for insects as such but rather a fear of the

knock-on effects of insect loss on more visible

and “popular” organisms, such as the birds and

mammals that eat them, or the trees and shrubs

that they pollinate. However, a strong decline

of insects—even just beetles—would have

far- reaching implications that would impact

the overall function of global ecosystems.

As well as providing food for many other

invertebrates and vertebrates, and playing little

recognized but major roles as pollinators and

predators, beetles and their larvae have an

essential role to play in returning nutrients to the

soil and making them available again for new

plant growth. European settlers in Australia

received just a small taste of what could happen

if these systems are unbalanced, when they

introduced sheep and cattle to Australia without

the suitable dung beetles to clear up the waste.

What was almost an ecological disaster was

averted by the selective introduction of European

and African dung beetles, but if this had not

been done, or had been unsuccessful, the entire

Australian sheep and cattle industry might

ultimately have become unsustainable. This

imbalance could be fixed only because it was on

a continental and not a global scale, but if dung

beetles were to disappear globally, so that more

could not be brought in from somewhere else,

humanity could be faced with an agricultural

crisis. This scenario may not be as distant or

unrealistic as it sounds. For example, the

widespread use of ivermectin wormers to kill

intestinal worms in livestock may be destructive to

dung beetle populations because these pesticides

are nonselective and remain active in the dung

after it has passed through the animal, killing

many of the insects that would otherwise break

down the dung.

The famous US entomologist E.O. Wilson

(1929–2021) described insects as “the little things

that run the world,” and this quotation is very apt.

When we look at a tropical rainforest, we see

trees and flowers, and we hope to see, perhaps,

orangutans, tapirs, or jaguars. But what is much

more fundamental is the vast, underappreciated,

and in many cases still undescribed diversity of

beetles that, in their millions, are maintaining the

whole ecosystem.

opposite above | Dicerca (Buprestidae) A hunting wasp

captures a jewel beetle. This specialist wasp only hunts

jewel beetles, and so also helps scientists monitor the spread

of the invasive Emerald Ash Borer Agrilus planipennis.

left | A Namaqua Chameleon catches a toktokkie desert

beetle (Tenebrionidae) in the Namib desert.