Already 30 years have passed since EO Wilson wrote:

> The truth is that we need invertebrates but they don't need us. If human beings were to disappear tomorrow, the world would go on with little change. Gaia, the totality of life on Earth, would set about healing itself and return to the rich environmental states of a few thousand years ago. But if invertebrates were to disappear, I doubt that the human species could last more than a few months. Most of the fishes, amphibians, birds, and mammals would crash to extinction about the same time. Next would go the bulk of the flowering plants and with them the physical structure of the majority of the forests and other terrestrial habitats of the world. The earth would rot.

* The irony, of course, is that now it is becoming clear that invertebrates may need us after all, at least while we are still here. He said back then:

> New emphasis should be placed on the conservation of invertebrates. Their staggering abundance and diversity should not lead us to think that they are indestructible. On the contrary, their species are just as subject to extinction due to human interference as are those of birds and mammals

Wilson, E. O. (1987). The Little Things That Run the world*(The Importance and Conservation of Invertebrates). Conservation biology, 1(4), 344-346.

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