Talk:Insect/Archive 2

Archive 1

Archive 2

The planet is on track for total Insect extinction , according to 1st ever global review.

The review , by good Francisco Sánchez-Bayo and Kris Wyckhuys , examines 73 of the most relevant studies on insect decline, and finds a 2.5% annual fall in total biomass over about the last 30 years. If this rate of decline is not arrested , the planet is on track for a total extinction of insects in the next 100 years.

In stunningly dramatic language, especially by the standards one expects from a high level review, the report says that about 40% of insect species could become extinct much sooner than that, with "catastrophic" consequences. Unless Insect Decline can be substantially slowed in the next few decades, the planet is at risk of an extinction event that could make the Permian–Triassic seem mild by comparison.

Accordingly, it would seen scandalous for the editing community to countenance anything less than a prominent mention of the decline phenomena in both the lede and body of the article. Hopefully, all might now agree it's the encyclopedia thing to cover the phenomena in detail. If not can I please request that they establish consensus here first before deleting any mention of the decline.

Per the fact the review already has hundreds of reactions, all of which are either positive or neutral (I've not been able to find a single negative reaction), it seems unencyclopedic not to immediately restore a prominent mention of insect decline. Especially as it now seems the world may have only a few decades to slow the decline, or else face an ecological collapse that would see the mass wipe-out of not just bugs, but also animal and human life.

The review systematically examines what previous studies have had to say regarding the causes of the decline. Previously, my view had been that it was premature to say anything about pesticides in the articles, but this new review is something on a gamechanger. For now, I won't add to the sentence on causes previously added by King , though I'll move it to a dedicated section on decline so that it makes sense in context. Unless someone else updates the causes per the review, I'll be back to integrate that into the article when I next have some time. Hopefully it will be possible to find words that won't be too contentious, regarding the major role assigned to pesticides. FeydHuxtable (talk) 21:25, 10 February 2019 (UTC)

Just a reminder that Talk:Insect#Biomass_decline already dealt with a lot of the content you just reinserted, and this article doesn't really address all the issues there. Not mention that it undid some of the biodiversity edits that no one has had issues with for awhile now.

Instead, this article should be used to generate new content specific to it. I've gone ahead and given it a start at Insect#Diversity as already mentioned in the previous talk page section while removing some of the extraneous stuff about "first ever scientific review", etc. That source could be good for drilling down into more detail to flesh out the section a bit more, but we should probably discuss what first while having the text I just added leading into any secondary content. Kingofaces43 (talk) 22:32, 10 February 2019 (UTC)

The planet is on track for a total extinction of insects in the next 100 years

— @FeydHuxtable:

Where EXACTLY does the study say that? Please do NOT fear monger on this article, as that is not an assertion that is made in the abstract you are referencing.--Kevmin § 23:02, 10 February 2019 (UTC)

There's no need to SHOUT Kevmin. I'm not fear mongering, quite the opposite. I haven't just referenced an abstract, I've linked to the download page for the whole study. If one has the needed accademic credentials, it can be downloaded for free. If not, it costs about 50 bucks. The study itself doesn't say we have 100 years, it puts it even more baldly, saying: "The conclusion is clear: unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades" (my emphases). The 100 years thing follows mathematically from data in the review. And is also in line with this statement from one of authors: The 2.5% rate of annual loss over the last 25-30 years is “shocking”, Sánchez-Bayo told the Guardian: “It is very rapid. In 10 years you will have a quarter less, in 50 years only half left and in 100 years you will have none.” I'm not likely to have time to step through the entire review, can I suggest you obtain access if this is something you're deeply interested in? It's a strikingly good piece of accademic writing IMO. FeydHuxtable (talk) 00:15, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

The paper you link is about subsets of insects not Insecta as an entire class of arthropods, and the Guardian is iffy about its content as noted in the WP:Reliable sources, and the article is using fear mongering terminology (Re Insect population collapses). What page specifically in the meta-study specifically supports your wording of full class Insecta extinction in 100 years?--Kevmin § 00:58, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

I'm not sure what paper you're talking about. The meta-study / review I cited a few hours back is about the entire insecta class. It's on page 22 that it says "insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades" FeydHuxtable (talk) 01:09, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

@King, I'm not sure why you're refering to Talk:Insect#Biomass_decline. I've already been clear that I regard all the arguments for deleting the disputed content as spurious wiki lawyering. Additionally, there was only a single lone voice arguing against the detailed coverage of the decline phenomena, with two other editors and an IP who were pro including the disputed content. Also, it's not the case that edits to biodiversity were undone. All I did was move the following sentence to a section where it made sense in content: "Declines in insect abundance have been attributed to artificial lighting,[44] land use changes such as urbanization or agricultural use,[45][46] pesticide use,[47] and invasive species."

In your version, contempory insect decline is not introduced. You have a one sentence mention of extinctions during both the ice age and over the last 500 years. Then straight on to a one sentence summary of causes that is relvent to contemporary decline, and not to the historical decline in the previous sentence. It's just plain bad writing even for a C class article. FeydHuxtable (talk) 00:15, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

There already has been a lot of discussion over the all the content you just reverted back in again without gaining consensus despite that whole biomass talk section discussing how to handle that mass of content appropriately in the article. Some of it was sourcing, and some was layout and redundancy. Calling it wiki-lawyering is inappropriate at this point, and the policy issues have already been laid out elsewhere. As you're already aware, the WP:ONUS is on you to gain consensus for all that with sourcing including the Guardian, etc. That's all old stuff that really doesn't belong in this particular talk section though, and the new review was no excuse to just go revert it all back in again.

If you want to generate new content on this subject, the Diversity section of this article is the place to do for content appropriate for a high-level article like this (or the daughter article for more fleshed out content). The review you brought up is one way to do that. The section already included a bit about historical extinctions, including a subset within the last 500 years (i.e., up to roughly today). That's what the source lays out, so there's nothing odd about talking about historical extinction rates laid in reviews. That's exactly where content from the new review you just brought in fits in too for the initial sentence I added. Otherwise, please re-read my previous reply in this section as I'm not going to repeat myself further on why I added the sentence, fleshing out content from the review, etc. Kingofaces43 (talk) 06:03, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Also, the Briggs review shows measured concern, but not quite to the degree as Sánchez-Bayo. When we have two secondary sources that aren't in complete agreement, we need to follow WP:DUE. The current last paragraph here uses all those sources appropriately without getting too far into one source or the other that we'd run into policy issues. Kingofaces43 (talk) 06:19, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

The way I read the past discussions, there is already clear consensus for a detailed section on insect decline. The pro inclusion side was supported 3 -1 (if we include the Zurich IP.) And more importantly, the pro inclusion arguments were founded in policy and mainstream science.

The Briggs source is not a review , nor is it focussed on insects. No disrespect to Briggs who was a distinguished professor, but he retired from Accademia back in 1990! He was 96 when he wrote the paper you cited. Such a tenuous source doesn't warrant close attention, but from a quick look it only seems to refer to two papers on insect decline. The first (Coope 2004) is about insects in the ice age. The second was a 2016 self-cite , that Briggs only managed to publish in Environmental Skeptics and Critics , and which seems to make over stretched claims about insects as a whole based on limited data on just butterflies, tiger beetles, dragonflies, damselflies. It seems well established that we don't try to set such comically weak sources against a high level review.

It would be interesting if User:Kevmin would chime in. As they had seemed to be one of several editors who recently accepted the Zurich IP restoring the disputed section, it had appeared Kevmin had came to agree with the unanimous mainstream consensus. Possibly though, they still support yourself, in which case I guess the best was to resolve this deadlock might be to pose the question to wikipedia's wider scientific community.

