This week on Crystallise: Ash explains the global decline in insect diversity, and the devastating impacts that it could have on our planet's ecosystem. In our SNPit, Rosie gives us another reason why Australia is out to get you - the venomous trees of Queensland. 


To learn more about insect declines and the importance of protecting diversity, check out these links:

• Plummeting Insect Numbers 'Threaten Collapse of Nature'
• Robust Evidence of Declines in Insect Abundance and Biodiversity
• Why Insect Populations are Plummeting—and Why it Matters
• More Than 75 Percent Decline Over 27 Years in Total Flying Insect Biomass in Protected Areas
• Arthropod Decline in Grasslands and Forests is Associated with Landscape-Level Drivers
• Parallel Declines in Pollinators and Insect-Pollinated Plants in Britain and the Netherlands
• Worldwide Decline of the Entomofauna: A Review of its Drivers
• Climate-Driven Declines in Arthropod Abundance Restructure a Rainforest Food Web
• Meta-Analysis Reveals Declines in Terrestrial but Increases in Freshwater Insect Abundances

For more info about the stinging trees of Australia, have a look at these articles:

• Australian Stinging Trees Inject Scorpion-Like Venom. The Pain Lasts for Days
• Neurotoxic Peptides from the Venom of the Giant Australian Stinging Tree
• ‘The Worst Kind of Pain You Can Imagine’ – What it’s Like to be Stung by a Stinging Tree

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Music:

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/