Eggs suspended on stalks: lacewings are known for this predator-evasion tactic, but I bet there are others as well.
The number of insects on the planet at any given time has been estimated at 10 quintillion; another estimation measures it this way: there are 300 pounds of insects for every pound of human.
Nevertheless, insect numbers are in decline, in some cases radically. And it is an enormous problem with wide-ranging effects for other animals, including, duh, the kind that can type sentences like this.
It is an old story by now: poison (pesticides, etc.), destruction of habitat, and monoculture. Oh, yes, and climate change, or as I like to call it, radical climate disruption. We’re emptying the earth of its wonders and complexity. Here’s a synopsis of that new paper on global “biological annihilation.”
We’re thinning life, and, as much as I find the idea of “ecosystem services” repulsive, the truth is we’re flattening out our own lives, too, physically, imaginatively, morally.
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