Absent Kevmin or another editor supporting you, then unless you can come up with an argument based on actual policy, it would appear to me that if you want to exclude the content, the onus is on yourself to break the existing pro inclusion consensus. FeydHuxtable (talk) 09:58, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Trying to think of a compromise that might be acceptable, it is grantable that the Insect article is already well beyond the point where WP:split becomes applicable. So in line with King's previous comments, it may be best to add the disputed section to the Insect biodiversity article. As long as we have at least a one sentence mention of insect decline and the warning of possible ecological collaspe in the lede of this article. And at least a one sentence introduction to contemporary insect decline added to the body. Does this sound agreeable? FeydHuxtable (talk) 16:50, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

I'll support King's approach, largely because of two things I perceive here: (1) having read the Sánchez-Bayo & Wyckhuys review, it is in and of itself more measured than the summary statements indicate. In essence, by harping on the one sentence about "insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades", you overlook one of the other major points of the paper, which very carefully and explicitly states that existing diversity is being replaced by increased numbers of individuals of common and generalist taxa, including invasive pests (a conclusion which, quite frankly, surprises no one). There is no point at which an actual claim of diversity going to zero or biomass going to zero is put forth in this review. They do not specify a lower limit, or a specific time frame, and the phrase "the path of extinction" is very ambiguous, so your interpretation of "total insect extinction" constitutes original research, and therefore represents a very clear WP policy violation. (2) I agree that by focusing on a single review, there is also a problem with giving undue weight to this one source; if you are sincere about producing a quality summary suitable for Wikipedia, then reading a number of the works cited in the Sánchez-Bayo review would be necessary, at the very least, to see where they do or do not differ in their conclusions from the review itself. Dyanega (talk) 19:17, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for your input, which I find most valuable, even if I agree with little. There's a big difference between being "on track to total extinction" and straight up saying insects are going to zero. While the review does indeed very carefully and explicitly state that existing diversity is sometimes replaced, it's careful to deliniate that to specific localities (at least with land insects, there is a relatively unqualified mention of aquatic species being replaced by generalists). Even in the abstract, the review is careful to qualify that increases in abundance are limited to a "small number of species". Nearly the entire focus is on the much larger world wide insect decline, albeit building up the big picture via the 73 carefully selected relatively local studies. The central finding is clear - "an annual 2.5% loss of biomass worldwide" - what little replacement is going on is clearly massively offset by decline and extinction. There are mentions at both the review's beginning and end of impending "catastrophic" collapse of nature's ecosystems.

There's very little talk of invasive pests as a 'replacement'; the review describes invasive species almost entirely in negative terms, mentioning studies that show them to have a net negative impact on both diversity and abundance (admittedly not in all cases.) I've already read a number of works referenced by the review, and cited them to the section that King repeatedly deletes. As per discussions above there are studies going back to the 18th century tracking insect decline. As the review states, scientists have been saying since at least 1989 that the decline represents "the first step towards extinction". It's somewhat perplexing why there's so much resistance to covering a phenomena that obviously central to the topic of insect, and which represents a clear civilisation ending threat. At least there is the consolation of Romans 8:28. It will be interesting to see if anyone else chimes in here. One thing I'll concede is that now you've supported King, there's no longer clear consensus to include the disputed section. FeydHuxtable (talk) 20:52, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

First, a litany of policy and other issues have been brought up with this kind of edit related to the old edit-warred content. The issues haven't been addressed nor have you proposed new content that would fix all that either, so it cannot be edit warred back in here or at the diversity article. WP:CONSENSUS doesn't work by straw polls either even if I was the only person bringing up the issues. Either way, that diff is more or less a WP:DEADHORSE at this point as I repeatedly mentioned how it could be fixed despite no attempts to change it to consensus text. WP:ONUS policy is very clear that the onus is on those who want to included the disputed content. You're running into way to many issues with WP:OR violations as pointed out already.

Now like I said before, we need to focus on generating content from secondary sources if anything more is going to be added, not this forum-like discussion not tethered to specific content. We already have two reviews in the diversity section. Is there additional specific content based on those sources you want to include in addition to what's in the diversity section? If yes, then we'd need to make sure it's actually accurate considering Dyanega's comments, whether it's really WP:DUE, and whether it's fleshed out content that belongs at the daughter article instead. I've already given that a start actually based on the secondary sources. If there isn't anything from those two sources or other reviews, then there's no longer a need to fill up this talk page since we have already have content addressing the declines, which was the initial want over a year ago. Kingofaces43 (talk) 23:37, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

One further point about undue weight; if you look carefully at the Sánchez-Bayo review methodology, it is based on studies that were searched via the ISI Web of Science using declin* as one search term. As expected, then, all the included studies document decline; this could rightfully be construed as very biased data, in that studies showing increase in insect biomass (e.g., invasive pests in agricultural fields) are selectively omitted. If a source is obviously biased, then care must be taken when adapting that source for inclusion in Wikipedia. In the spirit of disclosure, I am an insect ecologist, working with biodiversity. Yes, insect diversity is going down, and yes, in SOME habitats, biomass is decreasing, but it's a lot more complicated than that, and there isn't sufficient evidence to think that humans won't go extinct LONG before insects do (if anything, once humans are extinct, insect diversity will start to increase again). Reviews like Sánchez-Bayo's point to things we should be concerned with, but their conclusions don't necessarily have consensus support, given their cherry-picking of data, and their provocative phrasing. Dyanega (talk) 18:33, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

Indeed. I was even hesitant about this addition I made because of the things you mentioned, but I figured it would be a compromise. Considering the weight issues, I'd prefer not expanding much more based on Sánchez-Bayo and wait for other reviews to comment or else discuss changes to that sentence if anyone feels strongly. The review works for being in line with others talking about the causes of decline at least. Kingofaces43 (talk) 23:24, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

Here's two newly-minted reviews of this review: [1][2]. They both lay things out pretty carefully, and reiterate several of my points above. They should certainly be cited anywhere that the Sánchez-Bayo review is cited. Dyanega (talk) 01:06, 20 February 2019 (UTC)

Too bad they aren't peer-reviewed reviews, but we can definitely use them with attribution. If no one else gets to it, I'll work on integrating them this weekend. Kingofaces43 (talk) 21:07, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

Here's an updated version with the Sanders source. I didn't use the Atlantic source since we shouldn't be directly citing a staff writer at a newspaper, but the quotes from scientists I did find didn't really seem to fit in here. Kingofaces43 (talk) 15:15, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Just to note that version does not have consensus. IMO it's worse than saying nothing about decline at all. It's the very definition of fringe pushing to give equal weight to a blog so as to refute a meta-study & the over whelming balance of well publicised studies published in high quality journals.

Some of the arguments in the blog are somewhat specious. Performing the literature search with a "decline" string no more invalidates the meta study than it would for a global warming meta-study to use a "warming" string. There's scientific consensus that both insect decline and global warming are a thing.

Yes you get occasional population booms in limited temporal and spatial areas. This is quite (though not exactly) analogous to the various cold waves we've recently had in USA. Unless you have the science ability of The Donald, those don't disprove global warming. As we know the overall worldwide data shows fairly steady global warming. And the data for insect decline suggest a vastly sharper trend.

That said, we can certainly use the Sanders blog , ideally alongside the Leather source, in a well balanced coverage such as we had here. FeydHuxtable (talk) 08:14, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

Please be more mindful of WP:OR. You are injecting a lot of personal opinions in these comments sometimes going off in a different direction, and those cannot be used to change the agreed upon text or affect consensus. I'll ignore calling the mainstream science critique of this subject fringe, but please be more careful about that. Going on a tangent now in response to your comment, but if you really want a parallel example from the climate change world, this would be more similar to global cooling and how climate change deniers citing it exclude the data showing increased temp while focusing on on data showing declines, news media hypes things up, etc. This subject doesn't fall into the fringe realm like that one does, but it's a somewhat similar parallel in nuanced science. More detail on that wouldn't be focusing on content though. Kingofaces43 (talk) 17:57, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

• Just a note that the Entomological Society of America has also put out a statement on this with respect to "insect apocalypse", etc. I'll see what can be integrated in the morning, but it should help as stronger sourcing. Kingofaces43 (talk) 06:51, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

That won't improve the sourcing. The society is not comparable to a peer reviewed journal. Even the Sanders blog seems a stronger source That said, the society presents a relatively balanced opinion, avoiding the logical fallacies in some of the other skeptic arguments. So it may indeed be worth integrating it into our coverage, providing it's with due weight. FeydHuxtable (talk) 08:14, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

Statements from major scientific organizations in the field are a step above individual studies. We do that all the time whether it's the IPCC for climate change, WHO for health related information, etc. Kingofaces43 (talk) 17:35, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

That's true for WHO & IPCC. But the society is quite different to those top tier orgs. They seem to have received much money from Monsanto, and mentioned the corporation on twitter only a few hours ago. It's likely that most, perhaps all society members are honourable & objective. And as mentioned I regard Biotech firms like Monsanto as great net positives overall, despite their occaisonal problematic actions, so I hope this won't be taken as casting aspersions. But while the society is certainly a respectable source, it's just not credible to compare it to orgs like IPPC & WHO!

