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Abstract

Insects are fundamental aspects of nearly every ecosystem on the planet, providing key ecosystem services like pollination, decomposition, and maintaining food webs, in addition to constituting around 50% of all known animal species. However, the conservation funding insects receive does not reflect their importance to our ecosystems – rather, it reflects the lack of value we place on these organisms. In the face of significant regional insect population declines, a major challenge that arises in insect conservation becomes the development of a new conservation psychology. Education is a remarkable tool for increasing understanding and changing public attitudes about environmental issues; therefore, identifying how we educate learners about insects and what we could improve is of utmost importance to modern insect conservation. This literature review aims to characterize 1) how entomological education has been conducted in the last 20 years in the West, 2) what the outcomes are of effective entomological education, and 3) what challenges exist to entomological education. A list of suggestions for both general entomological education and conservation-focused education have been produced for educators in accordance with these findings and existing literature.