UTTAR PRADESH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

Insect–animal interactions represent a fundamental component of ecological organization, shaping ecosystem structure, functioning, and long-term sustainability across both managed and natural systems. These interactions span a broad continuum of ecological relationships, including mutualism, commensalism, predation, parasitism, and competition, each contributing to essential processes such as energy flow, nutrient cycling, population regulation, and the maintenance of biological diversity. Within agricultural ecosystems, interactions between insects and domesticated or wild animals play decisive roles in determining pollination success, biological control of pests, decomposition of organic residues, regulation of livestock health, and overall system productivity. In natural ecosystems, insect–animal relationships underpin food web complexity, drive habitat modification, enhance ecosystem stability, and influence evolutionary trajectories through co-adaptation and selective pressures. Empirical evidence derived from field surveys, experimental manipulations, molecular approaches, and ecological modelling demonstrates that insects function as key prey organisms, vectors of pathogens, ecosystem engineers, and mutualistic partners, while animals serve as hosts, regulators, dispersal agents, and structural modifiers of insect communities. Anthropogenic forces such as agricultural intensification, chemical inputs, land-use transformation, climate variability, urbanization, and biological invasions have significantly restructured interaction networks, often leading to declines in functional diversity, erosion of ecosystem services, and amplification of disservices including pest proliferation and disease transmission. This synthesis integrates current understanding of the classification, ecological significance, evolutionary dimensions, and management implications of insect–animal interactions across ecosystems, highlighting the need for integrative frameworks that connect agricultural and natural landscapes, address ecosystem service trade-offs, and identify critical methodological and knowledge gaps. Strengthening interaction-based conservation strategies, sustainable management practices, and policy interventions is essential for enhancing ecosystem resilience, food security, and biodiversity conservation under rapidly changing global conditions.