'Truly amazing creatures'

Insects are the most essential parts of the ecosystem but are often dismissed as being of no significance and treated as pests. Activities during National Insect Week, starting Monday, will be setting out to correct this image.

Among these will be an Oxfordshire Goes Wild day at Oxford University's Museum of Natural History tomorrow. This will be a free drop-in event where local natural history and environmental groups will run activities for all the family and offer information.

The Royal Entomological Society has been holding a National Insect Week since 2004, every other year, with the aim of encouraging people to learn more about this aspect of the wildlife.

To highlight the need for education in the importance of insect life for the very survival of the planet, the society has issued a report that shows a worrying lack of knowledge among young people in the UK about all insects and invertebrates.

From a group of 11 to 18-year-olds interviewed for a study it was found that, despite the many TV programmes introducing viewers to the wonders of the world around them, many of the young interviewed lacked a general knowledge and awareness of insects. Among creatures mistakenly described as insects were worms, slugs, snails, spiders and millipedes.

As many as 77 per cent admitted deliberately killing an insect, with the reasons given including: "They are annoying," "I was scared," and "They were invading my space."

Encouragingly a total of 50 different types of insects were named and nearly a third of the young people thought that they would enjoy a job working with insects.

A further survey of a larger group, this time among 12 to 17-year-olds, found that they also failed to recognise the important role that insects play.

In response to the picture of attitudes among young people revealed by the survey, the president of the Royal Entomological Society, Prof Jim Hardy, said: "We are aware that while some children take an avid interest in the world of insects, others are quite unconcerned, or worse, actively dislike them.

"What many people, both young and old, do not realise is that insects are the most successful life form on the planet - indeed, there are more kinds of insects than all other forms of life combined.

"Around 30 per cent of all human food is directly or indirectly dependent on pollination by bees, and without insects our world would be covered with an accumulation of dung and dead animals. They really are truly amazing creatures.

"If all insects were to disappear from our planet, it is highly likely that eventually people would too. The effects would be catastrophic. A huge part of the food chain would be gone, with many fish, birds and mammals having nothing to feed on. Plants and crops would lose their major pollinators and fail to reproduce.

"We know, of course, that there are many young people out there who take a real interest in the insect world but our surveys also show, rather worryingly, that many young people simply do not understand the place of insects in the eco-system and that they contribute to maintaining its balance.

"We would encourage people to go to their local park or even into their own back garden and see for themselves just how amazing insects really are.

"We hope that National Insect Week will build on the success of our previous events and not only go some way to countering any negative feelings that young people may have, but also open their eyes to the many wonders of the insect world."

At Oxford, the Museum of Natural History regularly provides opportunities for young people to find out about the world of insects. These include through its Junior Entomologists' Clubs. The museum's education officers have continuing contact with schools.

Its Hope Entomological Collections are second only in size and importance to the collection at the Natural History Museum in London. The Hope Collections house more than 25,000 arthropod types and comprise more than five million specimens.

The collections staff have varied research interests, in insect taxonomy, ecology, and the epidemiology of insect-borne diseases.

Museum education officers also go out into schools. This term as part of the Creative Partnerships initiative they have been working with classes at St Philip and St James' Primary School in North Oxford. Next month a group of Year Two pupils will be studying habitats in their school grounds and in areas outside the school and learning about insects and pond life.

"We are aiming to get the children interested in the local invertebrates, getting them out into the local environment and to be involved in local conservation groups," says primary schools' education officer Chris Jarvis.

"We are trying to combat that lack of knowledge. We also run regular sessions for children at the museum, where they can come and look at specimens and identify them."

Also very much actively involved in National Insect Week is the conservation charity, Buglife.

Its director, Matt Shardlow, wrote in a recent newsletter to its members of the intrinsic value of insects: "Invertebrates are not only 'very useful animals', each species is a wondrous piece of work, fascinating, unique and irreplaceable."

Oxfordshire Goes Wild is free at Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, tomorrow from noon till 4pm.