Mar 2, 2026 10:31 PM
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1118185
INTRO: Members of the arachnid class—think spiders, scorpions and harvestmen (daddy long legs)—are often the targets of revulsion, disgust and fear. Yet, they are crucial for ecosystems to thrive. Given the crash in worldwide biodiversity, including what some call the “insect apocalypse,” a pair of ecologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst decided to check in on the general state of insects and arachnids in the U.S.—only to discover massive gaps in the data. Their research, published recently in PNAS, points to an urgent need to assess, protect and value insects and arachnids, a key pillar of planetary health.
“Insects and arachnids are fundamental for human society,” says Laura Figueroa, assistant professor of environmental conservation at UMass Amherst and the paper’s senior author. “They help with pollination and biological control of pests; they can serve as monitors of air and water quality, and they have worked their way deeply into many cultures throughout the world”— think of Aragog in the Harry Potter book series, for example. “Many people care about popular charismatic animals on the planet, like lions and pandas, which, justly, have received international conservation attention. Given that insects and arachnids don’t usually get the same attention, we wanted to know how they were doing.”
To assess the state of our creepier, crawlier neighbors, Figueroa and her graduate student, Wes Walsh, the paper’s lead author, gathered conservation assessments for the 99,312 known insect and arachnid species in North America, north of Mexico. What they discovered was astounding.
“Almost 90%—88.5% to be precise—of insect and arachnid species have no conservation status,” says Figueroa... (MORE - details, no ads)
INTRO: Members of the arachnid class—think spiders, scorpions and harvestmen (daddy long legs)—are often the targets of revulsion, disgust and fear. Yet, they are crucial for ecosystems to thrive. Given the crash in worldwide biodiversity, including what some call the “insect apocalypse,” a pair of ecologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst decided to check in on the general state of insects and arachnids in the U.S.—only to discover massive gaps in the data. Their research, published recently in PNAS, points to an urgent need to assess, protect and value insects and arachnids, a key pillar of planetary health.
“Insects and arachnids are fundamental for human society,” says Laura Figueroa, assistant professor of environmental conservation at UMass Amherst and the paper’s senior author. “They help with pollination and biological control of pests; they can serve as monitors of air and water quality, and they have worked their way deeply into many cultures throughout the world”— think of Aragog in the Harry Potter book series, for example. “Many people care about popular charismatic animals on the planet, like lions and pandas, which, justly, have received international conservation attention. Given that insects and arachnids don’t usually get the same attention, we wanted to know how they were doing.”
To assess the state of our creepier, crawlier neighbors, Figueroa and her graduate student, Wes Walsh, the paper’s lead author, gathered conservation assessments for the 99,312 known insect and arachnid species in North America, north of Mexico. What they discovered was astounding.
“Almost 90%—88.5% to be precise—of insect and arachnid species have no conservation status,” says Figueroa... (MORE - details, no ads)
