world dismiss doomsday reports that insect populations will decline by 40% over the next few decades.
While it cannot be denied that creepy crawlies are in trouble, and in some regions, whole extinctions have been observed, academics opposing Sanchez-Bayo and Wyckhuys say we simply cannot be sure of how bad the impending species decimation could be.
The regions that were used to monitor insect populations were also called into question, mainly for surveys being conducted in Europe and North America, which does not mean the same is true for the rest of the world.
As Morelli explained, because South Africa does not possess scientific evidence to confirm insect declines in the country, this means that “we have no idea as to exactly which insects we should be most concerned about”.
Morelli said that to make up for the information gap, South Africa looks to insect population declines in regions such as the US and Europe, to try and implement mitigating strategies to prevent population declines.
These measures include the general reduction in chemical pesticides and use of sustainable alternatives, creating refuges and microhabitats in our urban environments for insects to live in cities, and controlling the amount of pollution from agricultural, urban and industrial systems, which threatens the lives of insects, humans and other animals.
A research paper prioritising the need to research South African bees is just one of the many ways gaps can be filled to fully understand whether our insect populations are as much in need of help as those in the US and Europe.
University of Cape Town postdoctoral research fellow Dr Annalie Melin and co-author Dr Jonathan Colville, published a paper titled A review of 250 years of South African bee taxonomy and exploration (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophilia).
A worrying conclusion stated that a large part of the country’s bee fauna is yet to be discovered, and that almost a third of South Africa’s 80 genera require taxonomic revision.
Only 70% of the country has been surveyed for bees, which has been poorly conducted, due to the “diminishing capacity and expertise” in the country, Melin and Colville found.
South Africa does have a diverse bee species, but more comprehensive bee inventories and insect studies must be urgently established for the country to see just how bad our insect population declines may be.
If well-known bugs such as honeybees are poorly researched, this does not bode well for insects that are not widely known.
A study published in April sought to investigate widespread insect population declines and found that terrestrial insects are dying out, but freshwater insect populations have increased. After 16 long-term surveys conducted across 1,676 sites, it was determined that terrestrial insects declined by 9% per decade, and freshwater insects increased by 11% per decade.
This is not good news, but isn’t all bad, and affirms that if research efforts to monitor insects across the globe are intensified, they stand a chance of not being wiped out before they are better understood. Better yet, humans may be able to better understand how we infringe on the land of creatures that most of the time we cannot even see.
Morelli explained that factors most threatening to insects included intensive agriculture, pesticides, pollution and urbanisation.
These activities cause habitat destruction, which results in biodiversity loss.
For Morelli, it is essential that better management schemes be initiated “to at least lower the rates at which we are removing insects from the environment.”
Size cannot be scoffed at when explaining the importance of insects as the foundation for most ecosystems.
Activities such as pollination, nutrient cycling, decomposing organic matter, and pest control are a few of the crucial services provided to humans by insects.
Morelli said estimates indicate that almost 90% of the world’s plants are pollinated by animals, which means that insects and the ecosystems they sustain are essential to ensuring global food security.
“Insects are a crucial backbone to global ecosystems, especially because they compose two-thirds of all terrestrial fauna on earth, and their decline could disrupt ecosystems, resulting in detrimental ramifications to humans, such as pest and disease outbreaks,” she explained.
Because of the fine balance struck between animals, plants and insects, the destruction of one species spells disaster for another.
Co-dependent ecosystems are tricky – if an insect species dies out, there is a knock-on effect for all plants and animals that were dependent on that species – whether for protection or food.
Moudi al-Miftah, a 64-year-old journalist, cooks locust at her home in Al-Ahmadi, some 35 kilometres south of Kuwait City, on January 25, 2020. (Photo by YASSER AL-ZAYYAT / AFP)
The entomophagy trend has gained momentum around the world, and has found a way for the food industry to minimise input costs such as water, and take advantage of sustainable alternative animal protein sources.
A 2019 journal review of edible insects found that eating edible insects could be a good way to alleviate hunger and malnutrition.
At present, eating bugs for breakfast is mostly practised among low-income populations with nothing else to eat. But a restaurant in Cape Town recently sought to change this.
Gourmet Grubbs’ ‘The Insect Experience’ has put bugs on their menu, with the restaurant’s Leah Bessa and Jean Louwrens joining sustainability and food knowledge to introduce insects to their customers’ daily diets.
They now make gourmet ice cream, among other meals, with no sugar, carbs or milk – only good, pure black soldier fly larvae, thanks to a product called Entomilk.
The gross factor is something much of the Western world still needs to overcome, to shift our thinking away from insects being a last resort or a novelty lunch idea to being a legitimate protein alternative.
Insects may be an overlooked dietary staple, mostly for being visually off-putting, but they are jam-packed with proteins, fat and minerals.
Humans not well-versed in eating insects do have some way to go if this is to be made available in a mainstream setting, with much research still required regarding the potential of people being allergic to certain bugs, and even traits in insects to spread pathogens. Encouragingly, making more use of insects is far more sustainable than animal byproducts, and is seen by many as the future of human food.
Humans have indulged in eggs, larvae, pupae and some adult insect species for thousands of years, and aside from this, the environmental benefits are vast. Insects reproduce at a much faster rate than cows, chickens or pigs, are available year-round, and considerably cheaper.
So, although it is difficult to confirm that we could lose 41% of insect species, twice as many as vertebrate extinction rates, the importance of insects can be appreciated by even the most entomophobic of humans.
If we were to lose insects, Morelli said: “I think the true magnitude of the potential repercussions cannot even be quantified.”
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