As you seem to respect UN agencies like WHO, perhaps you'll be receptive to this 2019 FAO report on the severe risks to humanity posed by declining bio diversity. Granted its scope is on diversity as a whole, not just Insects. But it accurately summarises studies you seem to doubt like Hallman, agreeing their findings are "alarming". It even goes on to link to inspirational reports on how responses to Hallman by government bodies like Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, Bau und Reaktorsicherheit have led to record breaking levels of citizen participation in efforts to slow the extinction of insects. I hope any sceptical editors have time to read the FAO report, as while lengthy and not focussed on insects, it's an excellent balanced reflection of much of the relevent main stream science. FeydHuxtable (talk) 19:16, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

Yeah, that's not going to fly to try to discredit scientific organizations like that, nor are IPCC or WHO entomological organizations. Based on those comments, looks like there's nothing to really cause any consensus against the current wording, especially since you're getting off-topic again (and really again please really focus on specific content and what sources actually say). Even in the FAO report you linked, Hallman isn't used in the manner you've been pushing for. I get it that you personally feel some of the wider conclusions from studies like Hallman, etc. are valid, but it's already been established how they have been criticized directly or very carefully cited by others that do use their findings even without the media Insect Apocaylpse stuff. Due to WP:CON policy, we just move on despite your personal objections and stick to what the totality of sources are actually saying per our various polices related to scientific content.

Either way, at least in terms of Sanchez-Bayo, the subject of this discussion section, it doesn't look like we have anything new to add right now, so it looks like there isn't anything more to add here right now. Kingofaces43 (talk) 20:36, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

I'm not trying to discredit ESA, just to say they are not comparable to orgs like IPPC. Like I said, EAS is a respectable source, and the FAQ looks quite balanced, even if it seems more sceptical than most responses to Sanchez-Bayo. For example, the ESA says that "recent studies that show declines in global insect populations" are "very concerning". A very sensible perspective. What do you think about adding that statement to this article? FeydHuxtable (talk) 00:22, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

No one ever compared ESA to the IPCC or have considered sources from that group (nor are sourcing anything where they've come up), so it's silly to bring that comparison up. That being said, you'd have very tough time finding a different organization with more significantly more authority on general insect related science than ESA with only a small handful being in the same tier at best.

The "concern" is already wrapped into both the statements about why insect decline is happening, and on ESA's concern with needing better data on specific areas, so it would be redundant to add it. Not to mention that it concern could be misconstrued as stronger undue support for some of the studies in question, so it's better to stick with what ESA was actually focusing on. Kingofaces43 (talk) 04:12, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

No mention at all in the article

There is currently no mention at all of these orders in the article, which gives the impression that only living insect orders existed. Aethiocarenodea Alienoptera Archodonata Blattoptera Caloneurodea Campylopteridae Carbotriplurida Coxoplectoptera Diaphanopterodea Eoblattodea Eudiaphanoptera Geroptera Glosselytrodea Heraridea Hypoperlida Lapeyriidae Meganisoptera Megasecoptera Miomoptera Monura Palaeodictyoptera Paoliida Permoplecoptera Protanisoptera Protelytroptera Protephemerida Protodiptera Protorthoptera Protozygoptera Syntonoptera Titanoptera Triadophlebioptera.--Kevmin § 20:44, 29 July 2018 (UTC)

@Kevmin:, I'm away from my copy of Grimaldi and Engel to check for a bit, but do you know of any sources we can use that give a good list? Kingofaces43 (talk) 23:09, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

Link removal

Kingofaces, could you explain why you removed the link to Decline in insect populations? It's standard practice to link in this way to other pages directly connected to a section. SarahSV ^(talk) 18:54, 23 March 2019 (UTC)

As already discussed above, the insect biodiversity article was intended to handle all of the insect decline topic in a WP:DUE manner. There are WP:POVFORK problems that arose with the creation of the redundant insect decline article, so it's not really appropriate to link to that at this time. Kingofaces43 (talk) 19:04, 23 March 2019 (UTC)

I'm not sure what's meant by "intended to handle" (intended by whom?), but that's clearly no longer the case. We have a stand-alone article on the decline, a topic widely discussed by scientists and the media, and there's no reason not to link to it alongside the biodiversity article. SarahSV ^(talk) 19:10, 23 March 2019 (UTC)

The biodiversity article itself handles or houses the topic and doesn't circumvent the content discussion we've had here with respect to how particular studies need to be presented. Of course it needs to be fleshed out more, but creation of that decline article doesn't really affect what we do here per the POVFORK guidance. As already mentioned above, the science is very nuanced, and some editors have had troubles with that, so there's no rush for links either as we try to fix the problems that have come up at that page while actually trying to flesh out the topic at a more appropriate page as already discussed here.

That being said, the decline article is already wikilinked at the biodiversity article, but we don't need to be highlighting the decline article until these major issues get sorted out. Kingofaces43 (talk) 19:48, 23 March 2019 (UTC)

Kingofaces43, thanks for the reply. Who are "we", as in "what we do here" and "we try to fix"? The decline article is being developed, and it looks fine. It's a widely discussed topic at the moment, so it's appropriate for WP to host an article about it and to link to that article on other pages, as we always do. SarahSV ^(talk) 20:33, 23 March 2019 (UTC)

While I appreciate the concern the above editors have for getting the facts right, I do not understand why wikilinking is such an issue. I favour wikilinking or use of the {{further}} template. AshLin (talk) 06:15, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

It's great to see SlimVirgin working on this and I'd support the link or any other improvmenets she wishes to make. That said, King seems correct about a PoV fork. There's been issues on this page with editors not liking what mainstream science has to say. So all mention was kept out of Wikipedia until 2019. And when some coverage was finally allowed on this page, it seems to downplay the decline more than even the most sceptical blog by a junior ecologist. Over at the new decline focussed article, we have relatively balanced coverage. I was hoping consensus over there would solidify a little more for the mainstream presentation, and then we could resolve the fork with NPOV on all pages. FeydHuxtable (talk) 11:26, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

Feyd, if you say I'm right about the POVFORK problems, you shouldn't be pushing for the content you currently are, but instead removing it and sticking to building up what we had here instead. We can't circumvent the consensus reached here by trying to horse that content in at a new page and circle back here as you're well aware. Kingofaces43 (talk) 16:16, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

SV, we is plural for editors. There are a whole host a content issues being introduced there that circumvented process here, and a lot of disruption slowing that corrective process down, so it's still a work in progress to get to anything presentable. Also, no one is talking about not covering the subject at all. At the end of the day, nothing is solved by linking to the page, and discussion here was that the biodiversity page was the better area to handle the topic in a due fashion. Kingofaces43 (talk) 16:16, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

Kingofaces43, there seems to be consensus to add the link.

As for the other points: Decline in insect populations isn't a WP:POVFORK. It's a spin-off article, which happens all the time when an issue becomes substantial enough for stand-alone coverage. The reason I asked who you mean by "we" is that you seem to be referring to a consensus, e.g. "our rough status quo is what has been established over at Insect". [3] Who is "our" in that sentence, i.e. which editors established that status quo or consensus? You refer to it here too. I'd appreciate a pointer to that discussion.

In addition to removing links to the decline article, you've been giving a blog post by an ecologist and another post by the Entomological Society of America more space than to a systematic review, e.g. [4][5][6][7][8] You've also twice removed the Entomologischer Verein Krefeld study, [9][10] even though it's widely covered.

Can you explain your thinking here? SarahSV ^(talk) 22:27, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

We can't really call consensus when there hasn't been legitimate reasoning to showcase two redundant articles.

