Beneath every footstep, an invisible civilization of ten quintillion insects sustains the living world — pollinating, decomposing, feeding — yet this staggering figure is less a census than a philosophical placeholder, a scaled estimate standing in for knowledge we do not yet possess. Scientists cannot agree on the number of insect species to within a factor of three, let alone count the individuals, and long-term surveys suggest land insects are quietly thinning at roughly one percent each year. The abundance that once seemed inexhaustible is revealing itself as something more fragile: a vast