A Black Woodpecker engages in a behavior known as "anting," in which birds rub ants on their feathers and skin to help protect themselves against bacteria and parasites. This is one of many such unique interactions between vertebrates and insects.
Photo Credit: Francesco Veronesi
(CC BY-SA 2.0)
Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Vertebrate-Insect Interactions
The Core Concept: Vertebrate-insect interactions encompass the diverse, ubiquitous ecological relationships between vertebrate animals and the estimated 14 to 30 million insect species, extending far beyond simple predator-prey dynamics.
Key Distinction/Mechanism: While biologists have traditionally viewed insects primarily as a caloric food source for species like birds and mammals, insects actually provide complex functional roles for vertebrates, such as facilitating immune defense mechanisms, enabling nutrient cultivation, and supplying chemical toxins.
Origin/History: The comprehensive consolidation of hundreds of disparate interaction studies stems from a 2022 collaboration that established the National Science Foundation-funded Status of Insects: An International Research Coordination Network.
Major Frameworks/Components:
- Behavioral defense: Avian species perform "anting," rubbing insects on their feathers and skin to protect against bacteria and parasites.
- Foraging and tool use: Herons actively utilize insects as bait to attract and capture fish.
- Chemical sequestration: Poisonous frogs acquire their vital defensive toxins by consuming specific ants and beetles.
- Symbiotic cultivation: Sloths depend on moths to stimulate the growth of nutrient-rich algae within their fur.
Branch of Science: Animal Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, and Conservation Biology.
Future Application: The active integration of entomological data into vertebrate conservation strategies, ensuring that complex symbiotic relationships and essential food webs are maintained amid environmental shifts.
Why It Matters: With widespread declines across various insect populations, understanding these intricate dependencies is critical; the loss of insect biodiversity directly threatens the survival and ecological stability of numerous vertebrate species, including humans.
What do chimpanzees, parrots, grizzly bears, bats, and sloths all have in common? They, and many other vertebrates, rely on insects.
A paper published in Nature Biodiversity Reviews highlights the importance of insect biodiversity in supporting vertebrates.
The work was led by Eliza Grames ’21 (CLAS), an assistant professor of biological sciences at Binghamton University, and Rob Cooke, a senior ecologist at the UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology. Chris Elphick, a UConn professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, is the corresponding author of the paper.
The review article consolidates hundreds of disparate studies conducted across decades to present a holistic picture of these interactions.
"There wasn't a really good source of information that comprehensively tries to address all the ways in which vertebrates interact with insects, and so this paper came out of that recognition," Elphick says. "It's one of those things that everyone knows is sort of out there. But there was no single place where it's all pulled together to say just how extensive these interactions are."
This work stems from a collaboration that began in 2022 with the creation of the NSF-funded Status of Insects: An International Research Coordination Network. The network was a direct result of the work Grames did as a PhD student in Elphick's lab. David Wagner, a UConn professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, is the principal investigator of the network. Elphick and Grames are both co-principal investigators.
One of the working groups within this larger network focuses on the interactions between insects and vertebrates. Elphick, an ornithologist, co-leads this group.
"People who study vertebrates often think about insects," Elphick says. "But they don't necessarily think about them as insects, but rather as food for the species they study instead."
Beyond serving as a vital food source for birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals, insects share unique relationships with vertebrates throughout the animal kingdom, which the paper highlights.
For example, herons use insects as bait to attract fish; poisonous frogs obtain their toxins by eating ants and beetles; and sloths rely on moths to spur algae—a key nutrient source—to grow in their fur.
"When you put it all together, you realize just how ubiquitous these kinds of interactions are," Elphick says.
Another key aspect of the review concerns the potential impacts of declining insect populations on the vertebrates that rely on them.
Insects comprise an estimated 14 to 30 million species. In recent years, there have been alarming declines in some insect populations.
"It is pretty clear that insects are declining in a pretty widespread way—not absolutely everywhere, not every insect," Elphick says. "But all the vertebrates that are out there [including humans] would be, or are being, affected by the loss of insects."
Understanding the diverse roles insects play in the lives of vertebrates is a critical step in designing effective conservation strategies.
"If you want to have vertebrates, then you've got to be thinking about insect conservation, and we don't do that nearly enough," Elphick says.
Elphick says he hopes this review can foster closer collaboration between people who study vertebrates and those who study insects.
"If you're not interacting with entomologists, you're not making the direct connections that you need to make in order to figure out how you ensure that the food supply persists into the future," Elphick says.
Published in journal: Nature Biodiversity Reviews
Title: The importance of insect biodiversity for vertebrates
Authors: Rob Cooke, Eliza M. Grames, Jeff Ollerton, Laura H. Antão, James R. Bell, Matthew W. Bulbert, Yuval Cohen, Julia E. Earl, Luke C. Evans, Will L. Hawkes, Suyeon Jang, Brynn L. Johnson, Sami M. Kivelä, Thomas Merckx, Muneeb M. Musthafa, Desirée L. Narango, James S. Pryke, Lindsey Swierk, Morgan W. Tingley, Julianna R. Yager, and Chris S. Elphick
Source/Credit: University of Connecticut | Anna Zarra Aldrich
Edited by: Scientific Frontline
Reference Number: eco093026_01
