Beneficial insects including ladybirds and hoverflies provide ecosystem services while facing population declines that may have welfare dimensions if they are sentient.
The welfare status of small invertebrates like ladybirds and hoverflies is unknown, but precautionary approaches are increasingly considered as insect sentience research advances. Regardless of sentience, their population decline has ecosystem-wide consequences for other animals. Supporting insect-friendly habitats is both precautionary welfare and conservation.