For background, the third paragraph of Insect#Diversity is what was settled on for handling the decline topic in a WP:DUE fashion because particular studies needing that appropriate context within the same sentence/paragraph within this talk section as well as a couple others chiming in elsewhere on secondary review. That has been stable since most of February. That's also where it was brought up to flesh out the content carefully at the biodiversity article to take care of other weight issues.

In the meantime, the creation of the decline article was used to circumvent that consensus and the issues with particular studies it was meant to carefully address. That's where POVFORK applies as it dodged what was discussed here and isn't a label that can be removed until such issues are fixed like I already tried to do there, but the rest of what you ask is not for this page. On Sanders and ESA, Sanders' attributed comments were required per DUE policy there because of the repeated caution the rest of the literature gives on this subject and studies like this. ESA is a scientifc organization that's a higher tier source than an individual review.

Either way, the biodiversity article still handles all the relevant information at the decline article, so it's rather moot at this point to link to the decline article even we get to a point POVFORK didn't apply. Kingofaces43 (talk) 23:03, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

Kingofaces43, thank you for the response. I'm not familiar with the background to this dispute. Consequently, when you use the passive voice (e.g. the "third paragraph of Insect#Diversity is what was settled on") or "we" and "our", I don't know which editors you're referring to. I see now that you may be referring to Dyanega and Kevmin, who seemed to support your position (in part) in February, but I think you're going much further than either of them indicated at that time. SarahSV ^(talk) 23:24, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

That's the text that was agreed upon at the time with some updates on this page from higher quality sources like the ESA. The who doesn't matter, but what the content discussion was. There have been some recent changes over at the biodiversity article that you linked to diffs from above that were me just copying content already crafted by others, but what I pointed in the diversity section here is what has settled for some time as a baseline. Kingofaces43 (talk) 02:01, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

It seems a stretch to say even Dyanega agrees with your preferred text, certainly no one else seems to. And as for repeated caution the rest of the literature gives the subject, there's little evidence of this beyond the ESA statement, a blog by a junior ecologist & a poorly cited paper by a 98 year old (Briggs). Not to mention that the degree of scepticism in your preferred text goes way beyond that which is expressed by ESA & said blog. FeydHuxtable (talk) 07:03, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

With that said, the way King's developed coverage over at Insect biodiversity seems relatively good, if still excessively skeptical. FeydHuxtable (talk) 15:32, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

Blog and industry lobbying sources

I object to this revert because "a large proportion" is less encyclopedic than "over 40%" as stated in the source; the blog post cited doesn't meet WP:SCIRS, and neither does this FAQ from a pesticide lobbyist organization (see e.g., "Advocacy Week" and their President writing that they, "lobby federal legislators ... as well as to tell the public that pesticides and genetically engineered plants, insects, and microorganisms can play a safe and effective role....") EllenCT (talk) 20:09, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

• I agree with EllenCT. A self-published blog by a non-notable person is obviously unsatisfactory. The ESA FAQ is unsatisfactory too because it has no stated author, supporting citations, date or any other supporting information which one would expect in a quality source. The background on the ESA is interesting too, showing that their views tend to reflect economic entomology rather than purely scientific interests. The addition of these sources should be reverted. Andrew D. (talk) 20:30, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Im not sure I'd go as far as to unequivocally describe ESA as a 'pesticide lobbyist organization', though certainly they have some lobbyist qualities. With that said, we are at some point going to need to align this article with the more NPOV & balanced way we're treating insect decline over on its main article. Even if not fully agreeing with all her reasons, Ellen's edit was a good step on the way to achieving that. I guess I support it, though if its re-inserted, we probably should have at least one decline skeptic source added back. FeydHuxtable (talk) 20:40, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

I did leave in the ESA FAQ and some of the less controversial statements sourced from it. EllenCT (talk) 20:48, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Sorry, yes you did, on second thoughts I fully support your edit. IMO once its reinserted, plus we add back the main article link & a 1 line mention of the decline in the lede, then we're finally be close to NPOV here. FeydHuxtable (talk) 21:23, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

The same sources are excerpted at length at Insect biodiversity#In the Holocene. EllenCT (talk) 20:42, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

That's violating Ellen's topic ban, so this is already moot, not to mention inappropriately casting aspersions about insect science lobbying that any major scientific organization would do. We need to stick with the consensus version here instead of constantly pushing against the criticism scientists are putting out there. This had already been discussed above quite a bit, so this isn't something that can be removed quite so suddenly in terms of WP:CONSENSUS. Kingofaces43 (talk) 01:30, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

I've struck the parts which violated my topic ban (which I had forgotten about after three years) but the fact remains that you are trying to use a blog and essentially a press release to counter a peer-reviewed literature review, and as per WP:CCC, consensus has clearly changed. EllenCT (talk) 03:32, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

We've been discussing more than just a blog for sources (and it's appropriate use of an expert per WP:BLOGS), but the continued comments about the ESA are concerning. Scientific organizations are a higher tier source than reviews. You're not going to get much higher than the ESA in terms of scientific organizations in the subject either. We go to the WHO for health topics, NASA for space, etc. We're obviously going to go to high quality sources like the ESA on entomological matters when they speak up on this. We already had significant talk page discussion above, so for consensus to change, the various issues that required going the way we did would need to actually be addressed. Kingofaces43 (talk) 17:54, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

As already discussed, while respectable, ESA is in no way comparable to a UN agency like WHO. And again the UN has fully agreed with studies you've previously rubbished like Hallman, adding not a word of criticism. Thanks to the Hallman study, the Germany government alone has already launched record breaking conservation projects, with talk of them spending 9 figure budgets dedicated just to combating insect decline. Only a few days back UK government members stated that insect decline is among the "biggest issues we face" and that "insect loss puts us on a road to cyclical starvation" for a global population heading towards "9 billion people". Consensus has never supported you here King. And you have no credibility on this topic due to the rediculous positions you've been taking since 2017. There's now such a strong community consensus for a mainstream science presentation, that you don't even have WP:Onus supporting you on this page. Please stop wasting the communities time with your nonsense. FeydHuxtable (talk) 18:12, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

No one is comparing the two side by side for sources here, but the ESA is an organization specializing in entomology. The UN or the WHO is not. You're going to have difficulty getting to a higher tier than that in this subject. Dyanega has more on those sources below though. Kingofaces43 (talk) 23:14, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

Decline sceptic editors can cease their contention with dignity

Studies showing insect decline stretch back to at least 1840, with clear majorities of biologists agreeing we face an imminent mass extinction of fauna even back in the late 20th century. Yet the way Hallman(2017) catapulted bug decline to such a high profile does have some Paradigm shift qualities about it. A portion of good scientists often oppose such things. The world faces several other potentially civilisation ending threats, so sceptics courageous enough to raise concerns on the validity of new ones, against the clear majority of mainstream scientists active in the area, are to be commended. Yet every virtue save Love becomes a vice if pushed too far.

Massive efforts are already underway to respond to the problem. If future studies find the decline has been stabilised, then obviously we can report that, and we no longer need to cover bug so prominently in this article. Yet for now, per the fact over 100k has been posted on related talk pages the past few weeks, the strong community consensus that seems to have emerged for a mainstream presentation, now supported at least in part by several editors with relevant expertise, and overwhelmingly supported by WP:RS, the time seems to have come for the one or two die hard sceptics to accept mainstream coverage. Mainstream editors have consistently been adding the best sceptical views themselves, so there's no need for concern about NPOV. Hopefully we can be allowed to return to more fun & relaxing work. FeydHuxtable (talk) 19:07, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

It's a good thing we haven't had any of those mythical editors here then. As you're already aware, no reputable scientist or editor here has ever denied that insect declines are a problem, especially amongst us entomological editors you've come to asking for input. Yet you keep painting editors otherwise. The mainstream science is that the "Insect Apocalypse" stuff is hyperbolization of a few specific scientific studies that also have some underlying methodological flaws that got caught up in media frenzy (and why our science reliable sourcing guidelines caution about exactly that), especially with the claims of imminent mass extinction.[11]

Instead, multiple sources have pretty clearly laid out both that and also saying insect biodiversity changes due to humans are a major concern that needs more study, specific cases can be brought up for particular areas or ecosystems, but overly broad claims like global mass extinctions or 40% of insect species are threatened with it cannot be made due to lack of appropriate data.[12][13][14] Kingofaces43 (talk) 18:00, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

