Glossary

A food web in which insects form a central link between plants and the animals that feed on them. In this system, native plants support herbivorous insects—such as caterpillars, beetles, or aphids—which in turn provide essential food for insect-eating animals like birds, frogs, lizards, bats, and small mammals.

Insectivorous (in-sek-tí-vuh-rus) food webs are especially important in native habitats, where most terrestrial bird species rely on insects—particularly during nesting season—to feed their young. The richness of this web depends on native host plants, which sustain the insect populations at its base.

Without a healthy population of native insects, insectivorous food webs collapse, threatening the survival of birds and other wildlife that rely on them.

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