The Disappearance of Insects is no Longer Subtle — and Scientists Warn the Collapse Could Unravel Ecosystems Humans Depend On

Insects across New Mexico are vanishing at an alarming rate as intensifying heat, prolonged drought, pesticide use and disappearing habitat take their toll, Source NM reports. Insects are the “backbone of ecosystems,” David Lightfoot, a University of New Mexico research associate professor in biology who has studied grasshopper populations for more than three decades, told Source NM. Without them, scientists say, food webs break down, pollination weakens and birds disappear.

Lightfoot said more than half of the species researchers are evaluating in New Mexico are threatened with extinction, endangered or critically endangered based on recent declines, even though the state lacks the land development and population seen elsewhere. Scientists describe the causes as cumulative: hotter, drier weather, herbicides, pesticides and habitat loss combine into what Lightfoot described as death by a thousand cuts.

Kevin Burls, an endangered species conservation biologist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, said monarch butterfly populations are 99% smaller than in the 1980s, and he linked the insect decline to fewer songbirds. A 2025 review of more than 76,000 butterfly studies found abundance fell 22% between 2000 and 2020, with the fastest declines in the southwestern states of New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma, where abundance dropped 36%.

Simon Doneski, a UNM doctoral candidate who studies butterflies, said a recent heat wave and dry winter led nearly two dozen species to emerge about a month early, which can leave them with no flowers to feed on. New Mexico lawmakers overhauled the state Department of Wildlife in 2025, but scientists warn that funding for insect monitoring and protection remains inadequate.

Editor’s note: Updated Oct. 31, 2026. This story is now part of Daily Reports, our New Mexico news roundup, and was revised to credit Source NM’s original reporting. Learn how Daily Reports works in our editorial standards.