To clarify, you think that 40% is clearly wrong, but 33% is correct? EllenCT (talk) 22:24, 31 March 2019 (UTC) @Kingofaces43: ? EllenCT (talk) 19:34, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

That source says they are in decline, not that they are going extinct. Those are two very different ideas. You can have a population be in decline without the species being threatened with extinction as a whole. Kingofaces43 (talk) 23:10, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

The review says, "Although less than 1% of the 1.4 million described invertebrate species have been assessed for threat by the IUCN, of those assessed, around 40% are considered threatened (17, 23, 24). Similarly, IUCN data on the status of 203 insect species in five orders reveals vastly more species in decline than increasing (Fig 1A)." Per IUCN Red List#Categories, "threatened" means expected to go extinct barring intervention, at best. A preprint of the source is at [15]. What proportion going extinct do you think the source supports? EllenCT (talk) 00:07, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

You just cited a line on inverts, not insects (and 40% of 1% is 0.4%, not 40% of all inverts). What is sourced in the article says 33% of insects with a IUCN documented trends have a declining trend. Again, very different than saying extinction as discussed in other sources discussions already. It's also not surprising that most of those assessed as species of concern. IUCN doesn't do random sampling as far as I'm aware. Kingofaces43 (talk) 00:19, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

Are you able to access the raw data at [16] for the insects-only graphs in figures 1A and 1B? Any idea what kind of sampling or coverage those are? EllenCT (talk) 00:24, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

We can't use raw data here or assessing things like sampling or coverage as anonymous editors, even someone like me who falls under WP:EXPERT. As for Fig.1a, that just shows % of species with stable, increasing, or decreasing population trends as mentioned above for a few orders. 1B isn't really clear based on it's axes what it's really trying to show, but that deals with declining ranges only in the UK. In both cases though, those are figures with information that's not really suited for text, and we already have the summary text of that in the article that does it for us already. Kingofaces43 (talk) 08:07, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

Graph removal

I object to the removal of this graph. Primary sources are being used alongside it to counter a systematic review, so it seems we should depict the magnitude of the problem as measured, especially when the experimental study performing the measurement is consistent with the vast majority of such studies, e.g. [17]. Where is the discussion that the graph is problematic? EllenCT (talk) 22:22, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

I object to the inclusion of graphs like that one, so does that make us even? As someone who has published in PNAS, I can assure you that PNAS does not send submitted papers out for peer review (at least they never did prior to 2010); the review process can be performed by the submitting authors, and can be as biased as they like. That is why some of the most egregious bits of crackpottery published in the last 50 years have graced the pages of PNAS, like this infamous gem of insanity. Another thing that bears pointing out, in case it isn't obvious: you don't get tenure by publishing papers refuting other people's work, especially work that is so glaringly wrong that it doesn't require in-print refutation. To illustrate this, consider the crackpot piece I cite above: it appeared in PNAS in 2009, and in the decade since its appearance, it was only refuted in print twice, and very briefly so (one of these being in PNAS that same year). All of the other rebuttals and contrary comments, by scores of scientists, have been made in blogs, on mailing lists, and other non-print sources, and continue to this day. The lack of printed rebuttals does not mean that anyone in the world takes Williamson's hypothesis seriously; it is quite the opposite, I assure you, as it may well be the most-widely-recognized-as-embarrassing thing published in biology in my lifetime, akin to "cold fusion" in physics. Basically, if you're holding your breath waiting for insect ecologists to publish papers refuting the claims of "insect apocalypse," you're probably going to be waiting an awfully long time. Likewise, I presently subscribe to the largest entomological mailing lists, and the largest entomology-related Facebook groups, which cumulatively comprise well over 100,000 subscribers, and I consider it quite telling that among all of those people (several thousand being professional entomologists, or even insect ecologists like myself) there isn't a single one who has been willing to stand up and defend any of the recent insect apocalypse papers, but dozens who have instead offered all sorts of excellent and damning criticisms of the methodologies and conclusions of these studies (including the dreaded words "confirmation bias"). The bottom line here is that statements like the one issued by the ESA, and blogs (like these: [18][19]) are pretty much all you're likely to get from the entomological community, because the hyperbole is so obviously out of place, and no one advances their career by refuting hyperbole. The extrapolations made by these recent publications are not justifiable, and Wikipedia editors who are unfamiliar with the objective merits of these works and their critics are not in a good position to use phrases like "the vast majority of such studies". The vast majority of studies do NOT support the extrapolated claims of these few papers; the majority of studies indicate that insect declines are happening, but in specific places, under specific conditions, over specific timeframes, and involving specific taxa - while other studies show increasing numbers of insects (such as crop pests) in specific places, under specific conditions, over specific timeframes, and involving specific taxa. If I were to cite the recent paper on insect diversity in Canada where they claimed that they found 85 times more gall midge species than had been known from Canada before (16,000 estimated species in that one family alone), would it be fair for me to turn around and use that to claim that global insect diversity is increasing by orders of magnitude? There are lots of ways to use good data incorrectly. Overgeneralization, using cherry-picked data, is not a good basis for informing and educating the public. Yes, I do understand that "What is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia" is a different criterion from "What scientists actually believe is credible", and that I'm using my credentials as an insect ecologist to influence the discussion, but I'm reasonably certain that you're giving undue weight to studies that have very little support within the specialist community that is most directly concerned with the topic, and in no way approaching a majority opinion. Dyanega (talk) 23:15, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

@Dyanega: thank you, I appreciate your sharing your prospective at such length. Do you consider studies such as [20], [21], and [22] as generally consistent with the Hallmann et al. survey of insect biomass in Germany? If the vast majority of studies aren't, is it fair to say that the vast majority of studies of insects in their natural habitat are? EllenCT (talk) 00:55, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

Of the three that you cite, only the first one presents any actual data on insect biomass or diversity; I've seen this one before and can make more detailed comments as to drawbacks and caveats if you feel it would be helpful. The second paper talks about phenological shifts, not abundance or diversity, and the third paper talks about birds (the birds in most evident decline are those that feed on seeds rather than insects, and any implications regarding insect abundance is implied, not demonstrated). You will also note that data sets for insects in the second paper are among the best long-term insect-sampling studies in existence, and yet there are no papers that come out and talk about the lack of evidence for declines in abundance in these data sets; no one gets tenure publishing papers that don't show dramatic trends, and scientists compete for grants and publicity, so studies that show "boring" things like stability don't entice people into publishing. While the scientific method is objective, science as a publicly-funded endeavor is subject to all sorts of biases and influences that decide what sorts of things get published, and could hardly be less objective. Dyanega (talk) 02:54, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

Yes I am interested in your thoughts on the drawbacks and caveats of the first Dirzo et al. review. Also, given your perspective on how tenure and publishing pressures reduce the objectivity of the sources Wikipedia is supposed to summarize, how would you personally characterize the insect biomass loss in Germany over the 27 years of the Hallmann et al. study, if you were going to be as objective as possible? EllenCT (talk) 20:23, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

As someone who has published in PNAS, I can assure you that PNAS does not send submitted papers out for peer review (at least they never did prior to 2010) This is wrong. As someone who has published in PNAS and had the papers subject to peer review, I can assure you that they send papers out for peer review, going back to at least 1990. In the past, members conducted the review process which meant their own papers could get less scrutiny. Iirc, they just needed approval by another member, who could even be a co-author, and this did result in some pretty awful papers getting published. However, they have tightened up on this and updated their review process (e.g. you no longer have to submit through a member of the academy).   Jts1882 | talk  07:37, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

• The graph comes from a paper which appeared in PLOS One, not PNAS, and so criticism of the latter seems irrelevant. That paper had an especially high impact. For example, "The study was the third most frequently cited scientific study (of all kinds) in the media in 2017 and pushed the governments of Germany and the Netherlands into setting up programmes to protect insect diversity." (The Economist). Other metrics for the paper can be seen here. The paper has a CC license and that makes it readily available to us. So, there's a good case for inclusion. The main question is whether we have the space for it, as this top-level article has a lot of ground to cover. I reckon that it is more deserving of inclusion than the section about robot locomotion, say. Andrew D. (talk) 08:50, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

Some published rebuttals to Sanchez-Bayo

Here's one - Alarmist by bad design: Strongly popularized unsubstantiated claims undermine credibility of conservation science and another - “Insectageddon”: A call for more robust data and rigorous analyses. Still no sign of anyone publishing anything supportive. Dyanega (talk) 21:25, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

Dyanega, I'm not sure if you're aware, but this has actually been brought up over at Talk:Decline_in_insect_populations#Bias where most of the conversations moved after that new article was created. Kingofaces43 (talk) 22:30, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

RfC: How should Wikipedia treat the topic of insect decline?

