We NEED spiders, believe it or not
By University of Massachusetts Amherst
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| Lead author Wes Walsh, his tattoo of Agelenopsis pennsylvanica (the Pennsylvanian grass spider) and one of the inspirations for this study, a live Platycryptus undatus (tan jumping spider). Credit: Wes Walsh |
As
global biodiversity declines in what some researchers call the “insect
apocalypse,” two ecologists at the University
of Massachusetts Amherst set out to evaluate how insects and arachnids
are faring across the United States. What they found was not reassurance, but a
striking lack of basic information.
Their study, recently published in PNAS,
underscores the urgent need to better measure, safeguard, and recognize the
value of insects and arachnids as a foundation 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.”
A Startling Data Gap
To get a clearer picture, Figueroa and her graduate student, Wes Walsh, who led the study, compiled conservation assessments for 99,312 known species of insects and arachnids found in North America, north of Mexico. The scale of what they uncovered surprised them.
“Almost 90%—88.5% to be precise—of insect and arachnid
species have no conservation status,” says Figueroa. “We simply have no idea
how they are doing. Almost nothing is known about the conservation needs of
most insects and arachnids in North America.”
In practical terms, that means the vast majority of these
species have never been formally evaluated for risk, leaving scientists and
policymakers without the information needed to guide protection efforts.
Bias in Protection Efforts
The limited data that do exist are unevenly distributed.
Aquatic insects used to gauge water quality, including mayflies, stoneflies and
caddisflies (mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies), are far more likely to be
studied. More visually appealing groups, such as butterflies and dragonflies,
also receive a disproportionate share of conservation attention.
“Arachnids, in particular, are really missing from
conservation; most states don’t even protect a single species. We need more
data and protection for insects, but also arachnids,” says Walsh.
The researchers also identified political and economic
patterns. States that depend heavily on extractive industries such as mining,
quarrying and oil and gas extraction were less likely to offer protections to
insects or arachnids. In contrast, states where public attitudes are more eco
centric tended to safeguard a greater number of species.
Lessons from Bird Conservation
By way of comparison, Figueroa points to bird conservation,
which has been far more successful in protecting and preserving species. “The
research shows that you get the best conservation efforts when broad, diverse
coalitions come together,” she says. “In the case of birds, it was hunters,
bird watchers, nonprofit organizations and many other constituencies who banded
together to reach a common goal.”
“Insects and arachnids are more than objects of fear,” says
Walsh, who sports a beautiful spider tattoo on his arm. “We need to appreciate
them for their ecological importance, and that begins with collecting more data
and considering them worthy of conservation.”
Reference: “Data deficiency, taxonomic bias, and economic
interests curtail insect and arachnid conservation in the United States” by Wes
Walsh and Laura L. Figueroa, 2 March 2026, Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2522779123