So the cow poop piled up. By , the cattle had carpeted , acres of pasture in dung. That's enough to cover over half of Rhode Island, and while a little bit of poop is great for fertilizer, this ocean of dung would flood plants with nitrogen, making it impossible for anything to grow. So, imagine if all 8, species of dung beetle, plus other doo-dining insects, like flies, vanished worldwide.
The land would be knee-deep in Farmland, forest, and desert would all collapse, and floating throughout would be loads of corpses. You see, most animals won't eat dead bodies. That's where flesh-eating beetles, aka dermestids, and other corpse-munching insects come in.
Over species of these grisly undertakers live worldwide, devouring dead flesh until nothing but bone remains.
Without them, there would be fewer custodians around to clean up the mess. Sure, there would still be hungry vultures and bacteria around to help, but it wouldn't be enough. So, that's where we could end up in an insect-less world. Starving to death while drowning in a sea of poop and corpses. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Get the Insider App. All of these are, in their turn, consumed by still larger creatures.
Even when plants die and are turned to mush by fungi and bacteria, there are insects that specialise in eating them. Going up the food chain, each animal is less and less fussy about what kind of food it will eat. This is why there are so many more kinds of insect than birds or mammals. Because only a small fraction of the material of one kind of organism is transformed into that of its predators, each successive stage in the food chain contains less and less living matter.
This is why big, fierce animals are rare. This is already happening — falling insect abundance in Central American tropical forest has been accompanied by parallel declines in the numbers of insect-eating frogs, lizards and birds.
We humans ought to be more careful about our relationship with the little creatures that run the world. As Wilson commented:. Knowing about insects and their ways is not a luxury. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. They are also exceptionally necessary to recycle fecal matter and some species are active pollinators. Ceratopogonids, for example, are important pollinators of tropical crops such as cocoa, which allows the existence of chocolate.
There are about , species of beetles, which makes it the most diverse insect in the world. Many of them are considered pests and they cause large crop losses.
For example, the pine weevil or bark beetle is considered the most destructive forest pest for pine forests in Mexico and Central America.
But other species have a positive impact. For example, the ladybug feeds on aphids and helps control this insect that attacks crops.
The coprophages also play a fundamental role: they are the largest manure recyclers and they also bury them, which fertilizes the soil. Without this action, the accumulation and smell would be unbearable for the ecosystem.
Crickets and the melodic sounds that they make at night are in danger: a report in which more than international specialists participated alerted that Cultivation in the places of their original habitat and the use of pesticides are the main causes of this threat.
Chapulines are a dish of Mexican cuisine that provides a large amount of protein and low fat. On the other hand, these species indicate the health and biodiversity of the lands with pastures. Most species that live with men are not dangerous or aggressive. If extinguished, flies and mosquitoes, that in some cases are carriers of diseases, would become a plague without a break.
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