Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 65 (9162 total)
5 online now:
Newest Member: popoi
Post Volume: Total: 915,817 Year: 3,074/9,624 Month: 919/1,588 Week: 102/223 Day: 13/17 Hour: 1/1


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   The Decline of Insect Representation in Biology Textbooks Over Time
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


(1)
Message 1 of 1 (845212)
12-13-2018 11:58 AM


The Decline of Insect Representation in Biology Textbooks Over Time
quote:
"Earth is creeping and crawling with bugsup to 30 million species and 10 quintillion individual insects. Bugs outnumber all other species in the animal kingdom by orders of magnitude. So it would make sense that they have a starring role in science textbooks, teaching students essential lessons about biological processes and biodiversity. Except they don’t. A new study published in the journal American Entomologist has some sobering news about insects and intro-to-bio books: They simply aren’t represented. Despite the critical role the critters play in everything from the food chain to disease, they’re overshadowed by vertebrates, taking up less than 0.6 percent of introductory biology texts. And despite the sheer number of insects and their impact on Earth and its inhabitants, mentions of insects in introductory biology textbooks have dwindled over the last 100 years."
quote:
Taxonomic bias is the disparity between a taxon’s influence or biomass in nature and society’s interest in or understanding of that taxon. Insects are widely recognized as underrepresented in scientific research. The same bias occurs in introductory biology textbooks. Phillips and Landin (pers. comm.) found that vertebrates are pictured in more than 44% of images in animal diversity chapters, despite making up just 3—5% of animal species. Insects, on the other hand, make up 60—70% of animal species, yet are shown in less than 23% of images.
quote:
Insects are crucial components of virtually every ecosystem, and they provide a wide variety of ecosystem services such as pollination, decomposition, and predation of pests, as well as serving as primary consumers in food chains (Kellert 1993, Losey and Vaughan 2008, Samways 2015). An enormous diversity of extant flowering plants has coevolved with insects (Labandeira et al. 1994). Moreover, the high level of diversity among insects has resulted in all manner of physical and behavioral adaptations, allowing them to serve as inspiration for a wide variety of areas of study, including agriculture, architecture, biomimicry, drug discovery, forensics, polymer development, and psychology (Byrd and Castner 2009, Holbrook et al. 2010, Kellert 1993, Losey and Vaughan 2008, Samways 2015, Yi et al. 2014). Yet, most currently, commonly used textbooks in introductory biology do not give insects the attention warranted by their abundance and relevance to human life.
Links and Information please.

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024