While insects provide an essential food source for many vertebrate species, they’re more than just a protein-laden snack.
Chimpanzees use them to sterilize wounds, and herons as fishing bait. Sloths rely on moths to maintain the algae in their fur, which they then eat. Birds and reptiles lay their eggs inside the temperature-controlled sanctuary of termite mounds, while some desert frogs reside in ant nests because of the humidity.
“Insects are sometimes called the ‘little things that run the world’ because they are so important to life on Earth,” said Binghamton University, State University of New York Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Eliza Grames, the co-lead author of “The importance of insect biodiversity for vertebrates,” published Sept. 30 in Nature Reviews Biodiversity. “We often hear about their importance as pollinators, or decomposers, or food for insectivores like birds and bats, but we forget about all the other things they do for us and for other species.”
A collaborative effort with authors from eight countries, the review paper was led by Grames along with Rob Cooke, an ecological modeler at the UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology, and UConn Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Chris Elphick.
Additional Binghamton authors include Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Lindsey Swierk and biological sciences alumni Julianna Yager, MS ’25, and Suyeon Jang, ’25. Jang, an undergraduate with a painting minor, also created the paper’s main illustration as an independent study project.
The review article consolidates hundreds of disparate studies conducted across decades, highlighting the importance of insect biodiversity in supporting vertebrate life. The project began in 2022 with the creation of the National Science Foundation-funded Status of Insects: An International Research Coordination Network , a direct result of Grames’ work as a doctoral student in Elphick’s lab.
A better understanding of the diverse roles that insects play in the lives of vertebrates is essential for designing effective conservation strategies. Elphick, an ornithologist, said that he hopes the review will foster increased collaboration between scientists who study vertebrates and those who study insects.
“If you want to have vertebrates, then you’ve got to be thinking about insect conservation, and we don’t do that nearly enough,” he said.
There are an estimated 14 to 30 million species of insects in the world, and they play a major role in the health and function of ecosystems. They provide food to species ranging from hummingbirds to grizzly bears, enable the existence of other food sources through pollination, and produce substances such as honeydew, honey, and wax that are also consumed by other species.
Birds use spider and insect silk in their nests, which they sometimes situate near stinging insects such as wasps for extra protection. More than 200 bird species use crushed ants for grooming, and a variety of vertebrate species time their breeding season to coincide with seasonal insect abundance. Go back far enough, and insects once lived inside dinosaur nests, cleaning them out; it’s a service they still perform in some owl and kingfisher nests, according to Grames.
But few scientific studies consider the decline of insect populations on vertebrate species, other than as a reduction in a species’ food supply, according to the paper. Some insect populations have experienced alarming declines in recent decades, which will ultimately affect the vertebrate species that rely on them.
“We’re losing insects at a rate of about 1-2% per year,” said Grames. “When you scale that up across a few decades, we’re talking about a major change to ecosystems. Insect conservation should be a top priority for anyone worried about the future of biodiversity.”
Nature Reviews Biodiversity
Literature review
Animals
30-Sep-2026