"A 2014 study in Science documented a steep drop in insect and invertebrate populations worldwide"...................."Rodolfo Dirzo, an ecologist at Stanford University, developed a global index for invertebrate abundance that shows a 45 percent decline over the last four decades".................... "Dirzo points out that out of 3,623 terrestrial invertebrate species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature [IUCN] Red List, 42 percent are classified as threatened with extinction".............."In Europe and the United States, researchers have documented declines in wild and managed bee populations of 30 to 40 percent and more due to so-called colony collapse disorder".............."Other insect species, such as the monarch butterfly, also have experienced sharp declines"................."Scientists cite many factors in the fall-off of the world’s insect populations, but chief among them are the ubiquitous use of pesticides, the spread of monoculture crops such as corn and soybeans, urbanization, and habitat destruction"...................."A significant drop in insect populations could have far-reaching consequences for the natural world and for humans, who depend on bees and other invertebrates to pollinate crops"......................"A study by Canadian biologists, published in 2010, suggests that North American bird species that depend on aerial insects for feeding themselves and their offspring have suffered much more pronounced declines in recent years than other perching birds that largely feed on seeds"..................."The analysis is based on data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey"............We are witnessing a clasic case of a human caused disruption in the food chain from the bottom up..............As we kill the insects, we end up killing am unlimited array of larger life forms-including ourselves..........Can we reel ourselves in from using the chemicals, planting thousands of acres with just one crop and ripping up the landscape at every turn????????

https://e360.yale.edu/features/insect_numbers_declining_why_it_matters

What’s Causing the Sharp Decline 

in Insects, and Why It Matters

BY CHRISTIAN SCHWÄGERL • JULY 6, 2016

Insect populations are declining dramatically

 in many parts of the world, recent studies show. 

Researchers say various factors, from monoculture 

farming to habitat loss, are to blame for the plight 

of insects, which are essential to agriculture and ecosystems.

Scientists have described 1 million species of insects so far, and estimate at least 4 million are still unrecorded.

Entomologists call it the windshield phenomenon. "If you talk to people, they have a gut feeling. They remember how insects used to smash on your windscreen," says Wolfgang Wägele, director of the Leibniz Institute for Animal Biodiversity in Bonn, Germany. Today, drivers spend less time scraping and scrubbing. "I'm a very data-driven person," says Scott Black, executive director of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in Portland, Oregon. "But it is a visceral reaction when you realize you don't see that mess anymore."

Infrared picture
 of fireflys
 in a german
 forest