Arthropods are invertebrates that constitute over 90% of the animal kingdom and their
bio-ecology is closely linked with global functioning and survival.Arthropods play an important
role in maintaining the health of ecosystems provide livelihoods and nutrition to human
communities and are important indicators of environmental change. Yet the population trends of
several arthropods species show them to be in decline. Arthropods constitute a dominant group
with 1.2 million species influencing earth's biodiversity. Among arthropods insects are
predominant with ca. 1 million species and having evolved some 350 million years ago.
Arthropods are closely associated with living and non-living entities alike making the
ecosystem services they provide crucially important. In order to be effective plans for the
conservation of arthropods and ecosystems should include a mixture of strategies like
protecting key habitats and genomic studies to formulate relevant policies for in situ and ex
situ conservation.This two-volume book focuses on capturing the essentials of arthropod
inventories biology and conservation.Further it seeks to identify the mechanisms by which
arthropod populations can be sustained in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and by means of
which certain problematic species be managed without producing harmful environmental
side-effects.This edited compilation includes chapters contributed by over 80 biologists on a
wide range of topics embracing the diversity distribution utility and conservation of
arthropods and select groups of insect taxa. More importantly it describes in detail the
mechanisms of sustaining arthropod ecosystems services and populations. It addresses the
contribution of modern biological tools such as molecular and genetic techniques regulating
gene expression as well as conventional indigenous practices in arthropod conservation. The
contributors reiterate the importance of documenting and understanding the biology of
arthropods from a holistic perspective before addressing conservation issues at large. This
book offers a valuable resource for all zoologists entomologists ecologists conservation
biologists policy makers teachers and students interested in the conservation of biological
resources.