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Should we
A: present inline with the gravity accorded by the high tier mainstream scientific sources which focus on insect decline?
Or
B: present the topic with a strong emphasis on critical sources?

Introduction

Different editing preferences have emerged, based on how and whether we should present the findings of mainstream science concerning insect decline. For neutrality and simplicity, these preferences are being described as 'approach A' & 'approach B'.

Approach A: early version for the insect article / developed version in more focussed article
Approach B: early version for the insect article / developed version in more focussed article

Arguments

Arguments for approach A

As per various sources linked to below, insect decline is widely considered to be an alarming world wide trend. With insects a foundational element of nauture's ecosystems, their falling populations is a major part of the wider human caused Holocene extinction. There are a few dissenting voices among mainstream scientists, who while admiting bug decline is a problem in at least some regions, point to a minority of studies that find evidence of bug population increases in other regions, and question whether there is sufficient data to make credible assertion of a world wide decline. Approach A editors have always been happy to include such critical views. Approach B editors seem to wish to place excessive weight on the skeptical view, despite it not appearing with any frequency in the top tier sources.

Until 2019, Editors preferring approach B kept the topic of insect decline entierly out of Wikipedia (except for the sub-topic of pollinator decline), by mass reverting attempts to include it. In recent months, even approach B editors have agreed to some coverage, albeit making excessive use of low tier sources to rebut the findings of the best available WP:RS - Sánchez-Bayo 2019 (the only recent high level review focussed on insect decline as a global problem)

Key differences between the approaches:
1) Approach A reports the more alarming conclusions of the Sánchez-Bayo 2019 review , albeit with attribution and balancing criticism. (Approach B would generally not)
2) Approach A makes reasonable use of the key primary studies like Hallman (2017) & Garcia (2018), as allowed by policy. (Approach B would not)
3) Approach A would link to the dedicated Decline in insect populations article from the lede of the main Insect article. (Approach B does not)
The current status quo favours approach A on point 1&2, and approach B on point 3. If we get a clear outcome to this RfC, it's expected we'd follow one approach for all three points.

Much has been made by approach B editors of the fact that since 2017, the media has presented the topic of insect decline with alarming headlines such as "Insect apocalypse" or "Insectageddon". Approach A editors have never attempted to reproduce such headlines in the encyclopaedia's voice and we've made good use of critical sources to offer alternative perspectives. If anything, even approach A editors may have given excessive weight to skeptical views, given how infrequently they are expressed in the peer reviewed science. With that said:

Reasons why approach A seems considerably more NPOV than B

•The top tier scientific sources like the 2019 review directly states the risk of a severe impact fully in line with the apocalyptic headlines , e.g. repeatedly warning that unless the rate of decline is swiftly slowed, the world faces a "catastrophic" collapse of nature's ecosystems. •The alarming trends and extrapolations to imminent mass extinctions have received greater attention since 2017, but are old news to attentive mainstream scientists working in related fields. For example, even back in 1998 70% of biologists surveyed by the American Museum of Natural History agreed that "during the next thirty years as many as one-fifth of all species alive today will become extinct". •Both national & multilateral governments are taking the alarming mainstream science findings seriously; at least in some cases with close to zero balancing criticism and equivocation. As a result of Hallman 2017, the German government have already launched a record breaking response, and as of Feb 2019 members are proposing to spend a further €100m on mitigating insect decline. Also in Feb 2019 , the UN published a report on diversity loss It links said loss with the rising share of the world's population now suffering from extreme hunger (something that had been falling until very recently). While the report is on diversity loss in the widest sense, it unequivocally agrees with the Hallman study on insect decline, which approach B editors have been so critical of. Last month, UK government members stated that insect decline is among the "biggest issues we face" and that "insect loss puts us on a road to cyclical starvation" for a global population heading towards "9 billion people" The UK HoC debate was informed by several leading scientists, and includes barely a single word of scepticism about the scale of the insect decline problem. This being despite the fact that UK has more than enough other problems to worry about, so the goverment would have plenty of reason to consider minimalising the problem, if that was a credible position for a mainstream scientist to take.

Arguments for approach B

Discussion

Questions

Survey

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

• It's planned to formally open this RfC by adding the {{rfc}} tag on April 06 and for voting to open after that. This is to allow Approach B editors time to express their arguments in their own words. So a delay in voting until April 06 is requested. Editors are of course at liberty not to respect this request if they so choose. FeydHuxtable (talk) 17:35, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

This is a strikingly biased and lopsided "proposal". Phrases like "straw man" and "cart before the horse" immediately come to mind. Look, the point remains that your denigration of the world's largest entomological society (and most authoritative aggregate source on this topic), the ESA, is uncalled-for and inappropriate. What the media thinks, or cites, does not override the credibility of actual experts in insect ecology. When they say that claims made by people like Hallman and others are "premature", that is a deliberate and carefully-considered position backed by a very large constituency of experts. I will support edits that use this statement as a primary source, and give it equal weight to the apocalypse sources, as it is as "top tier" as you can possibly get. To be clear, this document is the best available summary of the issue, and far more authoritative than many of the sources you seem to personally promote. Dyanega (talk) 18:43, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

I find it absurd that anyone would consider an unsigned advocacy organization source on par with peer reviewed literature reviews, and in any case, as you have pointed out, what is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia is not always what experts personally find the most credible. EllenCT (talk) 19:31, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

While broadly agreeing with Ellen, a careful look at what I've wrote on ESA above should show Ive been quite complementary about ESA and their members. It's a respectable organisation. I've said they are not comparable with a top tier org like a UN agency, which I standby even after considering the obvious argument that they are entirely dedicated to insects. Additionally, if represented in a balanced way, their statement is compatible with approach A - e.g. it notes that "recent studies that show declines in global insect populations" are "very concerning".

It's no surprise if yourself and King find the arguments for position A "strikingly biased and lopsided". I respectfully suggest you two might want to make arguments for your more critical position, in your own words in the position B section. FeydHuxtable (talk) 19:40, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

Dyanega is right. There's a lot of work that would need to be done on this before going live as it doesn't comply with WP:RFC even before tackling proposal B as it's currently written to favor A from the start. First, it's not really focusing on specific content changes. This article also only houses a summary of the insect biodiversity article. It's premature to discuss RfC-based text for this page. The "should we present inline with the gravity accorded by the high tier mainstream scientific sources which focus on insect decline?" comment is begging the question and doesn't belong in the netural sections of an RfC. All that kind of stuff needs to be removed so it's basically just one section showing Version A, B, etc. and a comment section where editors can argue for whatever views they have. A brief description of the related dispute is one thing before the comments section, but this current version's framework is going well beyond that. This part of the RfC where we're posting now is where such commentary would go. Kingofaces43 (talk) 21:59, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

Allrighty. As both yourself & Dyanega object to the above framework, then unless objections are made, I'll likely boldly archive this whole RfC section, just for the sake of removing a bit of clutter from the talk page. I'm intrigued to see what yourself or others can come up with that might be better for resolving the dispute. Considering the strength of overall community support that's emerged this past couple of weeks for mainstream coverage, it would be most remarkable if anything can now produce consensus for version B. FeydHuxtable (talk) 22:27, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

