News Life

76 percent of well-known insects fall outside protected areas

The borders of many conservation sites barely overlap with species’ ranges

An orange and gray Australian painted lady sitting atop a bright magenta flower.

Protected areas can provide safe havens for insect species, including the Australian painted lady (Vanessa kershawi, shown). But many existing ones fall short, a new study finds.

S. Chowdhury

By Freda Kreier

The existing boundaries of national parks and other habitat preserves aren’t enough to protect more than three-quarters of the world’s well-studied insects.

The finding, reported February 1 in One Earth, shows that people who design nature preserves “don’t really think about insects that much,” says coauthor Shawan Chowdhury, an ecologist at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research in Leipzig.