Insect Cultural Services: How Insects Have Changed Our Lives and How Can We Do Better for Them

Abstract

Societies have benefited directly and indirectly from ecosystem services provided by insects for centuries (e.g., pollination by bees and waste recycling by beetles). The relationship between people and insect ecosystem services has evolved and influenced how societies perceive and relate to nature and with each other, for example, by shaping cultural values (‘cultural ecosystem services’). Thus, better understanding the significance of insect cultural services can change societies’ motivations underpinning conservation efforts. To date, however, we still overlook the significance of many insect cultural services in shaping our societies, which in turn likely contributes to the generalised misconceptions and misrepresentations of insects in the media such as television and the internet. To address this gap, we have reviewed an identified list of insect cultural services that influence our societies on a daily basis, including cultural services related to art, recreation, and the development of traditional belief systems. This list allowed us to formulate a multi-level framework which aims to serve as a compass to guide societies to better appreciate and potentially change the perception of insect cultural services from individual to global levels. This framework can become an important tool for gaining public support for conservation interventions targeting insects and the services that they provide. More broadly, this framework highlights the importance of considering cultural ecosystems services—for which values can be difficult to quantify in traditional terms—in shaping the relationship between people and nature.

Insects in Art during an Age of Environmental Turmoil

“…Humans’ and insects’ lives have long been deeply intertwined. Insect diversity and abundance, the ecological services insects perform, and the cultural connections [ 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 ] we share spell a future of continued reliance and inspiration. Perhaps the use of insects presents a novel way of helping humanity grasp the magnitude of climate change.…”

Current conservation policies in the UK and Ireland overlook endangered insects and are taxonomically biased towards Lepidoptera

“…Such declines could jeopardise key functions in the ecosystem, with insects playing a role in pest control (Feener and Brown, 1997;Shaw and Hochberg, 2001), decomposition (Beynon et al, 2015;Seibold et al, 2021), carbon sequestration (Metcalfe et al, 2014;Orians et al, 2011), and pollination of flowering plants (Garibaldi et al, 2013;IPBES, 2016). This is in addition to the role of insects as a food source (Costa-Neto and Dunkel, 2016;Looy et al, 2014;Ramos Elorduy, 2005), numerous contributions to human culture (Duffus et al, 2021), and other unconventional ecosystem services (Morimoto, 2020). A reduction in these functions could have major impacts upon society, for instance by reducing food security, with 5-8% of the world's most nutritionally important crops dependent on animal pollination (Gallai et al, 2009;IPBES, 2016).…”

“…These current drivers, may result in declining insect populations, adversely affecting the functioning of ecosystems (van der Sluijs, 2020;Vanbergen, 2013). The roles filled by insects within the ecosystem are essential not only for ecosystem health, but also the sustainable development of our societies (Schowalter, 2013;Soliveres et al, 2016) provided that insects are responsible for the provisioning of unconventional services to society that span from plastic degradation through to cultural heritage (Bombelli et al, 2017;Duffus et al, 2021;Noriega et al, 2018) [see also (Morimoto, 2020) for a review]. These functions and services may be threatened by losses in insect biodiversity.…”

Sex, Bugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll: Insects in Music Videos

“…These patterns suggest that, with appropriate nudges, the attitudes of the majority can be shifted to a more positive view. Entomologists can facilitate this movement with education and outreach, such as those suggested by Duffus et al [ 21 ] For example, teacher candidates exposed to cockroach projects enjoy greatly reduced fear and disgust toward them [ 22 ]. By taking opportunities to present insects to popular audiences, using social media to counteract insect myths and promote factual phenomena or interesting new breakthroughs in insect science, we can help move popular perception in a favorable direction.…”