You're doing it again. You are not correct when you say "the strength of overall community support" - the community of experts has REJECTED the extreme claims, and REJECTED the media coverage and the hyperbole. What other community is qualified to evaluate the accuracy and significance of these claims? I cannot properly grasp why you feel that the uncritical acceptance of hyperbolic claims is neutral, but criticism from experts is biased. I think you might just have this backwards. Show evidence that the UN's opinion is formed in consultation with actual insect ecologists if you want to claim that it should carry any weight at all, otherwise their opinion has as much merit as any random organization acting outside of their expertise. Freeman Dyson, one the most famous scientists of our time, approves of having grade school children genetically modify organisms as classroom exercises, but - guess what - despite his fame as a physicist, when he starts talking about the pros and cons of genetic engineering, his credibility is effectively nil, and his opinion is not cited in Wikipedia - for good reason. If you want to cite opinions about the pros and cons of genetic engineering, which is better practice according to WP policy? Citing non-experts, or citing experts on the topic? Likewise: (1) what do you consider a reasonable amount of time for actual expert rebuttals to appear in print (given that you seem to reject blogs by experts, and given how long the review process takes, and assuming there are people preparing rebuttals at this time)? Maybe writing anything substantial in WP before the proverbial jury is in regarding the merits (or lack thereof) of these recent reviews would ALSO qualify as premature? (2) whose critical opinions do you consider "top-tier" if you do NOT consider the ESA to qualify as a "top-tier" source of critical opinions regarding research involving insects? (3) at what point do certain criticisms merit inclusion regardless of whether the source is what you personally consider "top-tier"? After all, in the case of the Sanchez-Bayo paper, the authors admit that they searched specifically for studies with the key words "insect decline" in them, and several people have correctly pointed out that this is blatant confirmation bias: if the studies you review are explicitly studies involving insect decline, it is NOT surprising if you then say "Oh my god! Almost all of the studies we examined reported insect declines!!". Given that there are citations to people pointing out this major shortcoming, it does not qualify as original research, nor undue weight, to say "Critics have pointed out that this study was carried out in such a way as to be guilty of confirmation bias, undermining its credibility" and then give citations. Silencing critics is not the job of WP or its editors. Dyanega (talk) 23:50, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

That seems mostly not even wrong I'm afraid. For example, on (2) the "top-tier" descriptor, at least in the context of wiki speak, normally applies to sources, not to opinions themselves. Top tier sources for wikipedia would be things like high level reviews, or formal reports from UN agencies. Even King seems to largely agree with that. There are no markedly critical opinions on insect decline appearing in sources of that level of quality. On your points (1) & (3), it's almost as though you imagine I've been arguing to censure critical voices just because they are generally not (yet) expressed in peer reviewed papers. This is false, I support appropriate use of blogs such as Sanders. My argument has mostly been against giving sources like blogs equal or greater weight against WP:RS like high level reviews and UN agency reports. Btw, the assumption critics seem to have been making that Sánchez-Bayo selected their studies just from a DB search for "insect decline" is also false. Two thirds of the studies came from oustide the DB search see here.. It was always obvious such attempts at criticism were spurious. As even you yourself admitted in your post above on 11 Feb, the review very carefully and explicitly states that existing diversity is being replaced by increased numbers of individuals of common and generalist taxa.... (allbeit that is only happening in certain localities.)

This conversation has been valuable in showing how poorly the extreme sceptic arguments stack up when set against mainstream science. To reduce clutter though, I still plan on manually archiving this whole RfC section in the next 24 hours or so, unless you or anyone else specifically objects. FeydHuxtable (talk) 00:48, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

And yet AGAIN you pull the same high-school debate tactic: you are deliberately characterizing the minority viewpoint as "mainstream science" and all of the mainstream scientists are characterized dismissively as "sceptics". It's the other way around. The mainstream scientists are the ones who are disagreeing with the reviews. Let's rephrase it, please: "This conversation has been valuable in showing how easily mainstream science arguments can be dismissed by someone who refuses to admit that they represent mainstream science." Dyanega (talk) 21:35, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

Apologies Dyanega. I fear I may have miss-conveyed my own position. Approach A does not claim that Sánchez-Bayo is 100% correct - that would be Fringe at best. Even good Sánchez-Bayo himself freely concedes his review is imperfect, which is indeed the mainstream view. It's somewhat challenging to sum up approach A with precision. In essence, it's the view that while considerable quantitative uncertainty remains on the speed of the decline, there's sufficient evidence to be confident it's a major problem, warranting urgent attention. This is an entirely mainstream position, overwhelmingly supported in the best available sources.

Anyhow, King has made a new RfC frame, which I'll freely admit seems to do a better job at delineating A v B than my own attempt. (Maybe B is now less skeptic that it once appeared to me) Hopefully you'll follow King's link below and join us there. As you are a specialist insect expert, your input there would be most valuable in helping us form consensus. FeydHuxtable (talk) 08:01, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

I'll post a draft of the diffs to discuss and the formatting probably tomorrow at the rate things are going. Kingofaces43 (talk) 00:00, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

The draft is posted over at Talk:Decline_in_insect_populations#RfC_draft_text since that's where the edit disputes have taken place and edits would be. Talk:Decline_in_insect_populations#RfC_pre-discussion is for any discussion about the RfC in terms of if you're content with the versions to discuss in the RfC. Kingofaces43 (talk) 04:33, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

RfC on insect declines

For those that watchlist this page but not Decline in insect populations, there is an RfC open on how to use various sources in the subject. Kingofaces43 (talk) 17:22, 17 April 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 17 February 2020

I believe that the external link to "BBC Nature" should not go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Insect, but instead to http://www.bbc.com/earth/tags/insect. Cheers, Andrew Andrew J Martin 01 (talk) 22:26, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

Done, thank you – Thjarkur (talk) 22:52, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

New reviews & meta study on insect decline

Hello y'all. How nice to see familiar editors still at work on this article. I hope everyone is keeping well with the current situation.

A recent review by an entomologist even King seems to respect (Wagner), discusses how a further diminishment of insect numbers would greatly accelerate the sixth great planetary extinction , and goes on to discuss their essential role providing ecosystem services for the food supply. Recent reports from leading aid agencies find that across the world, a further ~130 million people could be afflicted by famine level hunger in the next few months. Wagner's review also asserts that it's declines in insect abundance, not diversity loss, that poses by far the greatest threat to planetary health.

Similarly, the new meta study, based on 166 long term surveys, found that the majority of studies report declines using the Abundance metric – not biodiversity. Btw, as described here, the new meta study is on a whole new level in terms of methodological rigour – it's likely going to serve as a model for how to do this work across not just entomologists, but for Ecologists at large. Hopefully it will address any concerns y'all had regarding how confident we can be about quantifying the decline.

In light of this, editing policy seems to demand a slightly more prominent mention of the decline, with maybe a little less emphases on the less impactful biodiversity loss. I'll go ahead and make the edit. FeydHuxtable (talk) 22:18, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

• I see the biodiversity > abundance loss change of emphases has been reverted per "past discussions". While I never agreed, in the past at least there was a credible case for using biodiversity as our main metric. This is no longer the case, per the latest high level reviews.

As the new meta study notes, among the 166 long term surveys, "130 datasets reported only changes in insect abundances" I.e. Abundance , not biodiversity, or biomass, is by far the most commonly used metric.

Or as the Wagner review states: "While the loss of species is both grievous and ethically unconscionable for those with a love for nature, it is not extinction but the population declines of abundant species that will have the most serious ecological consequences for planetary health and function".

It's admirable to be motivated by said "love for nature", but surely such an emotional position ought not take precedence over the fact that the high level reviews clearly show that abundance is the primary metric for insect decline? FeydHuxtable (talk) 23:39, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Hmmm, word is that despite the apparently overwhelming case for Abundance, your girl Saunders still favours Biodiversity. It would be amusing if one of y'all turned out to be MS in disguise! More seriously, time does sometimes reveal that King was in the right all along. I guess we can wait a few weeks to see what reactions come out. FeydHuxtable (talk) 08:35, 25 April 2020 (UTC)

Ampersand

Third paragraph of the intro, spell out 'and'. 216.8.172.198 (talk) 13:24, 22 July 2020 (UTC)

 Done —  Jts1882 | talk  13:26, 22 July 2020 (UTC)

The real world's oldest undisputed insect fossil

Rhyniognatha's placement is disputed, so therefore it is no longer the world's undisputed insect. All other putative insects from the Devonian are uncertain or undescribed except Strudiella from the Late Devonian, which is itself disputed due to its poor preservation. This means that there is no unequvocal record of insects before the Carboniferous. Should the infobox range be changed? Hemiauchenia (talk) 02:27, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

Hermaphroditism in insects

I found this source on page 226. It says there is a controversy about hermaphroditism in insects with some saying it’s non-existent.

