Biology:List of vulnerable insects

Short description: none

Vulnerable (VU) species are considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.

In July 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed 608 vulnerable insect species.^[1] Of all evaluated insect species, 10% are listed as vulnerable. The IUCN also lists 15 insect subspecies as vulnerable.

No subpopulations of insects have been evaluated by the IUCN.

For a species to be assessed as vulnerable to extinction the best available evidence must meet quantitative criteria set by the IUCN designed to reflect "a high risk of extinction in the wild". Endangered and critically endangered species also meet the quantitative criteria of vulnerable species, and are listed separately. See: List of endangered insects, List of critically endangered insects. Vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered species are collectively referred to as threatened species by the IUCN.

Additionally 1702 insect species (28% of those evaluated) are listed as data deficient, meaning there is insufficient information for a full assessment of conservation status. As these species typically have small distributions and/or populations, they are intrinsically likely to be threatened, according to the IUCN.^[2] While the category of data deficient indicates that no assessment of extinction risk has been made for the taxa, the IUCN notes that it may be appropriate to give them "the same degree of attention as threatened taxa, at least until their status can be assessed".^[3]

This is a complete list of vulnerable insect species and subspecies as evaluated by the IUCN.