beneficial changes tend to stick around in the population , as the creatures that have them reproduce more , and thus continues evolution . As animals evolved and branched off from the basic plan for millions of generations , this original segmentation can be hard to see . In humans , you can notice it the repetition of the vertebrae in our spine , our ribs , and our segmented abdominal muscles . It ’ s easier to see in the segmented muscles of fish or the overlapping sections of a wasp ’ s abdomen . It ’ s plain as day when you look at a worm or a centipede .
My last reason for liking bugs is a bit deeper . I acknowledge that without them I literally would not exist and could not survive . This may sound like either exaggeration on the one hand , or a tautology on the other — we know that all life is connected , so the same could be said for trees or birds or bacteria . This is true , but I find that people are more willing to accept that they owe their lives to trees than to spiders , despite both things being true . Bugs were the very first land animals , and as early colonizers they began to transform the continents in ways that paved the way for our ancestors to follow . Their burrowing , decomposing , and excreting tilled and enriched soils with nutrients , allowing for further plants to grow and new habitats to develop . They continue to act as a major force of decomposition , taking the nutrients that are locked within the bodies of dead plants and animals and recycling them into a usable form again . Aside from preparing and modifying the land ’ s environment , bugs are part of practically every food chain — acting as an essential food source for many of the cuddlier creatures we tend to care more about . A variety of species act as pollinators keeping wild plants and our domestic crops in fruit . Bugs are also a significant source of protein in the diet of about two thirds of the world ’ s human population . We Westerners would do well to overcome our squeamishness about eating bugs , because insect protein is more sustainable to produce than mammal or bird meat . Finally , I will acknowledge that some bugs are pests . Even I don ’ t enjoy flies and mosquitos buzzing around my head or a stinkbug infestation in the house . But perhaps you can develop a new respect for spiders and the thankless work they do which benefits us . They make bug pests occasional annoyances , rather than our daily existence . Swiss scientist Martin Nyffeler has estimated that worldwide , spiders consume between 300 and 800 million metric tons of food each year . For perspective , the weight of the meat and fish humans consume in one year ( and also the weight of all living humans ) is about 400 million metric tons . Put another way , without spiders dining on other bugs , we would add about 2000 kilograms ( 4400 pounds ) of bugs per year to every square mile of land on the planet . So the next time you see a spider , you can thank it for the fact that you aren ’ t wading through ankle-deep bugs ( even if some of us might be okay with that . . . ).
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