Also I have seen some sources say not a single hermaphroditic species occurs in insects.CycoMa (talk) 16:09, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

It's only a "controversy" because some people are unaware that there are hermaphroditic insects. As such, the fact that there ARE hermaphroditic insects, as this source confirms, easily ends the "controversy". Dyanega (talk) 18:22, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

Yeah I’m aware of that.CycoMa (talk) 18:35, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

Sorry it took me a while but sources like [this] have said this This low percentage, however, raises to about 30% when excluding the extremely species-rich insects, which (interestingly) are never hermaphroditic (the example mentioned by Ghiselin [1969] appears based on flawed evidence [Disney 1993], and another example represents highly unusual transovarial transmission of sperm, rather than true hermaphroditism [Normark 2003]). So it does appear there are scientists still arguing that insects aren’t hermaphrodites.CycoMa (talk) 22:40, 9 July 2021 (UTC)

Vague statement.

The following statement, from near the beginning of the article, is vague:

"they [insects] include more than a million described species and represent more than half of all known living organisms."

More than half of all known living organisms by number of species, by number of individuals, or by mass? Can anyone clarify this? M.J.E. (talk) 12:12, 10 May 2021 (UTC)

And also vague is "a small number of species reside in the oceans, which are dominated by another arthropod group, crustaceans, which recent research has indicated . . ."

How recent? citation needed, I'd say. Nick Barnett (talk) 21:01, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

Judaism portal

I can't edit the page, it is protected. But maybe someone who can will get rid of the "Judaism Portal" link, clearly put there by some anti-Semitic troll. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2603:7081:1640:32:3D0B:F8CB:77A8:1BCF (talk) 22:21, 11 October 2021 (UTC)

Yes. "All Jews are insects" is the sub-text, I suppose. Nick Barnett (talk) 20:58, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

Wow, that's been there almost two years, added with this edit. I've removed the Judaism portal, but should remove most of the others as well. Before the edit it was just Insects|Arthropods|Animals|Biology and Chemistry|Ecology|Fish|Systems science|Plants|Mammals|Paleontology|Crustaceans|Gastropods|Agriculture|Viruses|Paleozoic|Mesozoic|Cretaceous|Drink were added. Are any of the additions useful? Maybe crustaceans and ecology. Thought? —  Jts1882 | talk  07:41, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

I pruned the list down further to more obvious ones here. KoA (talk) 18:58, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

NOT the only flying invertebrate

Although the exception is rare and there may still be some scientist who dispute the counterexample, the "only flying invertebrate" statement in the opening paragraphs of the article is demonstrably false. Studies have confirmed that the rarely seen behavior of some oceanic species of squid does constitute powered, controlled flight. See Muramatsu, K. Yamamoto J. et al, "Oceianic squid do fly" Mar Biol, 2013, DOI 10.1007/s00227-013-2169-9. Moreover, the incorrect statement also combines two distinct concepts into a single sentence. Both of these mistakes should be corrected. The current statement reads: "Insects are the only invertebrates to have evolved flight, and all flying insects derive from one common ancestor." This should be corrected as follows: "Insects make up the vast majority of invertebrate species that can fly; the only other flying invertebrates are a few specifies of oceanic squid.(ref#). All flying insects appear to derive from a common ancestor." Scottjsw (talk) 17:48, 21 August 2022 (UTC)

Addressed and revised. Dyanega (talk) 15:02, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

Needs improvement

Quote from the article:

"Most insects, except some species of cave crickets, are able to perceive light and dark. Many species have acute vision capable of detecting minute movements. The eyes may include simple eyes or ocelli as well as compound eyes of varying sizes. Many species are able to detect light in the infrared, ultraviolet and visible light wavelengths. Color vision has been demonstrated in many species and phylogenetic analysis suggests that UV-green-blue trichromacy existed from at least the Devonian period between 416 and 359 million years ago."

I would say all insects with eyes, not just "most insects", are able to perceive light and dark. And no, it is not just "some species of cave crickets" that are blind. There are several insects that live in caves (troglobites), are burrowers or parasites that don't have eyes (the same goes for some species of ant and termite workers, and apparently insects like eyeless worker termites can still sense light). Others have very reduced eyes. What is "acute vision"? Compared to other insects or to other animal groups? Animals with compound eyes are simply better to detect movements than us because of the way compound eyes work. And what insects are able to detect IR and UV light? That "many species" are also able to see visible light wavelengths speaks for itself (and again, compared to who? Humans?). Color vision can mean everything from being able to see two colors and more. Are there some insect orders or families only able to see black and white? In that case, which ones? Rhynchosaur (talk) 22:22, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

Common names

Someone please replace the table in the diversity section with the following, which adds the common names of the insects in each order. I'd do it myself, but I can't, since this article is protected, and I don't have a registered account. I think we also ought to combine Psocoptera and Phthiraptera into the updated order Psocodea (Bark Lice, Book Lice, & Parasitic Lice), although I'm not an expert on that.

Number of described extant insect species

Order	Extant species described
Archaeognatha (Jumping Bristletails)	513
Zygentoma (Silverfish & Firebrats)	560
Ephemeroptera (Mayflies)	3,240
Odonata (Dragonflies & Damselflies)	5,899
Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Crickets, & Katydids)	23,855
Neuroptera (Lacewings & Antlions)	5,868
Phasmatodea (Stick Insects & Leaf Insects)	3,014
Embioptera (Web Spinners)	463
Notoptera (Gladiators & Ice Bugs/Rock Crawlers)	54
Plecoptera (Stoneflies)	3,743
Dermaptera (Earwigs)	1,978
Zoraptera (Angel Insects)	37
Mantodea (Mantids)	2,400
Blattodea (Cockroaches & Termites)	7,314
Psocoptera (Bark Lice & Book Lice)	5,720
Phthiraptera (Parasitic Lice)	5,102
Thysanoptera (Thrips)	5,864
Hemiptera (True Bugs)	103,590
Hymenoptera (Bees, Wasps, & Ants)	116,861
Strepsiptera (Twisted-wing Parasite)	609
Coleoptera (Beetles)	386,500
Megaloptera (Alderflies, Dobsonflies, & Fishflies)	354
Raphidioptera (Snakeflies)	254
Trichoptera (Caddisflies)	14,391
Lepidoptera (Butterflies & Moths)	157,338
Diptera (Flies)	155,477
Siphonaptera (Fleas)	2,075
Mecoptera (Scorpionflies)	757

- 2603:9000:E408:4800:1D59:459F:8537:DD65 (talk) 16:20, 11 November 2022 (UTC) 2603:9000:E408:4800:1D59:459F:8537:DD65 (talk) 16:20, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Please add Hebrew

Hebrew is another language in which the name of these critters חרקים is derived from the words for 'cut/slice into segments'. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.240.248.160 (talk) 13:56, 10 December 2022 (UTC)

"All flying insects derive from one common ancestor"

Not as meaningful a statement as it at first sounds—it's also true that all insects derive from one common ancestor and furthermore all living things derive from one common ancestor. It would be more meaningful if it is possible to attach an approximate date to when the most recent common ancestor of all flying ancestors is believed to have lived—to distinguish it from older, more-universal common ancestors. Baller McGee (talk) 15:05, 29 December 2022 (UTC)

Senses and communication - wasp sense of numbers

Source 98, below, does not mention wasps at all, let alone their sense of numbers. A new source needs to be found for this claim.

Möller, R. (2002). A Biorobotics Approach to the Study of Insect Visual Homing Strategies (PDF) (in German). p. 11. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 January 2011. Retrieved 23 April 2009. Hammockchair (talk) 11:20, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

I found a source:

https://archive.org/details/onsensesinstinct00lubb_0/page/282/mode/2up Hammockchair (talk) 04:14, 22 January 2023 (UTC)

Aparte no todos los insectos son hexapodos

Véase la mariposa 186.120.220.249 (talk) 02:21, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

Etymology

Insectare should be replaced with insecare. It's insectum, not insectatum. 89.64.69.51 (talk) 19:43, 29 June 2023 (UT