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The case of the disappearing insect. Boffin tells Reg: We don't know why... but we must act

Lysenko

Worst case MVP (Minimum Viable Population) for insects hovers around the 100k mark, which means in almost all cases 99.99% losses are not extinction events or, if they are, it is due to intra-specific competition and/or terminal maladaptation (some butterflies) rather than sterilization of the ecological niche. That's why there's only been one mass extinction of insects in planetary history.

Incidentally, MVP for humans is about 5000 so, as long as the survivors are close enough to breed, you can wipe our 99.99993% of us and we won't go extinct. It may already have happened.

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