Every year, the number of insects flying over, crawling on, or burrowing in some parts of the planet drops by a percentage point or two. That means areas of severe decline could lose as much as much as a third of all their insects in two decades.

That’s the bad news, scientists reveal today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Dozens of insect experts contributed to a series of reports in the journal on just how bugs are faring around the world, for better or worse.

The good news—if good news is to be found—is that not all insects are declining so quickly. Some are even flourishing. And most important, researchers say, there’s hope for keeping our